How can a loving God. . .send someone to hell?

Q: The Bible says that God is love, and I believe that.  But how could a loving God send people to hell?  Isn’t that unloving?

A: Wonderful question!  This is a question which comes up a lot in conversation.  The question makes it seem or sound like God is being hypocritical – like he’s holding us to one standard, yet he himself fits another standard.

You’re right in saying that God is love.  That’s exactly what John says in his first letter:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  1 John 4:7-8

Plain and simple: God is love.  Christians love one another because God is love.  John even explains what God’s love looks like:

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  1 John 4:9-10

God’s love wasn’t just some nebulous emotion or feeling.  It was an emotion that moved him to act in the best interest of the beloved.  If you’ve got a moment, read through 1 John 4 (or all of 1 John) because the whole letter hinges on God’s concept of love.  The apostle John was writing to Christians who were being deceived by false teachers – and, among many errors, these false teachers were re-defining God’s concept of love.

John makes it clear: In order to talk about love, you need to talk about the true God.  In order to understand love, you need to understand God’s actions.  In order to have love for others, you need to know God’s love for you.

Love is one of God’s unchanging characteristics – it’s who he is, and God does not change.  But God makes it clear that his love is found in the cross of Christ.

Yes, God’s loving presence is evidenced by the sun and rain and good government and relief from pestilence, as Paul discusses while in Athens.  God indeed sends the rain upon both the righteous and the unrighteous, the believer and unbeliever.  That’s part of the natural knowledge of God – he is generous and loving.  The rest of the natural knowledge tells us that we have fallen far short of God’s high standards and we deserve his punishment.
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So how could a loving God send people to hell . . . that is, eternal suffering and eternal separation from his loving presence?  (Since God is present everywhere, he is also present in hell – in judgment, justice, and fearsome holiness.  Satan is not the warden of the prison; he is simply hell’s most notorious prisoner.)

Simply this: God demonstrated overwhelming love in Christ, and that forgiveness has been declared over all people.  Faithlessness, unbelief forfeit this free gift.  God has only made this gift of forgiveness available through faith, created by the Holy Spirit through Word & Sacrament.

God could have sent all people to hell and still have been a God of love; he had already provided a way for people to go to heaven in his Law.  Let’s not blame God for people falling short of his holy demands.

Rather, let’s look at God’s gracious action: After Adam and Eve sinned, God didn’t want even them to be lost.  God could have sent Adam & Eve to hell, and started over with two new perfect people – but he didn’t.  Instead, God promised a Messiah.  Even though he had already promised one way to heaven (in his Law – “Be holy . . . love God, love your neighbor, completely . . . do this and you will live”), God promised another way.

There at the cross of Christ, God poured out his wrath upon Jesus.  God removed his loving presence, instead dumping upon his incarnate Son all wrath, anger, justice against sin.  And Christ promised that sin has been paid in full, heaven stands open.

God’s justice has been fulfilled.  God showed unbelievable, overwhelming love once more – not because he had to show mercy in order to be loving . . . but God gave his Son as our substitute anyway, purely out of undeserved love for sinners God.

God is holy and just, as well as kind, gracious, merciful, and loving.  The cross makes that plain.  We need to not set God’s unchanging attributes against one another, as though his love negates his holiness; instead, let us first seen sin as the horrible, wretched, unholiness that it is.  (After all, the question “How could a loving God send people to hell?” presupposes that sin isn’t as bad as God says it is.  Good Friday proves that God finds sin despicable.)

Then let us view the cross and empty tomb as fulfillment of God’s promised mercy, fulfillment of all that God promised: an undeserved, freely given gift of salvation to people who had fallen short of the first plan of salvation.

If you’d like to submit your own question for Q&A, please email Pastor Hagen: pastorhagen@icloud.com