The Love of God is the Fire of Hell

“The love of God is the fire of hell.” ~ St. Isaac the Syrian

What St. Isaac speaks is nothing more than the truth that God is love. Love is not merely what God has or does but what God is. So God always acts toward everyone according to love. Always. Because God is love.

Even in hell, then, God is love. God is not retributive because love is not retributive but always seeks what is best for the loved one.

But it is like the old proverb that the same sun melts wax but hardens clay. The difference is not found in the sun but in the materials upon which it shines. Likewise, the difference between heaven and hell is not a difference in God’s disposition but is found in the heart of the individual. God does not act any differently towards those who experience hell than towards those who experience heaven. The difference is found in each individual and his or her orientation toward God.

God’s orientation toward everyone is always the orientation of love. Those who turn toward God experience the love of God as it truly is, that is, as love. But those who turn away from God and resist God are turning away from love and resisting love, so the love of God seems to them a torment. It is not that God intends to torment them, but the disposition of their heart perceives the way of God as torment.

So, the love of God that is the light of heaven is also the fire of hell. What is needed in those who experience it as torment, or hell, is repentance, a change of attitude toward God, which God has made possible through Jesus Christ.

The Final Word on Hell

When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28)

Whatever happens in the meantime, in the end, God will be all in all. This is Christian universalism in a nutshell. This does not deny that there is some sort of hell or torment. It only means that in the end — whatever hell there may be in the meantime, whatever its intensity or duration — God will finally be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

God being “all in all” cannot be anything less than universal without it meaning that Christ’s atonement was less than successful and God’s victory less than complete. It would leave the condemnation that resulted from Adam’s transgression finally greater and actually more encompassing than redemption and reconciliation through Christ’s act of obedience. And the apostle Paul would have been mistaken, in Romans 5:15-21, in supposing that the result of Christ’s obedience, and the grace of God, was so much more extensive than was the result Adam’s transgression.

In Romans 5:20, Paul says, “but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more.” He did not say, “grace multiplied almost as much” or that it was almost as effective. But if God is not finally “all in all,” in its plainly universal sense, then the redemptive act of Christ and the grace of God will have been not quite as effective as was Adam’s transgression. Almost as much, perhaps, but not fully and completely, and certainly not “all the more.”

The devil has taken an awful toll on earth, my friend tells me; and, yes, that is true. Who has not experienced that in one way or another; and perhaps many people may experience it even beyond this present life. But all of that is only in the meantime. However, if in the end, God is not all in all, then the devil will have ultimately taken an awful toll on the victory of God.

To whatever extent that toll finally endures (if any), by just that much will God’s plan of reconciliation through Christ have failed. The result of Adam’s transgression will have proven to be more effective and pervasive than Christ’s faithful act of obedience. The lie of the deceiver will have been more persuasive than the love of God. And Paul would only be able to say, “Where sin increased, grace multiplied a little.” Or perhaps, “grace multiplied almost as much.” But not, “grace multiplied all the more.”

Imagine all you want, then, about what happens in the meantime — about hell and judgment and suffering, and people shaking their fists at God — but that is not the final word on anyone or anything. The final word belongs to God. It is a word of love, because God is love. The final word is that God, who is love, will be all in all.