Thinking…
So someone posted about God hating sinners and I have been chewing on the idea for several days. Spoken to some people who hold that view, studied scripture, prayed and I have come to the conclusion, that God really hates sin.
I cannot reconcile the idea of God hating sinners to God’s treatment of humanity.
I have been re-reading Mere Christianity and the last bit I read was about how completely God hates sin and I think that sometimes we like to hide away in grace and try to pretend that sin requires no repentance. Or we bank on forgiveness and forget how sin hurts God.
I think of God as a father a lot because my father is amazing and I have the ability to understand what it means to have a good father. My father was hurt when me and my sister went against the rules he made for our own protection and there were consequences for those actions. They weren’t pleasant but we weren’t punished because he hated us. If he hated us, he would let us do what we want without concern of our well being. I believe my father got angry with us, disappointed, frustrated but never hated us. Not even close.
If my father, a man, could love us without hatred, why would God hate us?
That just doesn’t sit well with me at all.
What would make sense would be some sort of hatred God holds against the flesh nature in us. The flesh which bears the curse.
but not the soul. Not the whole being. He doesn’t hate us. I see no evidence of that.
If God doesn’t love us for what we are, but because it is who He is to love, so why would He hate us for what we are?
If grace cannot be earned, it cannot be lost. God’s feelings toward us are not based on our nature, but on His, therefore, it does not follow that He would bear hatred for us on any level.
To hate sin is in keeping with His character. It is glorifying to Him that sin should be punished and removed, but is not glorifying to Him to hate and act in accordance of hate toward humanity; to destroy us for who we are.
The wrath was poured on the Son. The righteous judgement of sin, not men.
If Christ was a willing sacrifice, love of us and hatred of sin held Him to the cross. He is one with the Father therefore, if Christ loved us so much to die, then God so loved the world…(John 3:16)
There are several verses (psalms 5:5, Lev. 20:23, Prov. 6:19, Romans 9:13) that have phrasing amounting to God hating the wicked, but I do not think the understanding of that to mean that God holds hatred for humanity lines up with the rest of scripture. It would make more sense if God hates the sin in us. Hates the fact that we are wicked. To hate us along with our sin amounts to a hatred based on something we did and that brings in to question whether we could invoke love in Him by something we do and that doesn’t follow. Grace and Love are not merited. We are more deserving of wrath and hatred, but that is not how God works.
I wonder sometimes when I talk to Christians with different views if they think I am just attacking them. I question them because I want the truth. If God hates men, then I want to know and I want to know how that should affect me.
But I am left only with a strong impression that God hates sin deeply. He could not love without hating it.
His mercy is astounding.
His love unfathomable.
Another thought that has been in my head is an older one that since God speaks through creation and cold is the absence of the energy that is heat and dark is the absence of the energy that is light then is not hatred the absence of love? Perhaps that doesn’t translate in the spiritual world the same, but it makes sense to me. Some things aren’t things at all, but the absence of some real thing.
Just some thoughts.
