BAYO OLUWAYEMI CLAIMS NOBODY WILL GO TO HELL FOR SINNING (PART II)

“The False Distinction Between Sin and the Rejection of Christ”

By Akin Ojumu

In Part I of this commentary, we examined the extraordinary declaration made by Bayo Oluwayemi during his July 2, 2026, interactive service.

“Nobody will go to hell for sinning. Nobody will go to hell for sin. I repeat. Quote it and put my name there.”

According to Oluwayemi, Christ’s death has removed sin as a barrier between God and humanity. He insisted that people do not go to hell because of their sins but because they reject Jesus Christ.

His explanation was unequivocal:

“Why will people now go to hell? Because they deny Jesus. The reason why people will go to hell is because they deny Jesus.”

But does Scripture actually establish such a distinction?

Does the Bible teach that people are condemned solely for rejecting Christ and not because of their sins?

The answer is no.

A FALSE DICHOTOMY

Oluwayemi presents sin and the rejection of Christ as though they were mutually exclusive grounds of condemnation.

Either people go to hell because of their sins, or they go to hell because they reject Jesus.

But Scripture does not establish such an opposition. The biblical teaching is considerably more precise.

Humanity stands condemned because of sin. Jesus Christ is the only Savior who can deliver sinners from that condemnation. Those who reject Him remain under God’s righteous judgment because they have rejected the only means of salvation.

That distinction is indispensable.

People are not morally innocent individuals who suddenly become guilty before God only when they consciously reject Jesus Christ.

They are already sinners. They are already guilty of violating God’s holy law. And they already stand in need of redemption.

Paul establishes this in Ephesians 2:1–3, describing unredeemed humanity as dead in trespasses and sins and, by nature, children of wrath.

Ephesians 2:1-3

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The problem of humanity and sin predates any conscious rejection of the Gospel. Indeed, the very reason humanity needs the Gospel is that humanity already stands condemned under sin.

GOD WILL JUDGE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS

If Oluwayemi’s assertion were biblically correct, we would expect Scripture to teach that sinful conduct has no bearing upon final judgment.

Yet the Bible repeatedly teaches the opposite.

Describing the final judgment, John writes:

Revelation 20:12–13

“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”

According to what?

THEIR DEEDS.

Paul teaches the same truth.

Romans 2:5–6

“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.”

And after identifying sexual immorality, impurity, evil desire, and greed, Paul declares in:

Colossians 3:5–6

“For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.”

Pay particular attention to Paul’s reasoning.

The wrath of God comes because of these things. Because of sinful conduct. Because of rebellion against His righteous standards. Because of unrighteousness.

The Scriptures could hardly be clearer.

Sin is not irrelevant to divine judgment. It is the very reason divine judgment is necessary.

WHAT DOES JOHN 3:18 ACTUALLY TEACH?

One might object that Jesus Himself identifies unbelief as the reason for condemnation.

That is true.

But we must interpret His words within their proper biblical context.

John 3:18

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Notice the expression:

“Has been judged already.”

The unbeliever does not become a sinner for the first time upon rejecting Christ.

He is already a sinner. He is already guilty. And in refusing to believe in Christ, he remains under condemnation.

This distinction is reinforced in:

John 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

The crucial word is “abides.”

The wrath of God remains upon the unbeliever. It is not described as a completely new condition brought into existence solely by the individual’s conscious rejection of Jesus.

Unbelief leaves the guilty sinner without the only Savior who can rescue him from God’s righteous judgment.

And Jesus explains the relationship between unbelief and sin even more clearly in: 

John 3:19–20

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

Why do people reject the Light? Because they love darkness.

Why do they love darkness? Because their deeds are evil.

In other words, unbelief is not detached from humanity’s sinful condition. It is an expression of that condition.

WHY DID CHRIST COME INTO THE WORLD?

The very purpose of Christ’s incarnation and atoning death exposes another fundamental error in Oluwayemi’s proposition.

When the angel announced the coming birth of Jesus to Joseph, he declared:

Matthew 1:21

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Why would Christ save His people from their sins if their sins were not the problem that made salvation necessary?

Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 15:3

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

Peter declares:

1 Peter 3:18

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.”

And Hebrews 9:26 states that Christ appeared to put away sin through the sacrifice of Himself.

Consider the consistent testimony of these passages.

Christ came to save sinners. 

Christ died for sins. 

Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins. 

Christ bore the penalty of sin. 

Christ reconciles sinners to God.

The very nature of Christ’s substitutionary atonement establishes that human sin is the problem for which redemption is necessary.

If sin did not incur divine condemnation, why was an atoning sacrifice necessary?

And if Christ’s death automatically reconciled every human being to God, irrespective of faith, why does Scripture distinguish between those who are redeemed and those who remain under divine wrath?

Christ’s atoning sacrifice is perfect, efficacious, and sufficient. But Scripture does not teach that every human being has therefore been automatically justified.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL?

There is another question Oluwayemi’s formulation cannot easily answer.

If people go to hell only because they consciously reject Jesus Christ, what happens to those who have never heard His name?

What about those who lived and died without ever hearing the Gospel?

Are they morally innocent simply because they never had an opportunity consciously to reject Christ?

Paul addresses humanity’s accountability in Romans 1 and 2.

Romans 1:18

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Notice the basis of divine wrath.

Ungodliness. Unrighteousness. The suppression of truth.

Paul does not present exposure to the Gospel as a prerequisite for moral accountability.

Indeed, he writes:

Romans 2:12

“For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.”

People are accountable to God for their sins even when they have not received the special revelation of the Gospel.

This does not mean salvation is possible apart from Christ. Acts 4:12 explicitly identifies Jesus Christ as the only Savior.

Acts 4:12

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Rather, it demonstrates that the guilt of sin is not dependent upon whether someone has heard and consciously rejected the Gospel.

WHAT ABOUT JOHN 16:9?

This is the passage Oluwayemi invoked to defend his assertion.

John 16:8–9

“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”

Yes, Jesus identifies unbelief as sin. But He does not teach that unbelief is the only sin that incurs condemnation. Neither does He declare that every other human transgression has ceased to matter before God.

The passage highlights the world’s unbelief in Christ. It does not overturn the rest of Scripture’s teaching concerning human depravity, divine wrath, and judgment according to deeds.

In fact, the verse undermines Oluwayemi’s attempted distinction.

If rejecting Christ is itself sin, how can one coherently insist that people go to hell for rejecting Christ but not for sin?

Rejecting Christ is sin. It is not some entirely separate category of wrongdoing existing outside the biblical definition of sin.

And Hebrews 10:26–29 warns of the especially severe judgment awaiting those who knowingly repudiate Christ after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

Unbelief is indeed a grievous sin. But Scripture nowhere teaches that it is the only sin for which unredeemed humanity stands condemned.

The distinction is not between sin and rejecting Christ as competing explanations for condemnation.

Rather, it is between the guilt that makes salvation necessary and the rejection of the only Savior who can remove that guilt.

Humanity is condemned because of sin. Christ came to save sinners. Those who believe in Him are justified. Those who remain in unbelief remain under condemnation.

Sin is the reason humanity needs salvation. Christ is the only Savior. Unbelief leaves the sinner under the condemnation that sin has already incurred.

In Part III, we will examine another troubling dimension of Oluwayemi’s teaching: his insistence that God has absolutely nothing to do with the painful consequences of sin.