“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”
CS Lewis, The Great Divorce.
You may have heard it said that “God can do anything and everything”. The critics like to follow that statement up with a question of entrapment like, “Can God make a rock so big that even He cannot lift it?” Then they add, “Well then, you see, God is not all powerful.”
Firstly, their question about making a rock so big that even He cannot lift it is an illogical statement in that it is logically impossible to accomplish in and of itself.
But more importantly, we need to qualify the statement “God can do anything” with the limitation of “God can do anything in accordance with His character”. This is an important distinction to understand. God cannot sin, because it is against His character of righteousness. He cannot lie, break His promise or make a mistake.
For the same reason, God cannot simply overlook our sins. Because God is totally righteous He cannot tolerate, excuse or overlook sin. Neither can He allow any sin into His heaven. That is why you and I cannot go there until our sin problem is properly dealt with.
Because God is totally just He must punish sin, which is disobedience against Him, His created order, and His commands. We should be able to understand the importance of justice because we are greatly troubled by the lack of justice in this world which is currently broken and deformed by sinfulness. We need and desire for God to be totally just. But that also emphasizes the problem with our own sinfulness.
God cannot simply overlook my sin. However, God’s love caused Him to not only judge sin accurately and completely, but He also offered to pay the penalty for my sin in my place. I would spend an eternity in hell, never able to pay the penalty for rebelling against a Holy God. But God, in His mercy, sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to live on this earth and to die on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin in my place.
No one will spend eternity in hell because the penalty for their sin was not paid for and available to them. People will spend eternity in hell because they did not accept God’s offer of mercy (in this case the forgiveness of their sin), and His grace (in this case the free gift of eternal life in heaven with Him). By not believing in Jesus Christ alone for my eternal life, I would be choosing to reject God’s loving offer of forgiveness. The consequence of my choice would be to spend my eternity in hell.