Hell Deserving Sinners

Hell is just what you deserve," the preacher said.  "And hell is just what you will get." 

In my youth I heard many a sermon punctuated with the incredible but confident claim that “we all deserve hell.”  And a “devil’s hell” at that!  And “hell” meant endless torment.  In wide-eyed innocence I wondered what wicked things people must have done, and marveled that they had done them.  

Such fiery bluster transformed the sanctuary into a courtroom of the damned.  “Quilty!” the judge declares as the gavel slams- sentenced to burn forever in the flames of hell.  

Champions of endless torment often defend such an inconceivable punishment on the grounds of justice.  It is true because it is deserved.  So they say.  Perpetual pain in fire exists because it is exactly what is required to satisfactorily punish the unbelieving sinner. 

I admit it’s quite the contrasting canvas upon which to paint God’s glorious grace. Christ in mercy rescued us from what justice demanded.  The worse the punishment, the greater the deliverance.  But note it is only those already assured of salvation who are equally certain that they deserved hell without it.  I have yet to meet the person who thought they deserved to eternally burn in hell who believed they were actually in danger of doing so.

But we should not disparage such gratitude of grace even though magnified by an outrageous sense of warranted damnation.  No doubt it is sincere people who utter praise to God for saving their hell deserving souls.  The point of this chapter is not to belittle exaggerated boasts of villainous depravity, but to ask the question, Does anyone really deserve to be endlessly tormented?

Though I have often heard that everybody who ever lived, from a hideous Hitler to an angelic grandma, is rightly sentenced to burn forever in hell, there is something I’ve never heard- scripture to prove it.  If this were the divine jurisprudence (legal system), where is such legislative language in the Bible?  Does God’s law say we deserve ceaseless agony?

As we have previously demonstrated, God says we deserve death. From the dread decree in Eden to the frightening commands at Sinai; from the unflinching rebukes of the prophets to the bold testimony of the apostles- death is the penalty of sin.  

If other and more than death is the penalty, man's fall in the garden was God’s ideal opportunity to communicate it. What better time to enunciate the consequences of sin than right after the very first transgression?  Death was both the dire warning before and the dust-to-dust explanation after Adam partook of the forbidden fruit.  Adam was warned, “Thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  And Adam was informed, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). Why not add “but your departed soul will be tormented” if it were so? If it were so, the Almighty Lawgiver would have added it.  He did not because it is not so.  

Not only does scripture abundantly testify to death as the express penalty, it also clearly pronounces death as just.  Deserved.  “The word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward” (Hebrews 2:2).  This word spoken by angels refers to the law under Moses. “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:53).  “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions… and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Galatians 3:19).

This is a powerful testimony to the fairness of God’s penal code.  Every transgression and disobedience- nothing excluded- received (the law imposed) a just recompence.  Some sins required sacrifice; others restitution.  And some demanded death.  Sacrifice, restitution, or death were the penalties.  That's it.  Whatever the specified punishment, it was just- fair, equitable, righteous.  There were no jails in Israel, and certainly no torture chambers.

And the worst punishment of all was the capital one of death.  Now if that were just, and we have God’s word on it that it was, then what would it be for any punishment to go beyond that just punishment?  It would be unjust. God says every transgression received a just recompence, and when carried out to the fullest measure, life itself was forfeited.  To inflict on-going pain after the completion of the proscribed just punishment would be unmerited, unwarranted, and unjust.

And the sentence was death itself, not any pain that may accompany it.  If someone is sentenced to death, whatever the means of execution, if death is not the result, it cannot be claimed that the sentence was fulfilled because of pain inflicted.  If the sentence of “death by firing squad” ended in the sentenced being shot full of holes but not dying, the sentence was not carried out, no matter the agony endured. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), not pain. Death may be painful, but neither pain in death nor pain after death is the payment, but death itself.  I wish you would read that again.

In fact, there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that God ever desires any pain to accompany punishment.  “The punishment of the sin of Sodom” was that they were “overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her” (Lamentations 4:6).  “As in a moment”, “at a instant suddenly” (Isaiah 29:5), “a speedy riddance” (Zephaniah 1:8), “swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1), and “sudden destruction” (1 Thessalonian 5:3) is God’s modus operandi.

The most heinous transgressions received the just recompence of death. Paul, in his legally precise writing to the Romans, speaks of “knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death” (Romans 1:32).  God’s judgment demands death.  “Worthy of death” confirms that death is what is deserved.  This is God’s just judgment.  And if you know the judgment of God (how God deals with sin), you know this to be so.

Some will object that though death may be the just penalty for the most evil of acts, there is yet one sin that is far worse and deserves far greater, even an eternal punishment, and that is the sin of unbelief.  But are there any scriptures that make such a case?  To the contrary, God’s Word teaches that death is the end of unbelief.  “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).  And, of course, “whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  Belief, saving faith, receives endless life; unbelief, an end to life.  

Other contentions espoused are that eternal pain is deserved because the eternal God is offended, and sin must be eternally punished because those in hell are eternally sinning.  Any thoughtful person would recoil at such a portrayal of the God of the Bible who “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). 

God is not an offended ogre.  And any student of the Bible will search in vain for evidence that the punishment is keeping pace with endless sinning.

To summarize, every transgression and disobedience under Moses received a just recompense (the most severe being death), and the judgment of God is that sin brings death.  Eternal life is a gift in Christ.  Death, an end of life, is deserved, but God’s grace offers life without end to death-deserving sinners.