Q:
I know it won't be long before I have to stand before God and be judged for something terrible I did over 50 years ago. The closer I get to the end of my life, the more frightened I become. What is hell like?
A:
I’m not going to answer your question directly — not because hell isn’t real (because it certainly is), but because you don’t need to go there! Let me explain.
The reason you can be released from your fears is because God has already provided the way for you to be forgiven of your sins and go to heaven when you die. That way is Jesus Christ, who came into the world for one reason: to open heaven’s door for us. Sin cuts us off from God and erases any hope we might have of ever sharing in heaven’s joys. And that means we’ll never get to heaven on our own, no matter how good we’ve been, because we’re not perfect.
But Jesus Christ did for us what we could never do for ourselves: He made it possible for us to be forgiven and cleansed of our sins. He did this by becoming the final sacrifice for sin through His death on the cross. He was without sin, but every sin we ever committed was placed on Him, and He took upon Himself the judgment we deserve. As the Bible says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Don’t carry your burden of guilt any longer. Instead, by faith ask Christ to forgive you and come into your life — and He will. The Bible’s promise is true: Christ came to “free those… held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15).