Does God love the people who are in hell?
The question of whether God loves those who are in hell is a difficult one that requires care and nuance. At the outset, it’s important to say that hell is a reality according to the Bible. Jesus himself speaks of hell more than anyone else in Scripture. He describes it as a place of “outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). So we can’t dismiss hell as simply metaphorical. It’s a real place of judgment for those who reject God in this life.
However, does God still love people in hell? In one sense, God’s love extends to all people in all places. As 1 John 4:8 tells us, “God is love.” His very nature is loving. In that sense, God’s love extends even to those in hell. After all, he continues sustaining their existence rather than simply annihilating them. As difficult as hell is to comprehend, in some mysterious way God’s love reaches even to the darkest places.
However, in another sense God’s love is not experienced by those in hell in the same way it’s experienced by those in heaven. In hell, people are cut off from God’s blessings and any experience of his grace. As theologian J.I. Packer puts it, for people in hell “there is no experience of God’s love.” The blessings of knowing God are completely withdrawn. Those in hell are “shut up to experience God’s justice alone.”
So does God still love people in hell? Yes, in the sense that his love extends to all people as part of who he is. No, in the sense that his love is not experienced or received in hell. Philosopher Eleonore Stump puts it this way: “God loves the damned, but the damneds hate God.” The reality of hell means that some people will tragically reject God and by their own choices experience his love only as judgment.
God’s Warnings About Hell Demonstrate His Love
In fact, God’s repeated warnings about hell throughout Scripture could actually be seen as a demonstration of his love. He desperately wants people to avoid this terrible fate! 2 Peter 3:9 tells us God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God warns people repeatedly about hell because he loves all people and wants them to repent and receive eternal life.
Think of it this way: If you saw a group of people unknowingly walking toward a dangerous cliff, wouldn’t you urgently warn them out of love? You’d shout out to try to stop them before it was too late. In the same way, God in his love passionately warns people to avoid hell and receive the gift of salvation he offers. The existence of hell highlights just how far God went to make salvation possible for all.
God’s Love Is Compatible with His Justice
Additionally, God’s perfect love does not cancel out his justice. Actually, his love necessitates justice. A God who simply ignored sin and evil would not be a loving God at all. His love requires justice for wrongdoing. And Scripture makes clear that the just penalty for human sin and rebellion against God is death (Romans 6:23).
So God’s love and his justice are perfectly compatible. Theologian Millard Erickson explains it this way: “Because he is a God of both justice and love, he cannot simply forgive sin without requiring a satisfaction of his justice; that would be contradicting his nature.” God’s love requires death as payment for sin. Which is why he sent Jesus to die in our place, providing that justice so God could extend mercy.
So the existence of hell is actually a testimony to God’s love – he desperately wants to save us, but his love does not eliminate justice against sin. Hell shows the immensity of human sin, the perfection of God’s justice, and the magnanimity of his love in providing a Savior.
Important Bible Passages About God’s Love and Hell
With this background, let’s survey some key Bible passages that speak to God’s love and hell:
1. Romans 5:8 – “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even while we were ungodly sinners deserving wrath, God showed his love for us in a costly way.
2. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God’s love offers salvation to the entire world – no one has to perish in hell.
3. 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” As this verse says, God does not desire for anyone to end up in hell.
4. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 – “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants all to respond to his love and be saved from perishing.
5. Ezekiel 33:11 – “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” God urges even the wicked to repent so they do not have to face his wrath.
6. Matthew 25:41 – “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'” Hell was made for “the devil and his angels” – not humanity.
7. Revelation 20:10 – “The devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” The Bible consistently presents hell as the specific destiny of Satan and his demons – not human beings.
In light of such passages, we see God’s love offering salvation to all. No one has to perish in hell. And hell was originally prepared for the rebellious angels, not humanity. Tragically, when people reject God’s love and salvation, they end up sharing the destiny of the devil and his demons rather than enjoying eternal life with God.
God’s Desire Versus Human Free Will
This brings up an important related question: If God loves all people and wants them all to be saved, why doesn’t he simply save everyone whether they want it or not? Why is hell even a possibility?
The answer is that God honors human free will because authentic love requires freedom. Forced “love” is not true love at all. Even God cannot force people to freely love him. Those who reject his love are freely choosing to define themselves by that rejection. C.S. Lewis famously stated: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'” Hell is essentially God sadly acquiescing to human choice in rejection of him.
So God’s desire for all to be saved and not perish does not override human free will to reject his love. Anselm of Canterbury explained it this way: “For when thou didst create man, thou wert willing to prepare eternal life for him. But that thou mightest not do this unjustly, thou didst make him capable of attaining either eternal life or eternal death. Eternal life he should attain by keeping thy commandments; eternal death by transgressing them.” The sad reality of hell is people choosing to transgress God’s loving commands.
Those in Hell Experience God’s Wrath, Not His Love
Given these biblical truths, how then should we understand the experience of those who end up in hell? Does God actively torment people in hell out of retribution? Or is hell essentially people living with the consequences of their rejection of God?
The Bible speaks of God’s wrath in relation to hell in places like Romans 2:5 and Revelation 14:10. But God’s wrath can be understood as his righteous judgment on and response to sin. Theologian Christopher Morgan explains: “Hell is not an expression of God’s rage toward people. Instead it is the settled display of God’s righteousness in response to human sin and rebellion.”
So those condemned to hell are experiencing the righteous wrath of God against sin, not arbitrary torture. Philosopher Jerry Walls describes hell as people choosing “To live with the consequences of separating themselves from God, from all that is good. When they get their wish, they are separated from God.” Hell is chiefly people dwelling with the ongoing consequences of their sin in separation from God’s blessings.
What do those ongoing consequences entail? Scripture highlights fire, darkness, weeping, teeth gnashing, torment, and destruction as characteristics of hell. Images of fire and darkness powerfully convey the utter agony of being separated from God’s presence. As Carson says, “Hell…is darkness, utter and eternal separation from God, banishment from the realm of light, and the impossibility of joy because one is banished from joy’s source.”
In the end, those condemned to hell are shut out of God’s loving presence and experience his justice and righteous wrath in anguish. But they do not experience his love or receive his grace. His love permits the tragedy of hell, but does not infuse it with kindness. Hell is the reality of God’s love and grace being fully removed.
Hell Highlights the Urgency of Responding to God’s Love
This tragic biblical picture of hell should instill in us a sense of urgency in heeding Jesus’ command to share the gospel with all people (Matthew 28:19-20). Only those who respond to God’s love in Christ in this life will experience that love for eternity in heaven. For too many people reject God’s love, and he sadly gives them what they’ve chosen – life apart from him.
The doctrine of hell confronts us with the enormity of what is at stake in how we respond to Jesus’ costly love on the cross. It keeps us from cavalierly assuming most will be saved. And it highlights the foolish tragedy of those who spurn a relationship with their loving Creator. J.I. Packer puts the choice before us starkly: “Unless we allow the reality of hell to grip our hearts and minds, we will not hear Jesus’ gracious call to flee from the wrath to come and be saved.” May we hear that call, and passionately extend Jesus’ love to others today.