If God loves me why would He send me to hell?

A question I've seen and heard many times. Often used to justify a sin.

People mistakenly seem to think that because Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to clean our sins, we are forever saved regardless of what we do. His sacrifice wasn't meant to take away our sins so we could keep living a sinful life, walk away from His righteous ways and still somehow get to heaven. He sacrificed Himself for us to ensure that even if we sin, we can have the hope of being redeemed, of being forgiven and saved, if we accept our mistakes and ask forgiveness.

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." ~1 Peter 2:24

Nowadays, people want to be saved, but they don't want to repent. Repentance is: "To change one's mind. A change of heart, that involves turning away from sin" (Ezekiel 14:6)

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." ~ 1 John 1:9

God wants us to repent, to change. (Acts 3:19).
We confess because we admit and acknowledge we are sinning, and we repent because we know we have to change our ways. And when we change our hearts and mind about sin, a change in behavior will naturally result.

But the desire to repent is a result of the goodness of God.  (Romans 2:4), so without Him, we can't achieve anything (John 15:5). Don't try to change by your own strength, because you will fail and you'll be discouraged and disappointed. Pray and ask God for help and He will change your heart.

I don't need to change, He accepts me as I am.

True.

You come to Jesus just as you are. Unclean, broken, scarred etc. He will accept you, because He loves you. But once you meet Him, you won't be the same anymore. He will renew your heart. You will be born again.

People seem to forget that if they truly accept Jesus, they will let Him work on their lives; they will have a desire of 'walking away from sin' and pursuing a godly life. If you accept Christ, but still want to leave your life unchanged, you're not actually accepting Him into your life and heart. You're just accepting the idea of believing in Him.

Believing in Jesus is not just 'knowing' He exists. Even devils believe (James 2:19) and they won't get to heaven.  Believing in Jesus implies something much more than that.

Believing means: to have faith, confidence, and trust. We must believe that He IS (Hebrews 11:6), He is the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8) The great I AM (Exodus 3:14). He is all powerful and He can clean what's unclean, He can fix what's broken, and He can heal any wound.

When you get to know Jesus, you know the wonderful things He can do in your life. And you know He can change your life for the better and you'll want that change.

God wants us to go to Him (Matthew 11:28), because He wants to give us a new spirit and heart.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." ~ Ezekiel 36:26

It's not in my control

Our sinful nature hates everything that has to do with God and His perfect ways. We are in a constant fight. While we're trying to get closer to Him, our nature is trying to go the other way.

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." ~ Galatians 5:17

We have to be able to control that sinful nature. How? Starving it.
If we don't feed our nature with sinful actions, it won't have the strength to control us.

It's not our fault that we are born with a sinful nature, but we are responsible for the actions we take with it. We have to make a decision: to sin, or not to sin. We have to choose if we want to be saved or not.

So the excuse of: "It's not my fault, why would He send me to hell for something I can't control?" is invalid!  (and erroneous)

You are not in control of how, when, where, etc. you're born, but only you have the control of choosing what you want to do with your life. You can take the wheel or let sin drive for you.

"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" ~ Galatians 5:16

We can choose to walk in the Spirit. We can choose to let God change us, giving us a new spirit and a new heart. We can choose to accept His sacrifice and be dead to sin. (Romans 6:5-11). You have the control to make that choice.

God doesn't take away our salvation; we give it up, with our actions.
People that get arrested often get angry and take grudges with the cops that imprisoned them. It's not the cop's fault. They're behind bars because they broke the law. They chose to give up their freedom. Likewise, it's not God's fault, it's ours. He did everything that was on His power so we could be saved (He did what we could not do); now it's our turn to accept that salvation.

The right question should be: why would I choose the lake of fire instead of a loving God?

What do you love more, your sins or God? God loves us and because of that, He will respect our decision. He won't force the gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:8) on us.