To love and to fear God is to hate sin as God does, starting
with our own sins. The Psalmist explained what fearing God (making Him first in
everything) is all about:
·
Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you
the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days,
that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking
deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm
34:11-14)
We must hate evil as much as God does. He demonstrates His
hatred of evil by revealing that His righteous nature requires an adequate
atonement (payment or punishment) for sin:
·
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because
in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was
to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just
and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-26)
God’s righteous nature had to be “propitiated” (satisfied)
by the destruction of evil. However, in love He endured Israel’s sins for a
season by merely passing over and covering them through the Israelite’s sincere repentance and the
Temple’s sacrificial system. However, the blood of the sacrificial animals was
not an adequate payment for our sins. Instead, God endured our sins until the only
sufficient payment could be made through the substitutionary death of God
the Son.
Not only did this sacrifice satisfy the Father, it also sent
us the right message. Our sins are so grotesque, even nauseating, to God, that
only the death of the God-man Jesus was sufficient to satisfy the Father. We
need a healthy fear of sin!
This might seem implausible and threatening to us, but it is
only because of our spiritual immaturity that it seems so. Instead, God has
given us the same nature, so that we might appreciate Him. Therefore, If we are
to see ourselves accurately, we would realize that we too require justice when
offended. Even the saints in heaven cried out to God for justice:
·
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the
witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord,
holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who
dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a
little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers
should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” (Revelation
6:9-11)
Evidently, God had been pleased by their request. He did not
deny it by saying, “Instead, you should forgive.” Rather, He told them to wait.
Yes, we are to hate our sins, but also with the assurance
that they are completely forgiven and eradicated. Therefore, we are now enabled
to confidently call upon Him and to grow in adoration of the One who loves us
so much that He died for us.
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