GOD’s HATRED OF SIN

 

In this day of “Love and forgive yourself. You are only human. None of us are perfect. God is love and doesn’t want you to suffer,” we need to revisit how God regards sin.

 

God has always been so repelled by sin that He had to separate Himself from His beloved people so that He would not destroy them. Although the Bible tells us that Yahweh had led the children of Israel (Exodus 12:51), the reality is more nuanced:

·       And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel [also translated as “Messenger”] and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. (Numbers 20:16)

 

·       “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. When my angel goes before you…” (Exodus 23:20–23)

 

Why a “Messenger?” Why wouldn’t God go with them? His holy nature could not tolerate the presence of sin:

·       “I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” (Exodus 33:2–5)

 

W ould you be in the presence of those who raped and killed their victims! Why then would God create and endure us if we are so repugnant to Him? Because He had a grand plan to overcome this problem:

 

·       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)

 

He gave us His gift of forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life. However,

God’s righteous nature had to be “propitiated” (satisfied) by the only adequate payment (atonement) for evil. In love He temporarily endured Israel’s sins 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 – the substitutionary death of God the Son, which worked retroactively to forgive even those sins before the Cross (Hebrews 9:13-15).

 

Not only did this sacrifice satisfy the Father, but it also sends us a powerful 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. If God hated our sins to such a degree, we too must hate them and not comfort ourselves with the thought, “All sin; I’m just being human.”

 

This might seem harsh and even threatening to us, but this is only because of our spiritual immaturity. Instead, it is liberating. I am glad to understand that God is grieved by my sins. This makes me more diligent to fear God, avoid sinning, and to confess my sin to Him as soon as I do sin, knowing that He forgives and cleanses me from the filth of my sin. This enables me to feel cleansed and free from the internal struggle to justify myself that I had done the right thing when I sinned. To know the forgiveness of my Savior gives me peace and assurance to come to Him (Hebrews 10:19-23).

 

Besides, God has implanted within us the same hatred of sin so that we might appreciate His hatred of sin and injustice. Therefore, we will realize that we too require justice when offended, even if only a sincere and humble apology. 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 and 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 paid the price for our sins.