When you are a non-believer, the punishment is harsh.

I saw this video where this woman questioned faith because she didn't like the punishment. She said, "If God is so loving, why would He create hell? As a parent, why would you send your children to hell or why would you even create hell?" So, I most likely did not write the exact words, but that is the question she had and I have the answer. Maybe, someday, my answer will reach her 🤷.

It is hard to believe that there is hell. We are told that God loves you and He wants you to be in enternal life with Him. When we are told that there is punishment if we deny Him then we don't want anything to do with Him.
Alright, this is how it goes, a child has committed a crime, they are sentenced to prison. There will be some parents who believe their child is innocent, some who can't believe their child did this crime, and some who don't care.

Let's say you know your child did this crime, but you love your child so dearly that you can't let them bear the punishment.

Now, this child has the opportunity to get out of prison. If this child denies letting their parent be the "sacrifice" then maybe child goes to prison and parent goes home. But instead, we are going to say the parent gets locked up, so now both are locked up. The child has another opportunity to get out though.

This child denies the opportunity to get out of prison because they believe they deserve the punishment. The thing is his or her parent is still in prison, so this child just sounds ungrateful, to me 🤷. Someone else took that punishment and you denied your freedom. Can't blame God for staying locked up. Some might say that they don't want someone else taking their punishment but it is too late as the punishment has already been given. You can't say that you had no part in it either as we all think we would never let someone take our punishment, but I believe that is a lie we tell ourselves.

Alright, so now this child said yes to freedom. What does this child do with his or her freedom? They keep on commiting crimes. What was the point of the parent taking on the punishment, if this child is just going to go back to prison? In the same way, this is sin. Some of us say yes, but we keep on sinning. We believe that we will be fine and God will always forgive us. We believe that the person who took the punishment will always be the "sacrifice." In the end, we are doomed if we use our freedom for more crimes. Sometimes we will sin as we are not perfect, but if we believe that we can keep on sinning and don't ask God to transform us then our freedom is being used the wrong way.

This thought could be applied to just a family member who loves us enough to take the punishment also. Honestly, there will probably be no human that is selfless enough to take on someone else's crime. I feel like that is where people have trouble with believing in the Gospel. "How can a God so loving actually love a sinful person like me and sacrifice Himself for the crimes I have committed?" Honestly, I am still having trouble with understanding this, but I would rather accept the gift instead of denying it.

Will you receive the gift, open it up, and actually accept the gift He so graciously gives you? Or, are you going to deny this gift? They say it was a free gift, but it is a lie as someone had to pay for it.