Will Good People Really Be Punished?

Introduction 

As we wrap up our short series that I have called “Uncomfortable Questions”, we come to the final question in this series. Today’s question is “Will good people really be punished by God?” Perhaps there is no question that causes people to reject Christianity than this question. The notion that people who are not the worst of the worst will be punished in a place called hell, is very uncomfortable for alot of people, even Christians.  

A couple of decades ago, a movement sprang up in American Christianity that was called the Emergent movement. Among the questions this movement was seeking to provide an answer to was this question of is hell or end time punishment of people in God’s plan. Respectable pastors became leaders in this movement and the answer provided was no, hell is not real and God will not punish people beyond this life. 

I read books in seminary on this very question because it is one that people are frequently asking. If there was an FAQs of Christian theology, this will be at the very top.  

How do you feel this afternoon about this question? Is it something you’ve wrestled with? Or maybe you’ve never thought about it? 

As always, we will go to the scripture and hear what God has to say about this.  

There are three questions we will answer in our quest to answer the main question. 1) What is good, 2) Who is God, 3) Why are good people punished?  

Let us pray. 

What is Good?

Oftentimes Christians easily dismiss the question by saying God does not punish good people because no one is good. But when we do that, we also dismiss the dignity of people. Yes, people are sinful but people are also made in the image of God. And while that image is distorted, it is nonetheless the image of God. And because people bear this image, they can’t help but have flashes of goodness.  

For evidence of this, turn your bible to Romans 2:13-16.  

Romans 2:13–16 CSB

For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this.

Here Paul acknowledges that there are Gentiles, which is a bible catch-all word for those who are not Jews, there are Gentiles who do things that God has commanded even though they never received the commands like the Jews did because the law of God is written on the human heart. That’s what the image of God produces.  

You don’t have to be a Christian to have no desire to murder, steal, lie, engage in sexual immorality, be deceptive, and so on. There are non Christians who repudiate those things.  

Yes, the bible does mention in Romans 3:12 that no one does good and Jesus himself said during his ministry when he was called good teacher that no one is good but God; however, that is goodness defined within the totality of the law of God. 

But that is not what is often meant when we ask this question about good people.  

We’re not thinking of the totality of God’s law. People asking this question are thinking of the human-to-human goodness that they see in the life of people. 

When we ask, “will good people really be punished”, we are thinking of the woman who goes to South America to devote her life to helping children born with AIDS but is not a follower of Jesus. People are thinking of the Muslim man who runs a health clinic for those who are disadvantaged. They’re thinking of the man who is faithful to his wife and is a present dad to his children but wants nothing to do with religion.  

I remember when Modesta and I lost our baby three years ago and our neighbors which included Christians and non-Christians rallied around us to comfort and support us. One of them who is not a Christian actually came to our house and washed our dishes and cleaned the kitchen without being asked to. If that’s not an act of goodness, I don’t know what is.  

We don’t have to deny that there are non-Christians who engage in what can only be described as a good deed and are by and large seen by others as good people. We are benefits of the goodness of non-Christians.  

So, when we talk about goodness, we’re not talking about goodness in the totality of the law but the human-to-human goodness that shows itself in everyday actions  

Who is God?

Human goodness, as we see it, shines brightly in our eyes because we see it clearly around us. But how does it look in the blazing light of God’s holiness?

That takes us to our second point on who is God.  

There is not enough time for us to go into every detail of who God is. There isn't enough words to talk about who God is. But for the sake our time this afternoon, we will focus briefly on the part of his attributes that matters most to this question and that is the holiness of God.  

If you were to be transported into the physical presence of God in this moment, what would your response be? Would you ask God questions about things you lacked answer to? Would be filled with excitement that you can’t contain it? Or would you fall to your knees and acknowledge your unworthiness of his presence? 

We don’t have to imagine because we have examples in the scripture of what created being do when they are in the presence of God.  

First look with me at Isaiah 6:1-3. 

Isaiah 6:1–3 CSB

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.

The angelic beings who dwell daily in the presence of God proclaim primarily the holiness of God. You see sometimes when you dwell daily in thepresence of someone you can beign to take them fro granted. You begin to experience what is often called :familiarty breeds contempt. The scripture says they would call out to one another “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” Not “love, love, love is the Lord of hosts”, not “peace, peace, peace, is the Lord of hosts”, not “joy, joy, joy is the Lord of hosts” but “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” God is love, he is peace, and he is a God of joy. But he first and foremost according to the angelic beings, a God who is holy.  

We see the same refrain by the angelic beings in Revelation 4:8. 

Revelation 4:8 CSB

Each of the four living creatures had six wings; they were covered with eyes around and inside. Day and night they never stop, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.

Day and night, night and day, all they say is “holy, holy , holy is the Lord God Almighty.” I think often times we re quick to forget that God is holy.

What would you if you got in the presence of this God? Prophet Isaiah did and here’s what happened. Let’s look back at Isaiah 6:4-5. 

Isaiah 6:4–5 CSB

The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

You see friends, The God of the bible is a profoundly holy God that our only response before him is to acknowledge our unworthiness of his presence.  

God is so holy that if you search him through and through no sin would be found. Not a cobweb or dust of sin.  

When you understand the holiness of such a God, then you understand the standard by which he welcomes people into his presence.  

So, when we answer the question will good people really be punished by God as we will shortly, the answer to that question is less about the goodness of people and more about the holiness of God. Is their goodness enough to be worthy of his holy presence? 

Why are Good People Punished? 

And that is where we go for the answer to the question as we land the plane with our third point. The simple answer is to this question is yes. Good people will be punished by God. And they will be because no matter how good their goodness is, it is not enough to make them worthy of being in the presence of a holy God. 

Why is that so? Two reasons. Because of God’s expectations. Look with me at Deuteronomy 6:1-2. This is Moses speaking after giving Israel the commands of God which are nothing more than expectations for how God wants them to live their lives.  

Deuteronomy 6:1–2 CSB

“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life.

The purposes of God’s expectations, Moses says, is that people would fear or honor or revere God by keeping all of the expectations, all the days of their lives. 

And that’s where the issues lies church. No one keeps all God’s expectations for how life should be lived. Not the woman who devoted her life to kids in South America, not the Muslim man who runs a community healthcare clinic for the disadvantaged, not the man who loves his wife faithfully and is a present father to his kids, not my neighbor who washed my dishes and cleaned my kitchen.  

Our flashes of goodness does not hold a light to the expected continuous stream of goodness by God.  

That’s reason number one, here’s number two . Going back to Romans 3:23.  

Romans 3:23 CSB

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

Sin is the disobedience of God by not living out his expectations and no one is without it. No one has absolute goodness. If you were to search God through and through, you would find no sin but if you were to search the best of people through and through, you would indeed find the presence of sin.  

Jesus during his ministry on earth said that the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself for in these two commands or expectations lies the whole of God’s commands.  

Who on earth can lay claim to loving God and loving people with all their heart, mind, and soul, all of the time? No one.  

No one, in spite of their flashes of goodness, is without sin and therefore are underserving of being in the physical presence of a holy God who is without sin.  

That is what this punishment is, it is what we mean by a place called hell, it is the withdrawal of the absolute presence of God and the presence of insurmountable pain and suffering.

So, yes, good people will be punished because they don’t have enough goodness to be in the presence of God. 

Conclusion 

As we wrap up, people like to say that sometimes life on earth is hell, but they don’t know what hell is. While life may be hard, it is not devoid of the absolute presence of God. God is still at work in this life.  

He is at work providing a way of escape from this punishment. And no one is able to escape on their own merit. That’s why we have Jesus.  

Jesus told the Jews unless your righteousness or your goodness surpasses the righteousness of the pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God. And elsewhere he said unless you believe that I am the one who can save you from your sin, you will die in your sins.  

This applies to everyone regardless of their level of goodness.  

We serve a holy God who desires a holy people. And the day will come when he will gather people into his physical presence for eternity.  

Only those who recognizes the limitation of their goodness and embrace the limitless love of God shown through Christ on the cross will be gathered because they will made holy. And everyone else will face the punishment of their sins against a holy God.  

So, yes, church, good people really will be punished by God. But they don't have to be if they turn away from the reliance on their goodness and turn to reliance on the goodness of Jesus. Who obeyed all of God’s commands all of the time for all of his life.