There are no exits in hell

It’s one of the clearest teachings in God’s word. No one has trouble understanding the details about hell taught by our Lord, just coming to terms with it all. Among other things, he often taught these things about hell.

1. Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Our Lord mentions this in Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, and Luke 13:28. Among other things, this means hell is a place of unspeakable grief and conscious pain.

There is the grief of the place: I am in hell and no longer in my chosen place of earthly comforts. There is the grief of loss: I have forfeited my eternity and lost all that was previously dear to me. There is the grief at the duration of the place: forever means no end and no escape. And there is conscious pain: I am awake and sensing the pain that will never end.

2. Hell is a place of fire.

The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that hell is a place of fire (Matt. 3:10-12, 7:19, 13:42, 13:50, 18:8, 25:41; Mark 9:43; Luke 3:9, 3:16-17, 16:23-24; John 15:6; 2 Thess. 1:7; Heb. 10:27; Jude 7; Rev. 19:20, 20:10, 20:14-15, 21:8). Whatever this looks like—actual flames, intense heat, some other form of burning—it communicates the height of anguish. And it is not a fire that causes the cessation of one’s existence.

3. Hell is a place that has no end or exit.

This is the most terrifying detail about hell. Scripture teaches with clarity and abundance that hell is forever (Matt. 3:12, 18:8, 25:41, 25:46; Mark 9:43; Luke 3:17; 2 Thess. 1:9; Jude 7; Rev. 14:11, 19:3, 20:10). Jesus used the same word to describe both the eternality of heaven and hell (Matt. 25:46).

The fact that hell is unending is a terror that surpasses all terrors. No end. No exit. No escape. Three months of conscious torment will pass. 

But forever will still remain. Three decades of it will pass. But the entirety of hell’s sentence will remain. Three hundred thousand years will go by in hell’s misery. And yet zero per cent of hell’s duration will have been completed. It is an absolute fact that hell will be the place of eternal, conscious torment for all who refuse to put faith alone in the Person and finished work alone of the Jesus of the Bible alone for the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God.

Dear friend, it matters not how great and glorious your life is here on Earth. If you have not bowed the knee in faith to Jesus Christ, you will experience these unmeasurable agonies. No temporary pleasure so great this side of heaven is worth experiencing the far greater, eternal terrors of hell. Do the math. It’s all very simple.

 But there is great news: God the Son stepped out of heaven, became a man, and lived the life that no human could. He never fell short of God the Father’s moral standard. Every second, he perfectly conformed to that standard in thought, motivation, worship, word, deed, and nature. Because of that, his death alone on the cross suffices to eliminate our just sentence of hell. God the Father placed the hell that was ours on him at the cross for all who repent. He rose from the dead to verify that. All you have to do is put your confidence in the Person, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to escape hell. It is a very, very good deal for you.

What’s the result? Among other things, you will not go to hell. Let that sink in. Hell is simply what sinners deserve for sinning. It’s not overboard. It’s not excessive. It’s just fair. You work eight hours, you get paid for eight hours of work. You sin against an infinite God, you receive infinite punishment (Rev. 20:11-15). It’s simple justice.

But, for all who put faith in Christ, we are not going to hell!

I rejoiced that day when I knew I would not have to go to the dreaded lumber mill. A lumber mill. Far greater than any lumber mill, dear friends, we are not going to hell.

We are not going to hell!

Glory to Almighty God, dear friends! Praise him! Praise his name! We are not going to hell.

The unending, teeth-gnashing, fire-scorching, never-ceasing unbearable pain that we deserve will NOT be ours! Ever.

It would be one thing if God said, “Well, your sin is great, so you at least have to go to hell for a year.” But we will not! We are not going to hell! We will not even spend five days, five hours, or five minutes in hell, much less eternity. We are not going to hell!

Dear friend, what hard thing has befallen you recently? No doubt, there are hard—very hard—things this side of heaven. But, O dear Christian, we are not going to hell!
When we die, the true and only God—the God of blazing holiness—will be there. We will have a life of many sins behind us. But, we will not go to hell! No. Almighty God will eagerly, happily, and compassionately welcome us into that happy place from which we should have been barred forever.
Whatever thing there might be upon us that solicits our murmuring, let us firmly cling to this anthem: We are not going to hell!

The King of kings and Lord of lords served our sentence in our place. And for that, we are not going to hell. That is enough reason to praise his name forever and ever.

Let us give glory to God today, for we are not going to hell!