Jesus & HellEsimerkki

Every sinner needs a Savior

Who goes to hell? Who ends up in the fire that Jesus so often talked about? Ask the average American and the answer is: “Hitler, serial killers, school shooters, and child abusers.” But what did Jesus say?

A lot. In Matthew 18, Jesus threatened those who hurt children with a punishment worse than drowning. In Matthew 23, Jesus threatened church leaders who use God’s name in order to use people and line their own pockets. In Matthew 5, Jesus said that anyone who gives in to anger and snaps at their brother is in danger of the fires of hell. In that chapter, he made the same claim about those looking at a woman lustfully. Then in Matthew 25, Jesus explains that the damned will be damned because “whatever you did not do for [the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the sick, the imprisoned], you did not do for me” (verse 45).

Sin condemns people to hell—the sin of abusing a child, shooting up a school, getting revenge, sneaking a lustful look, or doing nothing when your fellow man is in need. If you disagree with that sentence, please know I have tried very hard simply to quote Jesus. You and I don’t know better than the King of Heaven regarding the truth about hell.

The truth is that every sinner needs a Savior to save them from the agony of hell. Me. You. Your grandmother. Your friend. Thankfully, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).