Why is Hell So Bad?

One objection unbelievers typically have about hell is that it is too severe of a punishment. Yes, they might agree that it is the right place for the “Hitlers” of the world but not for the majority of us who are pretty good people. But the reason it seems this way is because we all downplay and lightly esteem the severity of our own sins.

We wrongfully think that sin isn’t really that bad so therefore eternity in hell is an unreasonable punishment. But the fact that hell is so severe reveals just how serious our sins are in God’s sight. It is our estimation of sin that is flawed. The Bible says that our hearts are darkened (Rom. 1:21), our minds are blinded (2 Cor. 4:4), and it describes us as: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18). The truth is we don’t see sin the way God does because we are in a morally depraved condition.

The apostle Paul said that the law gave him the knowledge of sin, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7:7). This is the Tenth Commandment and it revealed to Paul just how exceedingly sinful he really was, “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Rom. 7:13). We don’t see our sins as being that bad until they are measured against God’s standards.

We jump through a lot of hoops trying to justify our sins to ourselves. One way we do this is by appealing to the fact that everyone does the same things. But even if everyone really does sin in the same way then it doesn’t lessen its severity before God, it only shows that we are all just as guilty of sinning. We become comfortable in our sins when others around us are doing the same things. Our sins become somewhat camouflaged with everyone else’s and therefore don’t seem to be that bad.

Another way we justify our sins is by claiming that we can’t help but do it or that God made us this way. But the very fact that God holds us accountable indicates that sinning is our own choice. God is not unjust but would be if He punished us for something we had no control over. Also, the simple reason we are commanded by God to not sin reveals that we can stop doing it.

Have you ever told a lie? I have. Scripture says “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8). We don’t think of lying as being all that bad yet it is enough to doom us eternally in hell. It’s not that hell is too severe of a punishment for a little lying. It’s that lying is such a severe sin before God that it deserves eternal punishment in hell. The problem is not with God’s justice, it’s with our extremely low standards and light estimation of sin.