The message tackles one of the hardest objections raised against Christianity: if God is love, how can He condemn anyone to hell?
Paul’s sweeping indictment in Romans 3 sets the stage: “There is no one righteous … all are under sin.” God’s verdict applies to every segment of humanity—religious or irreligious, “nice” or openly wicked.
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Wrong view of God
Modern people zoom in on a single attribute—love—and imagine God as an indulgent grandfather. Scripture, however, reveals a multi-faceted God whose love, holiness, justice, truth and power coexist in perfect harmony. Because He is just, He must punish evil; because He is love, He longs to rescue. A deity who merely overlooks evil would be neither good nor worship-worthy.
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Wrong view of humanity
We assume hell is only for history’s monsters, yet Jesus locates murder in angry thoughts and adultery in lustful looks. The greatest sin is failure to love God with the whole heart—a crime every person commits daily. By God’s standard, “nice, decent citizens” are cosmic rebels deserving judgment.
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The apparent impasse
A loving—but only loving—God would acquit everyone, violating justice. A purely just God would damn us all, offering no hope.
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God’s astonishing solution
At the cross, love and justice meet. The Father “presented [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement,” pouring the hell we deserve onto His willing Son. Hell’s reality is proved by the price God paid to save sinners from it. Whoever trusts Christ is “justified freely by grace,” yet God remains “just” because sin has been punished in the substitute.
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A solemn appeal
Hell is not a topic for gleeful preaching but for tear-stained urgency. To reject Christ after hearing the gospel is to face an eternity of regret and self-recrimination. Tonight—while mercy is offered—flee to the Savior who absorbed hell so you need never taste it.
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