Why would a loving God send anyone to Hell?

The answer to this question is very simple: Because they hate him, and they hate his ways, and they despise his grace and mercy when he reaches out to them in forgiving love.

God has never sent a repentant sinner to Hell and he never will. Only those who reject him will be condemned.

We do not protest when a human judge sentences a murderer or a rapist to life in prison, yet we sometimes question why the Judge of all the earth would punish the ungodly who refuse to repent.

If any sinner turns to God, who is the righteous Judge, and repents of their sins, God will forgive them.

The question we ought to ask is why does God show mercy to the most wretched of sinners who repent? If we answer this question, we will quickly find the answer as to why God sends some people to Hell.

God is good, and he is far richer in grace and mercy than any of us can comprehend. God doesn’t desire for anyone to perish. It gives him no joy to judge the ungodly. God desires for all people to be saved.

Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? ~ Ezekiel 18:23

Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ ~ Ezekiel 33:11

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. ~ 2 Peter 3:9

Notice that each of the verses above refer to repentance, or turning to the Lord. Yet some people love their sin and refuse to repent. In John 5, Jesus told some of the Jews who rejected his message: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,  yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life”. ~ John 5:39-40

Refusing to come to the Lord who is merciful, gracious, and forgiving, is the reason why  people die in their sins, and people refuse to come to the Lord because they love sin.

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” ~ John 3:19-21

Why would a loving God condemn an unrepentant sinner to Hell? Because God is a Just God. Why would a Just God forgive a wretched sinner who repents? Because he is a merciful and loving God.

The answer to many of the questions we have about why God would do this, or why would he do that, can be answered when we take to heart the whole counsel of scripture regarding the attributes and character of God.