Consider that man’s condemnation is grounded in original sin, and for the sin of Adam, we are already condemned under the wrath of God (Romans 5:12). To make our estate worse, we transgress God’s law, and further store up wrath for ourselves for the day of wrath when the sinner will face the terrible justice of a holy and righteous God (Romans 2:5). Original sin and a single transgression of God’s law award us an eternity of the oppressive, suffocating, and unbearable bottomless cup of God’s wrath. Yet, how much more oppressive, more suffocating, and more unbearable are the torments of God’s wrath for the sinner who transgresses God’s law not one time, but multiple times each and every day, for the duration of one’s life. Consider a sinner who dies at age 20, who sinned on average ten times per day for the duration of their life – that is 73,000 crimes committed against God, each one bearing the minimum penalty of hellfire, but increasing wrath for each crime in proportion to the heinousness of each crime committed.
In the sixth chapter of Unless You Repent titled, “The Punishment and Misery of Wicked Men”, Jonathan Edwards describes the calamity for the sinner who lives to an old age. Better for him to have died at the age of 20, than the age of 60, for that is an additional 40 years’ worth of sins (or an additional 146,000 crimes per our example above) that one will bear the penalty for (and in varying degrees of intensity per crime). It would be more soothing to experience an eternity of having your teeth pulled one by one without anesthesia than to bear the minimum eternal penalty of a single crime against God. How much more dreadful will it be to pay for a lifetime’s worth of sins. If you shall die in your sins, ’tis better to die at an early age than to continue to store up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath.
Oh that you would heed the warnings of that Great Awakening preacher and come to your senses:
Sinners are little sensible that hellfire grows hotter every day they live in sin; by their sins, they increase the heat of that furnace more than the heat of Nebuchadnezzar’s was increased for the three children. If they go on in sin therefore till they die, it is no advantage to ’em to live long; the sooner they die the better for them. If they should live twenty years longer and then die in sin it would be a great Calamity to them that they lived so long. Many who go on in sin and have no serious thought of reforming are yet desirous of living a great while in the world; they don’t love the thoughts of dying quickly, but they act inconsistent with themselves. If they go on in sin they had better die early than late; if you should die this year in sin you will wish that you had died last year, for it will be inconceivably dreadful to you to bear the punishment of a year’s sinning. None can imagine how great an addition of misery there will be to you for a year’s sins; for the sins of one day are more than you can bear the punishment of. Oh, how you will wish, therefore, that you had died not one year, but many years before you did.
Hence we learn how dreadful a thing it is to die an old sinner, to have forty or fifty or sixty years’ sins to answer for. How dreadful will their hell be, how great will be the weight of wrath upon their souls, when every sinful thought, every sinful word and every sinful act that they have committed in all that time, will be required of them, and they must pay the uttermost farthing. It shall be required of them that they stood out against the calls of the gospel, the calls of Jesus Christ, and the offers of mercy for so long a time (p. 79-80).
If you’ve read this warning but continue to reject God’s mercy, hell will be that much hotter for you. Repent, oh sinner, repent!
airō 
072591
May 21, 2013
Interesting perspective, but the problem is that the unsaved are already going to be suffering eternal damnation; how can that possibly be made worse?
I also see no Biblical support for the idea that the eternal punishment awaiting them has any variation of degrees; realistically, I do not know how it could be conceivable.
Justin Edwards
May 21, 2013
Hi 07, a couple of questions for you: 1) do you believe men will be held accountable for *every* thought, word, and deed? 2) Is murder more heinous than telling a lie?
072591
May 22, 2013
Stop making me think, Justin!
I do believe that people will be held accountable for their every thought, word, and deed – how that plays out I’m not sure. It is entirely plausible that there will be different levels of torment, but I’m just not sure how that can work; it’s basically adding to infinity.
Is murder more heinous than lying? I would say the difference would be the consequences, and in many cases, lying is worse because that sin takes on a life of its own. For example, a direct path can be drawn from the Russian anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” and the Holocaust.
julie
May 23, 2013
No you cannot add to infinity. But suffering can be made worse. For those who die without believing in Jesus Christ it is a terribly fearful thing. Perhaps those who cheat others in this life spend their eternity looking but never finding. Those who lust spend eternity with a horrible physical desire that can never be satisfied. Etc.
Justin Edwards
July 26, 2013
Here is a helpful addition to the post from John MacArthur in his sermon, “Man’s Last Day in God’s Court Part 2”:
“The record, by the way, for each person will be unique and so will the punishment. That’s an important thing to think about. Hell is not like some great big hole where everybody gets thrown into the same place with the same level of torment. No. Every person’s life will be evaluated uniquely and every person’s punishment will be consistent with that unique evaluation.
“For example, and I need to explain this cause it’s very important to understand there are degrees of punishment consistent with degrees of sinfulness. In Matthew 10 verses 14 and 15, it says the words of Jesus, “Whoever does not receive you nor heed your word,” He’s talking to those He sends out to preach, the Twelve, “whoever doesn’t receive you nor heed your word as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.” In other words, when the people who died, when God buried Sodom and Gomorrah under fire and brimstone, when those people are raised to stand before the great white throne judgment, and the people of some town or some village that rejected the preaching of the Apostles are raised and they stand there side by side, the punishment that comes to Sodom and Gomorrah will be more tolerable than the punishment that comes to those who rejected the gospel, or the preaching of the Apostles.
“So there is a more and a less tolerable punishment, fitting the level of sin. However, I might hastily add it’s only the degree to which you gnash your teeth, the degree to which you feel the pain and remorse in the pangs of conscience and the fire of judgment.
“In the eleventh chapter of Matthew, again verse 22, “Nevertheless I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.” He’s talking to the town of Chorazin, the town of Bethsaida. “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades for if the miracles that occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” You see, there are degrees of toleration in punishment.
“In Mark’s gospel, as you come over to chapter 12, you find another indication of this in verse 38. In His teaching Jesus was saying, “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like respectful greetings in the market places and chief seats in the synagogues…that’s their spiritual hypocrisy…they want places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for appearance sake offer long prayers…this line comes next…they will receive greater condemnation.” There is a greater and a lesser condemnation.
“In Luke chapter 12 you find the same truth again reiterated in another fashion through means of a story that Jesus tells, a story about a master and his servants. And it says in chapter 12 verse 47, “That slave who knew his master’s will and didn’t get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes. The one who didn’t know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but a few.” Hell will have few lashes for some and many for others.
“Hebrews chapter 10 adds another passage to these. It says, “Of how much greater punishment shall the one be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing?”
“In other words, if you hear the gospel and reject it, you have a greater judgment than one who didn’t hear it. There will be greater and lesser degrees of punishment in hell. And so the record is kept of every person’s life so that the judgment and the punishment can fit the iniquity.
“If a person is to remain unconverted, listen to what I say, the sooner he dies the better. The less he hears, the better because the longer he lives and the longer the list and the books becomes and the more he hears and rejects, the great the punishment.
“Why? Romans 2:5, “By your stubborn and unrepentant heart you are piling up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath.” You’re just accumulating it. And so I say if the sinner is to remain unconverted, the sooner he dies the better, the less he hears the better. Every day the sinner lives, every evil thought he has, every unholy pleasure he enjoys, every ungrateful breath he breathes, every selfish act, every gospel word rejected, every divine truth spurned adds to his eternal punishment.
“I could sum it up by putting it this way. When God allows the sinner to prosper, he is not making things better for him, he’s making things worse. Even time spent trying to earn salvation while rejecting grace only adds to the ultimate punishment. Therefore the unsaved religious in Christianity will suffer the hottest hell. The unsaved religious in Christianity will suffer the hottest hell because they have trampled on Christ and by means of self-righteousness attempted to attain salvation. They know the most therefore they suffer the greatest. All sinners in hell will be completely miserable but not equally miserable. The punishment fits the crime. And each crime brings the eternal judgment according to the nature of that crime. That’s why the books were opened. The judgment fits the record and God is absolutely and exactly and precisely just.”