The perishing of the wicked is no light matter. Hell is what happens when we tell God that we don’t want our life to be shaped in His image. It is the final destruction of the slowly decaying image of God in man.
When Jesus cried out in Luke 13:34,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!…
…He made it clear that hell is self-chosen. For the damned, the door is first locked from the inside. Only later is it then locked from the outside.
The terrifying reality is that those who perish will have colluded with their own destruction.
They will have colluded with their own shrinking and decay until finally and fully, the image of God in them has been eternally erased.