Lesson 28 · Unit 5 · Roots of the Gospel
Is Hell Real
The one who speaks most about hell in the Bible is the one who least wants anyone to go there.
Open
You have probably seen the kind of slogan painted on a wall or strung across a pedestrian bridge: "Believe in Jesus and live forever, refuse and go to hell," yellow characters on red, heavy on exclamation marks. It makes you a little uncomfortable — if a friend asked right then, "Is that what you believe too?", you would hurry to explain: it isn't like that, or at least not only like that.
But back at home, with the Bible open at Luke 16, you find that Jesus really did tell the story of the rich man in the flames. So the unavoidable question arrives: is hell real? And if it is, how does it fit in the same book as "God is love"? This lesson does not go around it and does not use it to frighten anyone — it simply puts Jesus's own words back inside the heart he spoke them with.
Scripture
A story about what comes after death, and the closing line of a parable of judgment — both of them out of Jesus's own mouth. (WEB) Luke 16:19-31 —
19“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
20A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores,
21and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.
24He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’
25“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted and you are in anguish.
26Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that no one may cross over from there to us.’
27“He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house—
28for I have five brothers—that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’
29“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’
30“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’”
41Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;
46These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
See
The one who speaks of it most
Here is a fact that is easy to miss: almost all the heaviest words about hell in the New Testament come out of Jesus's mouth — not from some grim prophet, but from the Lord who wept over Jerusalem and let the children come to him. That is unexpected, and on reflection it is the greatest comfort of all: the person who warns you most severely is the person who least wants anything to happen to you. It is like a doctor giving you the worst diagnosis himself — not to crush you, but because he intends to treat you personally. Turn it around and you get the other half: if hell is not real, the cross was an enormous overreaction.
The door is locked from the inside
Read the rich man closely: he speaks twice in his torment, and both times he is still ordering Lazarus around like a servant — send him to dip water, send him with a message — and never once says, "I was wrong." From this C. S. Lewis wrote his famous line: the doors of hell are locked on the inside. Matthew 25:41 adds another detail: that eternal fire was "prepared for the devil and his angels" — hell was never designed as a destination for human beings. God does not throw anyone in; he honors a whole lifetime of "I do not want God," and honors it to a degree that ought to make us tremble.
Neither embellish nor dilute
Scripture describes being lost with overlapping images — fire, darkness, worms. The images are set side by side, which shows that the reality they point to is more serious than any of the pictures, not that we are being handed a map. The honest posture is two sentences: hold to what Scripture does say — the lostness is real, the judgment is just, the outcomes are distinct; and admit what it does not spell out — the exact form, and the final list, are not in our hands. But God's heart he states plainly: he is "not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9).
When a friend asks you this
Friend: "You say God is love, and then you say if I don't believe I go to hell — doesn't that strike you as contradictory?" You: "That question has cut me too, and I don't want to recite a standard answer at you. Can I say one thing first? The person in the Bible who speaks most heavily about hell is Jesus — the same one who later died for people." "Doesn't that make it worse?" "Not if the warning is itself love. When a doctor tells you the worst outcome honestly, that isn't intimidation; it's because he means to save you. And he didn't shout it from somewhere safe — on the cross he walked into that judgment himself." Your friend is quiet for a while: "I still can't accept eternal punishment." You: "There's a part of this I can't fully answer, and I won't pretend otherwise. But I know the Judge. Abraham once asked: shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right? The final verdict is in his hands — and I'm more at ease leaving it there than leaving it to my imagination." Saying honestly "I can't answer all of it" is not a surrender; you are not hell's defense attorney, you are a witness to the cross (1 Pet 3:15).
Deeper
Hell (Gehenna)
Jesus uses the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem as an image for final lostness: the real outcome of being cut off from God (Matt 25:41, 46).
Locked from the inside
the rich man never asks to be allowed to turn back; the core of lostness is a heart that keeps its back to God (Luke 16:24-31; C. S. Lewis's phrase).
God's heart
he is "not wishing that anyone should perish"; the purpose of a warning was always rescue, never satisfaction (2 Pet 3:9; Ezek 33:11).
The cross bore the abandonment
"My God, why have you forsaken me": Jesus entered the separation in person so that those who take refuge in him never would (Matt 27:46; Rom 8:1).
Story
The year Lao Feng turned forty-eight he buried his father. The old man had been proud all his life; whenever his son spoke about the gospel he waved it off: "After I retire, we'll talk." Retirement never came. For a long stretch after the memorial service Lao Feng could not pray — the moment he opened his mouth he ran into the question: where is my father now? He seriously considered leaving the church: if that is the answer, I would rather not believe.
He threw the question at his pastor exactly as it stood. The pastor did not hand him a clean "he is" or "he isn't." He sat with him for a long time and then said three things: the final verdict is in God's hands, not in your imagination; that Judge is the one who died on a cross for sinners; and Abraham's question is a railing you can hold on to — shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?
Lao Feng says those three sentences did not untie every knot, but they pulled him back from the edge of the cliff. Now he has dinner with his mother every week and reads her a short passage of Scripture afterward. "My father's case I have handed to the Lord who is both just and weeping. My mother is still here — and I don't want to wait for another 'after I retire.'"
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1"The one who speaks most about hell in the Bible is Jesus" — does that fact change what the word "warning" means to you?
2The rich man speaks twice and both times is giving orders, never repenting — have you seen that kind of locked-from-the-inside heart?
3What is the hardest part of this teaching for you? Are you willing to bring it to the cross, and to your companion?
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Pray together
Lord Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem: this lesson is heavy, and I do not want to pretend it is light. Thank you for speaking the heaviest warning yourself, and then walking into that abandonment yourself and taking the judgment for me. I bring you the names I carry most — you want them saved even more than I do. Take away my procrastination, and while there is still a today, let me speak your salvation to the people who can still hear it. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 10 min
Write down three names of people you care about most who do not yet know the Lord, and pray one specific prayer for each. Then pick one of them and arrange a meal or a phone call this week — do not rush to say everything; just get close.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Whenever you catch yourself passing a final verdict on someone ("he's beyond hope," or "he'll be fine"), stop and turn it into a prayer instead: "The judging is yours, and so is the rescuing."
Memory verse · 2 Peter 3:9
TheLordis...notwishingthatanyoneshouldperish,butthatallshouldcometorepentance.
Walk further
The full parable of the sheep and the goats, the thief saved at the last hour beside the cross, the life of C. S. Lewis, the theme of atonement, and the long essay "Judgment and Hell" that you can forward to a friend.