I don't talk about hell very much.  I'm convinced we don't understand it.  

I'm certain I don't understand it. I do believe in it, but I don't understand it.

Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

If I were going to teach on an eternal existence in hell, this is where I would go.  Jesus is here saying something typically Hebrew: He's using hyperbole to show the whole.  Not even a worm dies there.  Everything, including people, remains forever, and the fire is never, ever quenched.  

BUT

I think we think of hell as "punishment."  And I think that's wrong.  I don't think hell is punishment for our sins.  Why?  

Because Christ bore our sins on the Cross. And God would be unjust to punish anyone for them, since that punishment has been paid. 

And God is not unjust.  

So if Hell is not punishment, what is it?

A couple of theories.  

One is that hell is eternal separation from God.  That  God loves us so much that He gives us free will, and in His Sovereignty, He chooses to not violate our free will, even for our own benefit.  So imagine a guy who is pursuing you.  He sends you flowers and candy, he asks you out on dates, he writes you poetry, but you feel nothing for him.  Could such a person force you to love him?  No, they could not.  Because love cannot be forced. It must be freely given.  And so we chose to love God, or we chose to not love God.  That's the first and greatest commandment, after all... Love the LORD.  And if we chose to not Love Him, He gives us what we desire... eternity without Him.  But here's the rub: Since He is also the source of every good thing... life, light, love, truth, compassion, forgiveness, charity, faith, etc... we also cut ourselves off from those things which flow from Him.  And in such a situation, what else is there but torment?   One theologian put it this way:  "If we chose to die without God in our lives, then two angles rush to our deathbed and snatch away our soul.  They fly with it at top speed to a point in the universe so far away that not even the distant light of the stars can reach it, and there they leave us... in the dark, in the cold, in the lonely emptiness of space, without even the light of the stars to comfort us."  One of the man's students said "Is that all?"  and the theologian wisely said, "It is enough."

But I don't like the idea of eternal separation from God.  Honestly, I don't think it's Biblical.  Where can you go that an infinite God is not?  As David said in Psalm 139 "If I ascend to the Heavens, you are there with me.  If I make my bed in Sheol, even there your right hand will guide me."

So then I look to Isaiah chapter 6, beginning at v. 1

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: 

                  “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; 

                  the whole earth is full of his glory!” 

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” 

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Isaiah the Prophet is confronted with the immediate presence of God, and looks upon His Throne.  Here, Isaiah describes the same throne room that John the Revelator does in the beginning of Revelation 4.  But Isaiah is tortured by what he sees.  He says "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips."  

And before God can call Isaiah to become the Prophet, the sin problem must be dealt with.  So God sends an angel to take a coal from under the altar of God and to sear Isaiah's lips with it, to deal with his sin by fire.  Only once that is done can Isaiah begin to speak to God in such immediacy.  

What does that mean?

Maybe, since you cannot get out of the presence of God, that God is in hell too.  Maybe we are exposed to God directly, with our own righteousness covering us.  And maybe we are eternal beings, made in the image of God, but without the righteousness of Christ, we are tormented forever and ever by our own sin.  Again, this is not about punishment... this is about the choice that we made to die without the righteousness of God covering us.  That idea is terrible to our current sensibilities... it's horrible, we don't want to think about it... but isn't that what hell is?  horrible?  

In the end, I don't know.  I don't want to know.  Maybe someday I will want to know and will spend more time intentionally researching it, but the longer I am a Christian, the more I see myself on the edge of a cliff.  My sin is pushing me off of it, and my God, how great is that sin!  I am utterly wicked, I am wretched and poor and weak, and the force of my sin is so powerful that it is pushing me to my eternal and everlasting, continuous death that never ends and this is no more than I deserve.  

But Jesus erects His cross near me.  He comes to where I am and He lashes me to it.  My sin buffets, my greed, my pride, my lust, my anger, my fear, my pride, my damnable pride, pushes and beats on me relentlessly, and I am helpless against them, but Jesus holds me in His arms.  He sets me upon the Rock that is Himself, and from there I cannot be moved.  

And I don't understand that either.  There's so much about that I don't get.  So many questions unanswered... but He is Enough.  He is real, He is holding me, and His Grace is sufficient, for His power is perfected in my weakness.