Hell on Earth?

There are times when we talk about things in this life as hell. “This is hell”, we may say; this week has been hell, living with this person is hell; or we say “that suffering that someone went through was hell on earth”. Now, that’s not necessarily wrong to speak in that way, to compare experiences to hell. And yet, on the other hand, whenever we do that, if we are going to do that (for many of us, it will be against our conscience to speak in that way) but for those of us who have spoken in that way, we must be aware that we are only speaking metaphorically when we speak of hell on earth, because nothing can compare, even the worst suffering in this life can compare to true eternal punishment. And yet, this is talking about the end, and the end has not yet come. Therefore, we have an opportunity to avoid eternal punishment, and the only way that eternal punishment can be avoided is if someone else suffers eternal punishment instead of us. That person is the Lord Jesus Christ, who really did suffer hell when he died on the cross.