A God of Love or Hate

Is God a God of Love and Justice or a God of Hate towards Sinners?

Key verse and thought:    What sayeth the Scripture? Romans 4:3.

Introduction:

Just recently I have been made aware of a teaching that has resurfaced in these end times of Christianity where all manner of teachings of men and even demons abound. The teaching is that God hates sinners and so in the interests of all let us look at this and the thoughts of past believers. In this way we will not become confused and then end up teaching others something which can divide or cause controversy within the Body of Christ.

Proposition:

We are clearly told within the Holy Bible to rightly divide the Word of Truth and to also test the spirits and the words of men. I trust the following will do this so that we see what the Scriptures actually say on this matter and not be swayed by the historical writings of men be they Calvinist or Armenian.

Body of Teaching:

1. First of all we do not have a verse or verses that states God hates sinners or the sinner.
    It is as simple as that!

2. Secondly, we do not have a verse that states God loves the sinner but hates their sin.
    It is as simple as that! But the implication is there from the many verses and so that is why this statement has been so widely used.

3. Thirdly in being even handed what we do have is this:
   
a. God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day – Psalm 7:11. (The key word here is wicked, God is angry with those who are wicked).

b. The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight; Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psalm 5:5. (The key word here is iniquity, God hates all workers of iniquity).

We now need to understand the meaning of these words as defined in the Concise Oxford dictionary:-  

Sins – Breaking divine laws or transgressing against the principles of God’s moral standards. 

Transgressions – To violate or infringe the Commandments of God.

Trespasses – To make an unlawful or unwarrantable intrusion upon the Judgements, Precepts or Instructions of God. 

Iniquities – Wickedness or gross and deliberate acts of injustice. Wicked means doing iniquitous acts.

In context then it is iniquity that God hates and He is angry with the wicked every day. But they can be forgiven through repentance and turning away from their sins. So for those in the past who we love so much for their writings and zeal have been a little too hard in saying that God hates sinners. He actually hates and is angry towards those who are workers of iniquity and do wicked acts daily and so God is angry with them daily! Today then is the day of salvation and men ignore it at their peril. As it is written in Hebrews, ‘it is appointed unto all men to die and then cometh the judgement’ and ‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ 

This is why the Lord Jesus died for all our sins, not just some of them. 

c. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins – 1 John 4:10.

John the Apostle is actually amplifying the words of our Lord Jesus in John 3:16.  As we look at various verses we see that we couldn’t love God as sinners
but had to be drawn and have our understanding changed. We were in darkness just as it is written and so were transferred into his Kingdom when we became born again.
   
So while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.
As we further examine the verse above we can see that while we were sinners (past tense) God loved us for He sent His Son to die for our sins. Propitiation is seen
in the sacrifice of Christ as satisfying God’s wrath against our sins. As Psalm 7:11 states, God is a just judge and so He will judge those who do not repent.

4. Finally, we should remember the words of our Lord Jesus who said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do!” Luke 23:34.

This was the final prayer of intercession by our Lord towards sinners so we can see that the Son of God who is at one with the Father asks for forgiveness towards sinners. We therefore have a God of love not of hate!

If He marked our transgressions who could stand!

Conclusion:

God abhors and detests our sins within but He loves the world (the people in it) in that He sent His only begotten to Son to die for us. So through the shedding of innocent blood (the greatest of sins, taking another’s life) we could be forgiven if we repent of all our sins, small and great before a Holy God who has the right to make the rules and we have absolutely no right to break them!

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