“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17)

Did you know that Jesus spoke more about hell than He did heaven? It’s not unusual to not want to entertain ideas about the reality of hell. Truth be told, we would much rather deny its existence. However, to do so is to deny what Scripture teaches. The word “perish” used in John 3:16 means to incur divine punishment, destruction and wrath. No one should want to constantly contemplate that reality. It would be unnatural. But equally unnatural is the idea that God would rescue us from that reality—that He would provide a way of escape. Yet, that’s exactly what these verses teach He did.

Instead of denying the Biblical truth of the reality of hell, either because we want to or because we just can’t wrap our minds around the why of it, let us be thankful that God, loving us as only He can, would send His Son to rescue us from it. God has provided a way of salvation for us in Christ. Jesus creates a new reality for those who believe.

The Bible teaches we are all under sin, that “no one is righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). It says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But thankfully it also says, “At the right time Christ died for the ungodly”, that “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8) and that “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Let us live in thankfulness for all that God has done to save us. It wasn’t because we deserved it but only because of His mercy and grace. There’s no greater love than His. The only proper response is to live a life that honors Him in preparation for eternal life with Him.