Firstly, I hear you: it appears contradictory for the Bible to say God is love but that he’s also going to send people to hell. It may even sound very narrow-minded to you for the Bible to say that good people who care for their loved ones, are ethical and responsible employees and give back to the community are going to end up in hell simply because they don’t believe or ascribe to the Christian faith.
I think what we generally mean when we say, “I’m a good person,” is, “I’m a better person than some other people” meaning criminals and rapists or even just people who hoard wealth or cheat on their spouse. As a piano teacher, if I were to say, “I’m a good pianist”, I would mean I’m a better pianist than my pupils but compared to Yuja Wang, I’m pretty rubbish.
The way the Bible views goodness is different. It’s not a ladder that we can climb up in order to reach God, and be proud of where we are on the ladder compared to other people. Goodness isn’t relative, which is actually good news because if it was, how would we ever know whether we’ve been good enough for God? According to the Bible, no one is good but God alone. God is the very definition of goodness. And no one in all of history has ever met God’s standards for goodness. No one.
I also think it’s a misunderstanding to assume that God wants people to go to hell. He doesn’t. The God of the Bible is a generous God. He is love, light, life and goodness itself and he created us to share in that. We were the ones who turned away from Him to define our own standards of goodness. We turned towards death, darkness and disconnection. And because God loves us, he’s angry about this - much like a loving parent. God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him wouldn’t perish (meaning experience hell) but would have eternal life.”
I said earlier that no one in all of history has ever met God’s standards for goodness. But that’s actually not true. God’s Son, Jesus, once lived among us and Jesus’s life met God’s standards for goodness perfectly. And then, Jesus faced the death, darkness and disconnection from God that we all deserve on our behalf, so that we wouldn’t have to.
So we can either continue striving for and asserting our own goodness and refusing any gift from God that we haven’t earned. And the Bible says the result of that will be death, darkness and disconnection from God. Or we can accept that we’ve fallen short of God’s goodness, accept the free gift of forgiveness He offers us through Jesus and know with certainty that we have been welcomed with open arms into a future with God that is richer and fuller than anything you can imagine.
If you would like to know more about accepting this free gift, please get in touch with us.
