God didn't make Hell for you.
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Hell is a hard, remarkably uncomfortable concept. When we think of the fire and pain the Bible associates with Hell, it’s hard to imagine a loving God sending people there. I’ll grant you that. I struggle with it myself. However, it is a biblical reality, and as believers, we need to seek to understand Hell and why God would ever send anyone there.
It all began with a star.
His name was Lucifer, which means, “star of the morning.” In Ezekiel 28:11-19 God talks about Lucifer, revealing he was beautiful and created by God and was given angels to serve under him. That he was “in Eden” suggests that perhaps part of his job was to interact with humans. His beauty suggests that at least part of that interaction was to express the glory of God to humans.
He did something altogether different in Eden, though.
Isaiah 14:12-15, as well as the passage from Ezekiel, show how, because of his beauty, Lucifer decided that he should be the god of this world, and, in Eden, worked out his plan to take this world and rebel against God. Lucifer knew that God had given this world to humans, as recorded in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
Though God was still God, we were entrusted with this world and appointed by God as its rulers. Instead of contend directly with God, Lucifer saw the opportunity to take the world for himself from us. He persuaded the innocent humans in Eden to obey him instead of God and, in doing so, became the ruler of the world. It was at that moment Lucifer fell and became Satan, and for reasons we can only ask God about later, God allowed Satan to live and remain the power to whom humans submit, making Satan the ruler of the world.
Hence, this planet is not totally owned by God, yet.
I know this is a shocking thing to say, but Jesus happens to have said so himself. Twice in John, Jesus calls Satan the “ruler of this world.” (John 12:31, 16:11) Paul also communicated this idea. In Ephesians 2:2, Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air” and, literally, the “god of this world” in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
What does this have to do with Hell?
God does not plan for Satan to be in control forever. Compared to the eternity of God, Satan hasn’t even been in control for that long. God built a place for Satan where he and his angels would be sent to keep them in prison and guard the world God created for us from their evil, which is the original purpose of Hell. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus (who, being God, actually built Hell himself) describes Hell as, “the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” Notice how Hell was not created for you and me.
So why does God send people to Hell?
It’s the same reason any country imprisons and, in many cases, tortures enemy combatants. Apart from Christ, you and I are enemies of God. Romans 5:10 couldn’t say it any more explicitly: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” Colossians 1:21-22 repeats the concept: “Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death.” James also says, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) As enemies of God, why should we enjoy His finest things? We don’t put POWs in mansions, we put them in prison cells.
If you don’t go to heaven, it will be because you didn’t want to go there in the first place.
Whether you intend it or not, refusing to trust and obey God’s son communicates only one thing to him, “God, I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” And God won’t force you to. Heaven, however, is the place you can go to have everything to do with God. Someone who wants nothing to do with God obviously doesn’t belong there. So not only does the resident in Hell not want to be in Heaven in the first place, as an enemy combatant, there is no better place for them to be than the prison designed for their general.
But you can defect!
That’s the whole point of the Gospel. That’s why Christ died for you. Repentance and trust in Christ is the spiritual equivalent of defecting and swearing allegiance to another country. You become a citizen of that country, entitled to the rights and privileges of that citizenship. It is citizens of his kingdom God has promised to give mansions to instead of prison cells. (John 14:2) It’s one thing to give someone something good when they’re all wealthy. You and I, on the other hand, are “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17) and destined for an eternity of suffering. Which shows more love? To give something good to someone who already has lots of good things, or to save someone like you and me? That God makes all His riches available to us it good news. It’s up to you to take it or not.