The wages of sin is death, not eternal life in torment. The dead know nothing, and all mental and physical processes cease at death. The wicked and the righteous alike return to dust, so no one goes to heaven or hell at death. At the resurrection, Jesus says, both the righteous and the wicked will be raised to receive their reward or punishment. The wicked are then cast into hell, from the Greek Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem where refuse was continually burned. Jesus used it as a type of the place of final punishment. His "unquenchable" fire does not burn forever. Just as God's unquenchable fire in Jerusalem's gates (Jeremiah 17:27) did not leave the city burning, this fire burns until everything flammable is consumed and then goes out. The wicked, having died once, are thrown into the Lake of Fire and die the second death. Body, mind, and spirit are utterly destroyed, and they cease to exist. Only ashes remain, and the righteous will walk on them. Afterward only the righteous are left alive, and they live forever.

In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, Jesus portrays the fate of the wicked as a resurrection to condemnation, where they face the second death in the Lake of Fire, a final and permanent destruction. The rich man, representing the wicked, is resurrected after a vast span of time, yet to him, it feels as though only a moment has passed since his death, as the dead remain totally unconscious with no knowledge of time. Upon awakening, he sees the flame of Gehenna fire, the Lake of Fire, which is about to consume him, filling him with terror and torment, both physical and mental, as he realizes his impending doom. He begs for relief, but his fate is sealed, and he must reap the death he sowed. A great gulf separates him from the righteous, who possess immortality and cannot be touched by the fire, while the wicked, still physical, are subject to destruction by the flames that will devour their bodies after a time of anguish. In his final moments, the rich man expresses concern for his brothers, hoping they might be warned, but he is told that if they do not heed the Scriptures, even a resurrection would not persuade them. The fate of the wicked culminates in being burned up completely, reduced to ashes and smoke, with the fire being unquenchable until it has consumed everything.

The incorrigibly wicked are raised in a third resurrection at the end of God's plan for humanity on earth, a resurrection to judgment and the second death. They come up from the sea, from death without burial, and from graves in the ground. God Himself sentences them, and whoever is not found written in the Book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire, the final Gehenna, when God burns up the earth. Because the dead know nothing, they feel no passage of time, but when raised they realize they have lost salvation. A great gulf is fixed, and no one can change his fate. Many will seek entrance to the Kingdom and weep and grind their teeth, but Jesus will not answer their knock. By then all humanity has had the opportunity for salvation, and those who willfully sin after coming to the knowledge of the truth, trampling the sacrifice of Christ, have rejected eternal life. God does not want anyone to perish and desires all to repent, but to those who refuse His mercy He is a God of justice and righteous judgment. They will awake to shame and everlasting contempt, and as punishment and an eternal example they will be annihilated in the second death, which is final. Afterward God creates a new heaven and earth where only righteousness dwells and the righteous live eternally.

The fate of the wicked emerges as a significant theme within the wisdom psalms, particularly through the contrast drawn in Psalm 112, which pairs the blessings of the righteous with the ultimate curse awaiting those who reject God. This psalm, read alongside Psalm 111, functions as part of a matched set: Psalm 111 describes God's mighty works, while Psalm 112 shows the practical, thankful response of the man who fears the Lord. After cataloging the abundant blessings given to the person who delights in God's commandments—descendants who are mighty, enduring wealth, righteousness that continues forever, graciousness, compassion, and strength—the psalmist turns in verse 10 to apply the necessary contrast common to wisdom psalms, which typically weigh right-doing against wrongdoing and blessing against curse. Psalm 112:10 states that "the wicked will see it and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked will perish." Three distinct stages of judgment appear here. First, the wicked witness the exaltation of the righteous and respond with grief and sorrow. Second, this sorrow intensifies into gnashing of teeth, an expression later echoed repeatedly by Jesus Christ in passages such as the Parable of the Talents and the Sheep and the Goats, where weeping and gnashing of teeth mark the fate of those cast into judgment. Third, and most significantly, the wicked "melt away," an image tied to intense heat, suggesting fire as the agent of destruction. This melting is understood as an early scriptural allusion to the Lake of Fire, the ultimate and final punishment for persistent rebellion against God. A subtle grammatical shift in the Hebrew text reinforces the scope of this judgment: the wicked person is referenced in the singular through the first two lines, but the final line shifts to the plural, "the desire of the wicked shall perish." This shift indicates that the fate described is not limited to a single individual but extends to all who persist in wickedness. Every desire to rebel against God, to do evil, ultimately perishes—not merely the wicked person's earthly life, but the very capacity and inclination toward sin. The result is a complete erasure of rebellion, leaving no residue of wickedness, no lingering thought of it, in the ultimate outcome God intends. This portrait finds direct confirmation in II Peter 3:10-14, where the apostle describes the heavens passing away with a great noise, the elements melting with fervent heat, and the earth and all its works being burned up. Peter's language of melting and fervent heat mirrors the imagery in Psalm 112, reinforcing the connection between the wicked's fate and final destruction by fire. Peter further explains that believers look forward to new heavens and a new earth "in which righteousness dwells," implying by necessary consequence that no unrighteousness will remain there at all. This teaching fits within the broader caution attached to the wisdom psalms: while such psalms promise that wickedness ultimately ends in disaster and virtue brings reward, these outcomes are not always visible or guaranteed within one's earthly lifetime. The final resolution, including the utter destruction of the wicked and their desires, is reserved for God's ultimate purpose, culminating not necessarily in temporal consequence but in the eternal separation of only righteousness remaining upon the earth.