You’ve probably heard someone ask, “How could a loving God send anyone to Hell?” Indeed, Matthew 25:41 says, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.'” A place of burning with fire and brimstone? A place of excruciating constant pain? How could a god of love do that?
Well, He is a God of Love, but His love is conditioned by His justice. He is fair. He
gives you what His justice can approve. If you are a nice human being, who is depending upon your religion instead of your relationship to Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you are doomed to the lake of fire. Don’t even question it. Get ready to have a horrible forever. Hell is a place where the person is never consumed, and he his always reminded that the wages of sin is death and suffering. A “lake of fire” is probably the most accurate description of hell that we can understand–eternal separation from God.
This eternal doom of the devil was declared in the book of Genesis, following the fall of Adam and Eve in disobeying God by listening to Satan. God declared the judgment upon Satan in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed (your descendants and her descendant). And He (her descendant–Christ) shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” The bruise to Christ’s heel is not a mortal blow, but the bruise to Satan’s head is a mortal blow. God says that Satan will receive a final blow from God, and he will be placed in this place of excruciating pain, and it will go on forever. Now the casting of the devil (God’s most magnificent angel) into the lake of fire brings no pleasure to God. In Ezekiel 33:11, God says, “I take no pleasure in the death and the punishment of the wicked.”
Yes, he is a God of love, but He cannot be false to his character of justice. His fairness
governs what His love is free to do. This is similar to a parent who is saddened by a child to whom he has given life, and then that child goes astray into the evil system of Satan’s world. That is a sad situation. God loved this magnificent angel whom he had created. He had a very special place for Satan in heaven at the very throne of God. Satan was so dear to Him like a child dear to a parent. And then Satan turned his back upon his Creator, as a child will turn his back and reach out to sin and reject his godly parents.
Although hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels,” the Bible says that it will also be the eternal destiny for all unbelievers. Matthew 25:46 says, “46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
COL-341