A Christian lady was hanging out with her friend who couldn't see how a loving God could send people to hell.

So the Christian asked: Do you believe that God is loving?

Yes.

And you believe that a loving God is good, right?

Of course.

And if He's good, then He's also just?

Yes!

Then if God is perfectly just, He will punish sinners. This naturally led into the gospel and her friend confessed that she had never looked at it this way before.

This is a great lesson in evangelism: it's much harder to jump from God being loving (which most will agree with) to God sending people to hell (which most don't agree with). But if you gently progress from His love, to His goodness, to His justice, then it makes sense, that God is not unloving to send people to hell, but rather good to do so.

Yet this same just God who created hell is a merciful God who damned His Son in our place that we may be saved. God is always more merciful than we comprehend Him to be and more just than we want Him to be. In allowing His only Son to be crucified, He was both just and merciful. The death of His Son was the great announcement of His justice (Rom 3:25). "Look," He said. "See my Son? See Him writhing on the cross? See Him dripping blood, screaming as they drive railroad spikes into His hands? That's my wrath against your sin. I am just, and therefore I must punish all sin."

But is God not merciful also? Yes! "Look!" God says. "See My Son bleeding and dying, crying and heaving? I do this to Him (Is 53:10) so I don't have to do it to you." And all you have to do is repent and believe.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).