Many theologians have entertained the proposition that it is more difficult to get into Hell than into Heaven, although few are willing to assert it dogmatically. It follows, however, from the notion that there is nothing we can do to get ourselves into Heaven.
In Martin Luther's commentary on the third chapter of Genesis, he alludes vaguely to this hypothesis. The translator, George Victor Schick, and the editor, Jaroslav Pelikan, of the American Edition of Luther's works, clarify in the footnote that Luther was referring to a German proverb: "It requires more perspiration and toil to get into hell than into heaven" (pg. 215 of that edition). The footnote also refers the reader to volume 13 of the same edition.
In that volume, in Luther's commentary on Psalm 90, Luther addresses the same idea and the same proverb. Speaking of the human lifespan, the Psalmist says that "the best of our days are toil and trouble.” Addressing various understandings of that phrase, Luther speaks of idolatry as a way of spending one's days in "toil and trouble," and reflects on the underlying Hebrew vocabulary words. He writes:
Elsewhere Scripture employs these words for fictitious worship or idolatry. It does it for the reason that every superstition truly tortures man. And so we speak in German of "martyrs of the devil." They are the people who load upon themselves unnecessary troubles.
A life spent in superstition and in the worship of idols is a life spent putting forth great effort. False religions demand more work from their followers than God does.
We also have a German proverbial saying which says that it requires more perspiration and toil to get into hell than into heaven. False religion or idolatry cannot secure for the heart genuine joy and peace in the Lord. It necessarily disquiets and disturbs the heart. Therefore these two Hebrew words admirably apply to idolatry.
Contrasting the fevered panic in which idol-worshipers must constantly devote effort to earning favor from the objects of their worship, the New Testament letter to the Hebrews speaks of "entering into a rest," a type of expanded and deepened Sabbath rest: peace. This inner peace is given by God and founded upon His grace, the very opposite of the anxiety in which the idol-worshipers live.
Hence all of life is toil and trouble, unless, and in the degree to which, they are mitigated in the regenerate, who believe and hope in God's mercy. They are the "new people" (Eph. 4:24) who cannot become old.
Thus we see how much work - constant effort and concern - it takes to follow an idol into Hell. By contrast, the life of Christ's followers is characterized by peace and joy. To be sure, Jesus tells us that we will face suffering in this life, and that we are "laborers" in God's Kingdom. Yet even our suffering and work are permeated by, and founded upon, such peace and joy.
