How can a loving God send someone to hell?

The cross of Christ, on which He gave Himself a ransom for all, is the great proof of God's love for men and the length He would go to save them; He could not have done more; but it is also the great proof that God cannot pass by the sins of men, as though they were nothing at all. He would not be a God of holiness and truth if He did; hence the gospel which proclaims His love and grace also reveals His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). Eternal punishment will be the portion of those who have refused to repent of their sins to God, and who have treated with indifference or disdain His proffered mercy. It is for those "who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 1:8). Thus we believe and teach; to do other we must abandon the plainest possible statements of the Bible and adopt instead of them the reasonings of the human mind. We accept that Word of God as it stands; the only other honest course is to reject it altogether.

It is therefore manifest that a system is to be entirely rejected which has chosen a love for its foundation, which is not in harmony with the character of God, but betrays itself as the phantom of imaginative minds to the exclusion of the divine righteousness, holiness, and truth. Would not God after having given His law, or at least a conscience to man to distinguish between good and evil, be acting unjustly and unwisely, if He let sin go unpunished? And a ruler certainly does not merit the reproach of want of love to his subjects because he punishes the evil-doers: on the contrary, love imposes this as a duty on him.

But of God, who has proved His love to the sinner in the gift of His Son, we read "Thy right hand is full of righteousness" (Ps. 48:10), and "He will judge the world in righteousness (Ps. 9:8); and of Him it can be said with all certainty, that He punishes the evil-doers, because He loves His creatures. It is impossible therefore, that one attribute of God can exclude the other: their connection on the contrary is inseparable.

And now, poor sinner, mark this: you may fancy that you are to judge God, and that you are competent to say that He ought to assign so much or so much punishment to so much sin; but know that He is to judge you. The notion of His love, which makes it an obligation incumbent on Him to act so and so in it without His being able to help it, and so that eternal punishment cannot be, is a false, unscriptural, and senseless notion. He is love; but He is God, and acts freely and holily in His love. God is love; but it is GOD that is so. Love is what He is. But the first question is, who He is; and He is God, and doeth what pleaseth Him. Now, mark this. If the Spirit of God has touched your conscience, you know that you deserve to be shut out of the presence of God for ever. You are conscious that you have deserved eternal wrath and punishment. If you are not, you do not know yet, by divine teaching, what sin is. And I pray you to remark that, in this question, it is not what may be, or what might be, which is in question. You are a sinner:-What, in your own conscience, does sin deserve? And further, if it is a question what sin deserves, it is a question of what Christ bore, what His atonement was; for He bore our sins and was made sin for us.

Christ dying for the world, the testimony of God's love to men at large, is no vain thing because in fact all are not saved by it. It demonstrates to us that infinite goodness from which men have to break away: that, of which He has sworn, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33:11) Men die because of their own will, not of God's will; yet they die. And men crudely ask of God's omnipotence why He cannot convert them all. But omnipotence itself must needs be limited by His other attributes. What Infinite Wisdom can do I must be myself infinitely wise to know.

In the day of judgment you will not be condemned, because you had been in the pit of darkness, but because you refused to be taken out. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, (the dark pit,) and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." The remembrance of the love of God in sending His Son to this dark pit of sin, will be like the worm that dies not. Oh, what unutterable remorse!

Nor will it help the objector to say that God will punish man's sin in another world, though not for ever, but only for a time, as in the purgatory of the Romanist, or the "age-lasting" hades of the Restorationist; for why should He punish sin at all if He punishes only for a time? if it were an arbitrary act and not founded on the eternal principles of justice, we might well ask, "Why does He, a God of love and goodness, punish man at all?" But since it is done by the requirement of His holy character as Judge, and thus leaving Him no choice (and we say it with all awe and reverence) He cannot do otherwise than make the punishment continue so long as the existence of the soul and its sin.

To love the Lord is to believe in Him; and the more we meditate on His love to us, and what He has gone through for us, the more will our faith expand, and rise into the most admiring, adoring, grateful love. But we must know Him to believe in Him, and know Him in the fullest expression of His love to us. Blessed Lord! He invites us to come to Him, to be drawn to Him by the attractions of His cross, and the glory of His Person. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die." (John 12:32-33) Never was God's love to thee a sinner, and God's hatred of thy sin, so fully manifested as in the cross of His dear Son; and never did His love to the lost and helpless soul shine so brightly. Here thou wilt do well to pause for a moment and dwell on this wondrous sight, this twofold aspect of the cross. When or how could God's hatred of sin be so manifested as when He judged it in the Person of His own beloved Son? The thought is overwhelming! But it must for ever justify God in punishing sin in the person of the impenitent sinner himself. The cross will stand for ever as the declaration of God's righteousness in the judgment of sin, and in pardoning the chief of sinners, who believes in Jesus. But also, look at the greatness of God's love to the sinner in the sufferings and death of Jesus. Every drop of that precious blood which was shed on Calvary, proclaims to heaven, earth and hell, God's love to the lost and ruined sinner.

The objectors say, “You preach a God who has no mercy, and who consigns His creatures without pity to eternal pain.” No, we do not; on the contrary, we preach a God who at His own cost has provided a way of escape for all from this terrible doom—Who “so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16), “Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), Who “commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8), Who beseeches men through His ambassadors to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 5:20), Whose long-suffering with men holds back the long-predicted judgment, because He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

And be it remembered that "every man will be judged according to his works." The solemn session of the judgment referred to in Revelation 20 will not be an indiscriminate act. Let none suppose this. There are "books" — rolls — records. "Every man" will be judged. How? "According to his works. Nothing can be more precise and specific. Each one has committed his own sins, and for them he will be judged and punished everlastingly. We are aware that many cherish the notion that people will only be judged for rejecting the gospel. It is a fatal mistake. Scripture teaches the direct contrary. It declares that people will be judged according to their works. What are we to learn from the "many stripes" and the "few stripes" of Luke 12? What is the force of the words "more tolerable" in Matthew 11? Are we not plainly taught by these words that there will be a difference in the degrees of judgment and punishment? And does not the apostle most distinctly teach us in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 that the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience (or unbelief) "because of" certain sins against which he solemnly warns the saints?

No doubt the rejection of the gospel leaves people on the ground of judgment, just as the true belief of the gospel takes people off that ground. But the judgment will be, in every case, according to a man's works. Are we to suppose that the poor ignorant savage, who has lived and died amid the gloomy shades of heathen darkness, will be found in the same "book," or punished with the same severity as a man who has lived and died in the total rejection of the full blaze of gospel light and privilege? Not for a moment, so long as the words "more tolerable" stand on the page of inspiration. The savage will be judged according to his works, and the baptised sinner will be judged according to his works, but assuredly it will be more tolerable for the former than the latter. God knows how to deal with people. He can discriminate, and He declares that He will give to each according to his works.

The cross of Christ, on which He gave Himself a ransom for all, is the great proof of God's love for men and the length He would go to save them; He could not have done more; but it is also the great proof that God cannot pass by the sins of men, as though they were nothing at all. He would not be a God of holiness and truth if He did; hence the gospel which proclaims His love and grace also reveals His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). Eternal punishment will be the portion of those who have refused to repent of their sins to God, and who have treated with indifference or disdain His proffered mercy. It is for those “who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8). Thus we believe and teach; to do other we must abandon the plainest possible statements of the Bible and adopt instead of them the reasonings of the human mind. We accept that Word of God as it stands; the only other honest course is to reject it altogether.