Since unrepentance remains—sins remain—and so the fire remains.
First of all, hell is a choice:
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority’” (John 7:16-17).
Do you see it? “If anyone wills to do His will.” If who wills? Anyone.
What is the will of God?
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
God’s will is that all should come to repentance. Who? All.
Simply put, it begins with your will. If anyone actually wants to be saved, then they will be led by the conviction of the Holy Spirit to repentance and salvation through confession, profession, and possession.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
“In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).
If a person is not willing to believe, genuinely repent, and accept God’s free gift, then they will spend eternity in hell.
“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
The sins are listed out for those who refuse to repent, because their sins remain unforgiven.
If you refuse to repent, confess, believe, and receive forgiveness, then you are rendered guilty of all the sins you have ever committed; and the penalty of sin is death. However, if you are willing to believe, then you will not refuse the conviction; but instead, you will yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and confess your sin:
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).
Don’t let anyone deceive you into believing that works are necessary for your salvation.
Don’t let wolves in fancy robes steal part of your works as being for you to submit to their authority. It should not be a mystery to anyone that some people want power and control over others.
The only logical conclusion that some people willingly submit to this power and control over themselves is that they’re deceived into believing it is assisting in their own salvation.
Unlike wicked wolves in sheep’s clothing—God wants to set you free:
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
The faith of those who choose to sincerely repent and believe is credited to them as righteousness. Not faith in a fancy church or a burdensome religious system—but faith in God alone:
“And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
The perfect life, perfect sacrifice, and perfect blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing powerful enough to cleanse sin:
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
So why do the flames of hell have to burn forever?
Easy answer:
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).
The fireproof dross of our congenital sin can only be removed through the perfect blood of Jesus Christ.
Hell has to burn eternal because there is no other way to purify our wickedness except by the blood of the Lamb—fire cannot even burn through. Hell demonstrates not only the depth of our wickedness but the height of the atonement of Jesus.
Think on the following verses:
“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one;’…
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:10, 20-26).
Even our “righteousness” is filthy apart from the Spirit of God, let alone our deep-rooted evil traits: Pride, selfishness, perversion, hatred, anger, impatience, greed, jealousy, spiritual laziness, etc.
Through the blood of Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit who can produce within us a drastic change—our disingenuous unrighteous traits will be replaced with His genuine righteous traits: Love, humility, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, patience, benevolence, empathy, etc.
If a person chooses to deny and not accept the only cure for their disease of sin, then they will be eternally separated from their only hope of the cure which the flames of hell can never heal.
Even in the Tribulation, sin cannot be purged without the presence and action of God:
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:9).
Hell is a place where God is NOT present. How then can something be purified that even the flames of hell cannot burn away? The answer again is that sin cannot be purified without the express action of God.
God and His saving grace are not present in hell, so the lake of fire will burn forever.
Do not choose to go there.
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b).