Why did God create hell?

Let’s take a poll. How many of you believe in heaven? How many of you believe in hell? How many of you believe in heaven but not hell? How many of you don’t believe in heaven but believe in hell?

Those are the questions that were asked by the Pew Religious Landscape Survey in 2024

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Only 68.3%of people believe in heaven. While 42.5% of people don’t believe in hell. And only 54.8%, just over half of all people in both heaven and hell. The truth is … hell is not the favorite topic at dinner parties or around the table with family or to be honest … even at church. Most people just don’t enjoy talking about Hell!

I have had many conversations with people who have said … I can believe in heaven… but I have a hard time believing in hell. Or … I don’t understand why a loving God would create a place like that. And even, why would a loving God send people to hell?

So, have you ever wondered why did God create hell?

Let’s begin with a teaching of Jesus, speaking to His followers as the Pharisees listen …

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. Luke 16:19-21

SlideThe poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.            Luke 16:22-23

Hades – the abode of the dead, it is the Greek word for the Hebrew Sheol.

SlideAnd he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish … Luke 16:14–26

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’                                                     

SlideAnd he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’                                                                                   Luke 16:27–31

A cautionary story about life here and the life to come. So, you might be asking:

Why did God create Hell?

When we hear the word hell, something inside us resists. It feels heavy. It feels uncomfortable. It feels… inconsistent with the God we love. But the truth is … SlideIf we avoid the subject of hell, we get an incomplete picture of God!

And if we misunderstand hell, we will misunderstand justice, grace, and ultimately, the cross. Because if we are honest, most people don’t reject God, they reject a version of God they don’t understand.

So today, we’re not going to soften it. We’re not going to sensationalizeit. We’re going to let Scripture speak about it. Because …

We can’t follow Jesus and ignore what Jesus taught. If Jesus believed in hell, we don’t get to edit it out. It may cause us some discomfort, but that doesn’t cancel out the truth.

The truth is, if hell is real, everything changes. So let me begin by just saying, that based on what Jesus says, and the scripture teaches … yes …

Hell Is Real!

If you removed every reference to hell from the Bible, you would have to remove a significant portion of the teachings of Jesus Himself.

In Mark 9:43–48, Jesus says:

SlideIt is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire… where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.  Mark 9:43–48

Let’s slow down a bit … the word Jesus uses here for hell is Gehenna.

Gehenna was a real place—a valley outside Jerusalem, historically associated with child sacrifice (2 Kings 23:10) and later, a burning refuse dump

When Jesus speaks of a fire that needs no fuel, that cannot be put out. And quoting Isaiah 66:24, He says “their worm does not die,” a picture of ongoing corruption and decay.

That is the closest earthly picture you have of an eternal cesspool.

This is not symbolic exaggeration. This is intentional clarity. Jesus is not inventing a new doctrine—He is intensifying an old warning.

I love that Jesus doesn’t debate hell. He declares it. If Jesus believed in hell, we don’t have the option to dismiss it.

C.S. Lewis once wrote:

SlideThere is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, especially, of our Lord’s own words.C.S. Lewis

Now once we accept that hell is real, the next question rises quickly— Is it just? Is it right? Because if God is good… then whatever He does must also be good. So yes…

Hell Is Just because God is Holy!

Hell is not a contradiction of God’s character—it is a consequence of it.

Revelation reads …

SlideHoly, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty…  Revelation 4:8

God is not just loving. He is perfectly holy. And His holiness means He cannot coexist with sin, ignore sin, or excuse sin.

And that’s where we often struggle. Because we tend to measure sin horizontally - comparing ourselves to others. I’m not a murderer, I’m not terrorist, I’m not as bad as … you fill in the blank with your favorite villain.

But God measures sin vertically—against His holiness.

Now here’s where the tension rises. If hell is real, and God is Holy … is it fair?

The truth is that hell exists because justice must be satisfied. If God were to simply overlook evil—abuse, violence, betrayal, injustice—He would not be good. He would be indifferent. Hell is the ultimate declaration that evil does not win! Scripture answers that by anchoring hell in the justice of God.

In Romans 6:23 Paul writes …

SlideFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.          Romans 6:23

You can’t earn your way out—but you can receive your way in. That word wages means something earned. Something deserved.

Hell is not God losing His temper. Hell is God exercising His justice.

Let’s be honest—we all want justice… until it applies to us.

We struggle when we read All have sinned … Sin is not just behavior—it is rebellion. It is choosing self over God. And if God is perfectly holy, then sin must be dealt with. Hell exists because God refuses to call evil “okay.”

Hell is real, Hell is just, and you need to know …

Hell Was Not Created for You But You Can Choose It!

Jesus says:

SlideDepart from me… into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.                                                        Matthew 25:41

Hell was originally prepared for Satan and his fallen angels. Not humanity. But humanity joins that destiny when it rejects God.  God does not delight in this.

In Ezekiel God says …

SlideI have no pleasure in the death of the wicked… but that the wicked turn from his way and live.      Ezekiel 33:11

Hell is not God’s desire—it is the consequence of rejecting His desire. He is not reluctant to save … we are the ones who resist and refuseto surrender in faith and to receive.

God created you with the capacity to choose—because love requires freedom. Forced love isn’t love—it’s control.

Hell, honors human choice. It is not about God sending people to hell … it is about people choosing life apart from God. Hell is not God sending people where they don’t want to go. It is God honoring a life that says, “I want my life without You.”

C.S. Lewis famously said:

SlideThere are only two kinds of people… those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’       C.S. Lewis

Jesus said it this way:

SlideWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already… John 3:18

And here’s the reality, if someone spends their entire life saying, “I want nothing to do with God,” Hell is simply the continuation of that decision into eternity. Hell is real, Hell is just, Hell is a choice, and …

Hell Is Separation!

The worst part of hell is not the fire. It is the absence of God’s presence.

In 2 Thessalonians Paul wrote …

SlideThey will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. 2 Thessalonians 1:9

Think about that. Every good thing you and I experience—peace, joy, love, beauty, hope—flows from God.Hell is what remains when God’s presence is fully withdrawn. Everything good in this world is because of God and even the worst of people, experience the goodness of God every day, but not in hell.

Hell is real, Hell is just, Hell is a choice, Hell is separation and lastly

Hell Is Eternal!

This is a sobering reality! Jesus says …

SlideThese will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.                                                                         Matthew 25:46

The same word—eternal—describes both destinies. This is not temporary. This is final. Eugene Peterson said:

SlideThe gospel is not about a second chance after death; it is about a decisive life before death.  Eugene Peterson

What you do with Jesus now matters forever. And this is where …

SlideHell and Love Collide at the Cross!

We cannot talk about hell without talking about the cross. Hell Magnifies the Glory of the Gospel. Because you cannot understand the beauty of the Gospel without understanding the reality of Hell.

SlideGod shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.                                                     Romans 5:8

Jesus didn’t just come to make life better. He came to rescue us from something real, an eternity in hell. But Hell is not the center of the story, Jesus is. And the cross stands as the place where justice and mercy meet. Because on the cross, Jesus experienced what hell represents: Separation, judgment, and wrath. When Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He is quoting Psalm 22:1. In that moment, Jesus absorbed the justice of God,the weight of our sin and the reality of separation, so that we would not have to. Paul writes …

SlideHe made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

John Stott wrote:

SlideThe essence of sin is man substituting himself for God… the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. John Stott

Hell shows us how serious sin is. The cross shows us how far God will go to save us from it.

SlideGod’s heart has always been to rescue us, not to reject us.

As we read in 2 Peter …

SlideNot wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.   2 Peter 3:9 Hell is real, Hell is just, Hell is a choice, Hell is separation and Hell is eternal!

What Do We Do With This?

SlideTake Sin Seriously

We live in a culture that minimizes sin. We rename it. We justify it. We normalize it. But hell reminds us that sin is not small and that grace is not cheap.

SlideReceive Grace Personally

This is not just theology—it’s invitation.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16–17

God didn’t send Jesus to condemn. He sent Him to rescue.

SlideLive with Urgency for Others

Because hell is real and grace is available, then love compels us to care. Not with fear tactics. Not with arrogance. But with compassion. One of the dangers of talking to people about hell, is that it can produce prideinstead of brokenness in those who have already been rescued.

Because Hell is real … then telling others the Good News of Jesus is not optional. It is urgent.

So, the question this morning, “Why did God create hell?”

Maybe the better question is …

Why would a loving God go to such great lengths to save us from it?

Because He has. He didn’t just warn us about hell. He stepped into our place.

He took it on Himself. So today, this isn’t just a message about hell.

It’s a message about the relentless love of God available right now! It is about an invitation to come to the Father. He didn’t create hell for you. Instead, He did everything necessary to keep you from it.

The question is not whether God has made a way, the question is whether you will receive the way He has made for you through Jesus.

And the invitation is simple:

Don’t walk away from God. Don’t delay what matters most. Don’t ignore what Jesus made so clear. Because the same Jesus who spoke about hell…opened the door to heaven for you and me.

If you have never asked for forgiveness, and believed in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection I invite you to pray this prayer of faith with me.

COMMUNION - Now I invite you to remember all that Jesus did for you on the cross as we take communion together.

Closing Prayer

Father, You are holy and just—and yet full of mercy and grace. Thank You that You did not leave us in our sin, but made a way through Jesus. Break our hearts for what breaks Yours. Give us courage to speak, compassion to love, and urgency to act. And for those who are far from You—even now—draw them to Yourself. Help us to make heaven crowded as we come against the gates of hell . We trust You.In Jesus’ name, amen.