GOD UTTERLY HATES SIN

 

 

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.