Claim #4: The degree of sin in this life equals the degree of punishment in the next life.
The worse your sins in life, the worse your punishments for eternity. (Again, that’s Dante, this time inspired by Aristotle and Cicero.)
Christians always seem a bit confused about whether there are levels of punishment in hell. The bottom line is that all people are equally sinful, but not all sins appear to be equal.
The mistake we humans make, since we judge by subjective human standards (ourselves), is in thinking that some sins are excusable while others are not. No sin is excusable before a holy God. And to make this point clear, the Bible reminds us often that God’s standard lumps every human being into the same category as sinners.
Scripture is universally clear that we are all equally sinful in terms of where we deserve to spend our eternity. At the same time, there are levels of punishment:
For those who are sinners by nature, which we all are by default, God’s judgment is on the basis of how bad you did (not if you did bad; in other words, the assumption is that you did bad). All are sinners and all deserve to be judged in hell because of it. If, however, your nature has been fundamentally set right before God, justified by Christ’s death and resurrection to take away your punishment and regenerate you, his judgment of you is on the basis of how good you did (a judgment of rewards).
“Works” only matter within the context of your relationship with God; if your relation to God as judge is one of a criminal (i.e. a sinner), he’ll punish you based on your sin. If your relation to God is one of forgiveness and adoption through Christ’s perfect sacrifice, he’ll reward you based on your good deeds. But it’s only Christ who can change your nature, not the works.
Bottom line: levels of punishment or not, there are still no good seats in hell.
Chris Garcia 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer 
Mike Shreve 
