Often, it’s difficult to understand our relationship with God. Perhaps this is out of ignorance or just a lack of confidence in His word. Many skeptics question the existence of God by asking “how could a loving God send anyone to hell?” This is a legitimate question that deserves to be answered. In fact, it’s a question that I had for a long time and a question that many Christians had or may even still have!
The problem with this question is that its premises are false. First, it gives the false implication that God isn’t really loving, and that He wants to send people to hell. God tells us in 2 Peter 3:9 that He is “…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”, and in 1 Timothy 2:4 that He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God makes it plain to us that He does not want a single soul in hell. Second, it falsely implies that God is the one who will send us to Hell. Consider the words of Jesus in John 3:17-18 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Paul says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, in Ephesians 2:1 that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins”, and in Romans 5:11 that “…through [Jesus Christ] we have now received the reconciliation.” We separated ourselves from God when we sinned.
The simple answer to this question is that God doesn’t send people to hell, we all sent ourselves there from the minute we first sinned. Jesus clarifies to us that He was sent on a rescue mission because humanity was already under condemnation due to sin. Think of it this way; we were once together with God on a boat in the ocean. Then, despite God’s warning, we decided to jump off that boat and go for a swim, only to find ourselves treading water to the point of exhaustion. This would eventually lead to us drowning in the ocean unless someone saved us. Did God cause us to jump off the boat? Of course not. We did that to ourselves, and God immediately went into rescue mode, extending His hand to help us back up out of the water to save us from death and to put us back in the boat with Him. We do not save ourselves by grabbing God’s hand to get back into the boat, He is the one who saves us. However, if we do not grab God’s hand, we will surely drown in the ocean.
-Caleb Westbrook
Add comment
Comments