Has anyone ever asked you that question? This is one of those questions that can very easily get you sideways in a conversation with someone about faith. Partly because there is a sense in which the answer is “yes,” but not really the way they probably mean it.

If you go to the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, things start off swimmingly. Adam and Eve are in the garden, they’re hanging out with God regularly. Everything is “very good.” And then, Genesis 3 happens. 

You remember the story. The snake, the fruit, the man standing there not saying anything as he watches his wife get into a jam. And then…

23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
Genesis 3:23

One day, they’re spending their days with the creator of the universe and the next thing they know, they’re out in the wide world on their own. They now understood how to be selfish and disobedient. And they passed that lovely trait down to all of us.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23

3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalm 14:3

So, we’ve all sinned and none of us is good. At least, not by the standard that is required, at least. 

48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

We may be better than a lot of other people, but other people aren’t the standard. God is the standard. God is perfect. We are not. Therefore, we don’t make the cut. 

As it turns out, we have a sin problem. We all do it and it causes all of us to stay separated from God.

1 Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1-2

So, it’s our sin that keeps us at a distance from God. As long as we have the stain of sin, we cannot be in communion with God. 

But God had a rescue plan. He knew from the very beginning that He was going to have to do something to restore our relationship with Him. He had it planned all along. Talking to the serpent, He said:

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15

And later:

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5

3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
Zechariah 3:3-4

This is a picture of Jesus taking away our sins (the dirty clothes) and giving us His righteousness (I will put fine garments on you). 

So, God ultimately sends His Son, Jesus into the world to pay the debt that we could never pay in order for us to be able to be with Him again for eternity, just like it was in the garden before Adam and Eve committed that first big act of disobedience.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 
John 1:1,14a

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

”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

God the Son became a man, lived a perfect life and took the punishment for everyone who couldn’t live a perfect life and put us back in right relationship with God. That way, we could spend the rest of eternity with Him like He originally intended. 

OK, so back to the original question. Do people go to hell for not believing in Jesus? Well, it is true that if you don’t put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will go to hell. But is not putting your faith in Jesus the cause?

Let’s try another one of those contemporary thought experiments that I like so much.

Imagine that a man went to the doctor and was told that he had a major upper-respiratory infection. If left untreated, the infection will spread and will likely reach his heart and/or other organs, at which time it could be fatal.

The doctor puts him on a regimen of powerful antibiotics to fight the infection. He starts off with a bag of IV antibiotics and prescribes the remaining antibiotics for him to pick up at the pharmacy and take three times a day for the next five days.  

The man leaves the doctor’s office and doesn’t fill the prescription and does not take any more antibiotics. After about three weeks, he passes away and, just to help illustrate my point, the ME performs an autopsy on the body.

What will be the documented cause of death from the ME’s examination? Do you think the ME will say that the cause of death was a lack of antibiotics in the deceased’s system? Or will the conclusion be that it was an infection that spread to the various internal organs and ultimately caused them to shut down?

In the same way, we are already condemned because we have sinned and none of us meets the standard of perfection. However, Jesus provides us with a way to pay the sin-debt that we could never pay ourselves. 

If we don’t accept His offer, yes, we go to hell. The unbelief doesn’t cause us to be condemned. Sin is the cause. Unbelief is just about the fact that we didn’t accept the cure.

In conclusion, the final answer to the question, “Do people go to hell for not believing in Jesus?” when put in this context, is a very clear “no” since it isn’t not believing in Jesus that causes people to spend eternity in Hell. 

If this is more clear now than it was a few minutes ago, my job is done here. If you still have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or question.

Until next time…

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