Love, God, Hate, Sin

There are some people in the Church who think that personal holiness and social justice are some how independent from each other. They think that the practice of personal holiness in accordance with sound, biblical teaching has nothing to do with loving God and each other. But if we, the Church, have sin and falsehood within ourselves, and we encourage it in others, then all the worldly aid that we offer to those in need is 100% worthless! Because while feeding hungry stomachs, we leave souls to die in the gutter that is sin.

There are some who actually think it is wrong to even speak against sin. They get upset if you so much as recognize sin as sin. But the truth is that one must hate sin in order to love God. Don't hate the sinner; all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But definitely do hate the sin. Christ's purpose in coming was to take away our sin; to lead us to repentance - reconciliation with God. If you love God and people, then you will long for yourself and others to be freed, by Jesus Christ, from sin. 

It is an inescapable reality: everyone must love, and hate. If one loves God, the same will hate sin. If one loves sin, the same will hate God. Whoever loves God, hates sin. And whoever loves sin, hates God. God and sin are diametrically opposed to each other so that no one can simultaneously embrace both. To love the one is to hate the other.

As Jesus taught, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other" (Matthew 6:24). No one can love God and sin, both at the same time. "For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness" (Psalm 11:7). "You who love the LORD, hate evil!" (Psalm 97:10). And what does the Holy Spirit say about the man named Job? That he revered God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). He despised sin. He hated it; because he was loyal to God who "is righteous, and loves righteousness". To love sin is vile, wicked, shameful, and disgusting. To love God is to love what is good and right and pure and holy. And that necessarily amounts to hating sin. 

Through Christ, the universe was made (John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:1-2). Everything, life and all blessings and strength and beauty and love come from God (John 1:4-5, James 1:17). He is the eternal First Cause and Owner of the universe. And He is the Absolute Decider (Standard) of what is good. On the cross, He made the highest sacrifice to free us from our sin. 

Jesus did what He did at the cross because He loves people. He hates sin because it separates people from Him, the Originator of life, light, love, and everything that is good. He is very patient with humanity, allowing us to live when He would have been justified in pouring out His final judgement on the world centuries ago. Jesus said that our heavenly Father made and allows His sun to shine "on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" because He is love, and He is patient. But eventually He must judge sin because He is righteous, and He loves righteousness. Sin has to be judged.

So Jesus gave His life on the cross to pay for your sin, and mine. None of us is without sin. But we can not be saved unless we confess - admit that we are sinners; that our sin is sin. We must do this in order to rightly trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sin. No one will enter the kingdom of God until they have their sin taken away from them. And no one will have their sin taken away from them until they admit that they have sinned against God, and are alienated from Him by their sin; and are willing to be reconciled to God by His Son Jesus Christ. "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin (John 1:29).

So yes, Jesus is about love, forgiveness, and compassion. But He is equally about repentance on our part and reconciling us to our immaculately holy, righteous God (Matthew 4:17, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). And that means identifying - recognizing the sin that is in ourselves; and putting that sin to death (Romans 6:1-14, Colossians 3:1-10). Jesus had compassion on the adulteress. But He told her to leave her life of sin behind. She would have to in order to follow Him. In order to turn to God, one has to turn away from sin (John 8:1-12, James 4:7-8). 

I admit I am not perfect. But I love Jesus Christ enough to want to love Him more. And in order for me to love God more, I necessarily must learn to hate the sin within myself more. In order to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind; I must hate sin with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. And I must strive, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to rid myself of sin, and urge others, for the love of Christ, to do the same. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). And if anyone has Christian love for me, they will not encourage me to harm my own soul with any kind of sin. 

If God Let Everyone Into Heaven

If God were to let everyone into Heaven, it would become just like it is here on earth. It wouldn't be Heaven anymore. Heaven would become a broken world, ruined with sin; just like this world we live in today, filled with broken families, divided communities, and warring nations. 

Heaven would become like this world filled with all kinds of malice, corruption, selfishness, hatred toward God, hatred toward the righteous. There would continually be conflict among people, and inside of people. It would be like this world filled with crime, violence, poverty, and excess. It would become like this world filled with all manner of ungodly people, corrupters, liars, thieves, murderers, and abusers of women and children. 

If God let everyone into Heaven, it would not be Heaven anymore. And so God has a standard. He Himself is the Absolute Standard; the Absolute Decider of what is good. And He is perfect. He is holy. Sin can not dwell in His presence. Sin can not be allowed in Heaven (read Psalms 15 and 24). That is why God, in the middle of speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, against the king of Tyre, began describing Lucifer in the following way: 

"You were the seal of perfection,

Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God...

You were the anointed cherub who covers;

I established you;

You were on the holy mountain of God;

You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,

Till iniquity (wickedness) was found in you...

You became filled with violence within, and you sinned;

Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God;

And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,

From the midst of the fiery stones

Your heart was lifted up (self-exalted, prideful, arrogant) because of your beauty;

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor

I cast you to the ground,

I laid you before kings,

That they might gaze at you.

You defiled your sanctuaries

By the multitude of your iniquities...

Therefore I brought fire from your midst;

It devoured you,

And I turned you to ashes upon the earth

In the sight of all who saw you" (Ezekiel 28:12-18).

The prophet Isaiah used the same poetic devise. He spoke by the Holy Spirit against the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:3-11). But in verse 12 it becomes evident that the rebellion and fall of Lucifer is being described. So there is a parallel between the wicked kings and Satan. God wrote these poems to the kings of Babylon and Tyre because those kings were committing the same sin that Satan first committed long before them; the sin of pride, attempting to put himself in place of God. And that is what every sinner does who rejects God's standard of what is good and tries to make their own. They are little satans, rebelling against God. 

And those who are willing to defy God's standard of right and wrong in order to have their own way, need not leap far to also defy the sanctity of human life and personal dignity in order to have their own way. That is what abortion does. It defies the sanctity of human life and dignity in order for the unloving to have their own way. It is infanticide. Everyone who participates in an abortion is a murderer. Everyone who defends abortion, defends murder. And all sin defies the sanctity of human life and dignity because God is the original, eternal first cause or source of all life and love and dignity; and sin separates us from God. Those who begin by rejecting God, will end by devaluing every last thing that is right and good in the sight of God. 

God's holiness emanates from His love. God is love. And that is precisely the reason why He is holy. All real, true love is holy because sin corrupts. Sin is corruption. Sin alienates. Sin ruins. Sin kills. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Holiness excludes sin. All real, true love is holy. And therefore, only what is holy can abide in Heaven.

But here's the rub; "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). And so, by the Absolute Standard, none of us are good.

"As it is written:

There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one" (Romans 3:10-12).

And so, on a hill called Calvary, aka Golgotha (The Place of the Skull), just outside of Jerusalem, the Son of God showed another expression of His love for us. There, God in mortal human form, laid down His life on the cross, receiving to Himself the wages of our sin. And then He rose victorious over death. He did this so that, having paid for our sin, He could give us the free gift of salvation and eternal life. 

He has made it possible for us to be reconciled with Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). Everyone who places their trust in Christ is reconciled to God. His Spirit lives in us now. We are no longer little satans. We are now little christs (the word "Christian" literally means "little christ"). And by His Holy Spirit, we are growing to be more like Him in all righteousness (read 1 John 3:1-10, and also Colossians 3:1-17).We are being made holy so that we can be with our Friend, Savior, and Everlasting Father forever in Heaven.

You will not enter Heaven unless you willingly, consciously trust in Jesus Christ to be your one and only Redeemer, to take away your fallen, sinful nature; to reconcile you to God. "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5). And the heavenly Father will give you the Holy Spirit to live in you; teaching you righteousness and making you holy and  from the inside out. Will you trust Him today?

Kingdom Work In the Here and Now

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).

Now then, we are ambassador's for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

The other week I blogged about the futility of politics. Even the best human political system will fail to set human nature aright. Only Jesus Christ can set humanity aright. But I want to make it clear that this is not an apathetic stance to take. I do not believe in standing idly by while evil prevails. I simply reject politics as the answer to the problem. Politics is not the answer to the problem of fallen humanity's sin and depravity.

At best, even a seemingly good political movement can be nothing more than a temporary and cosmetic treatment for the real ongoing condition sin in human hearts as we draw ever closer to the necessary day of God's judgment. The Great Commission that Jesus Christ gave us, His followers, is the most important work with which we must be busy. That is the Kingdom work that we are assigned to do here and now in this world. 

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen'" (Matthew 28:18-20).

Evangelism and discipleship: that's where it's at. Kingdom work is not about political campaigns. It's not about protest demonstrations on the steps of some capitol building or courthouse. Nor is it even about voting or legislating. Our King, Jesus Christ has commanded us to evangelize and disciple people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

It is necessary for God, in due time, to pour out His righteous judgment on all the wicked who refuse to turn away from sin and be reconciled with Him. But in the meantime we must be about our Father's business. We must be doing the work of evangelizing the people of the earth; and like student-teachers, teaching them to be Christ's disciples. 

We are to be going around and telling people that they are sinners and that they need Jesus to save them from their sin. We must be teaching people, by word and example, to turn away from sin and turn toward Jesus Christ to practice holiness and righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the work of the Church; not the government of any worldly empire, nation, state, or city. This is the work of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is our Father's business, about which we must be. This is the responsibility of every believer in His salvation by grace through faith in Him who died for our sin and rose victoriously over death.