What is Prevenient Grace?

The word prevenient is a Latin word that means something happening beforehand. So when we are talking about prevenient grace in theological circles, it is making reference to the grace that God grants to those who He will save in time. This grace is distinct from the common grace everyone receives every day in the form of the air we breathe, and the daily provision God provides.  Whenever God decides to save someone, He will use the instrument of the gospel message to inform the sinner why they must repent of their sins. Once the gospel has been effectively preached, God will open the heart and mind of the person so they understand and hear the truth, respond in faith and be saved (Acts 16:14; Luke 24:45). The grace, of course, has to be granted by God before the sinner can respond positively to the gospel message. This grace is the power or enablement that God must give to the sinner or else one can never believe unto salvation.

There are many that believe that God's grace does not always lead to salvation. Why? Because man has a free will and can resist the power of God to convict him of sin so that he repents, believes and becomes saved. To believe this way is to say that God's power to save ultimately lies within the person and not God to save them. In other words, God's prevenient grace removes the depravity of man, but it still does not guarantee that he will repent and believe the gospel.

There have been centuries of debate regarding the matter of what prevenient grace can do. The writer believes the debate exists because you have those that teach that God saves all those He elects or the limited atonement view, or you have the majority report, those that teach unlimited atonement. Limited atonement teaches that God the Father sent the Son to die for the elect alone. Whereas unlimited atonement teaches that Christ died for everyone who will ever live. There are intense debates on both sides. For those who are in what is called the Arminian camp (named after James Arminius 1560-1609), their definition of prevenient grace says that God grants the sinner this benefit, but it does not always lead to salvation. In the Reformed or what many call the Calvinistic camp (named after the Reformer John Calvin 1509-1564), God's prevenient grace always leads to salvation.

So, we must ask the questions, did the Father send Jesus to die just to make all men savable, but guarantee the salvation of no one? Or did the Father send the Son to actually save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)? You see why there has been and will continue to be such intense debates between evangelicals? I just listened to a podcast last week where a minister said that for Jesus to die just the elect or chosen is "ridiculous"! Why would he say that? Because he is convinced that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). John 1:29 says, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Those are pretty straightforward texts, right? They mean what they say and they say what they mean. The word world always has to be qualified and defined by the context which many fail to do.

Now here is the question the writer must ask, "If God's sovereign prevenient grace only makes men savable, meaning the grace removes some type of evil restraint from him so that he is in some moral neutral state - his heart is open to receive the gospel, but he still does not repent and believe, how powerful is God's grace if it does not lead to actual salvation? Let me say it another way. Let's view it from the divine perspective. Since God knows all things before they happen because He created the end from the beginning decided in eternity past to send Christ to suffer and die for sinners, what makes more sense, and more importantly what view is Biblically supported, Christ dying and paying for all sins of everyone that will ever live yet most of humanity perishing in hell for their own sins due to unbelief, or Christ dying for the sins of those whom the Father chose in eternity past for Christ to come to earth to redeem? Remember Jesus' words in John 6:37, "All the Father has given to Me will come to Me (emphasis added), and those that come to me I will in no wise cast out."

If one believes that Christ died for the sins of all men but ultimately leaves the final decision to man to determine whether salvation is successful or not, then His death was in vain and God's rescue plan failed. Why? Because natural man will not seek God on his own (Romans 3:11). God must pursue man first. (Luke 19:10). I have written about this in times past, but it bears repeating, God has nor will He ever leave His salvation plan in the hands of evil men to determine whether it succeeds or fails. God in eternity past predetermined the success of salvation before He created the universe! We have nothing to do with it. Man is strictly a beneficiary of God's divine grace when he believes. He is never the cause of salvation becoming a reality.

I would submit to the reader that a prevenient grace that does not lead to salvation is not grace at all. What good is a grace that does not save? Remember the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace through faith you have been saved. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." Paul knew that God's grace is what saved him. It is that same grace that saves all those who place their trust in Jesus' complete atoning work on the cross.

What about those who have never heard of Jesus? What happens to them?

This would be another of one of those age-old questions, wouldn't it? If someone has never been preached the gospel then obviously they cannot believe what they do not know. They can neither accept or reject the truth. So, what has to happen? God has to manifest Himself in some other way to them. When one refers to those who have never heard of Christ, often we are talking about people who live in the most remote parts of the world, far from what we regard as normal civilization. 

God has left His handprint all over the place - on the earth and in the heavens. This is what is known as natural or general revelation. God made absolutely sure all mankind could know Him in the natural sense. The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). God has also made Himself known through the conscience. Romans chapter one tells us the things that are made - that we see clearly tell us that the invisible God is real because without Him none of what we see could exist. So scripture shows by two pieces of evidence that God exists: 1) His creation. 2) Through conscience. That leaves man without excuse. If man understands and receives these revelations, then, of course, God can shed more light to him. The Lord has placed in every man the innate ability to get to know Him in a personal way. The Bible says if someone seeks the Lord with all their heart they will find Him (Deut 4:29; Jer 29:13). Most men suppress the truth they know about God so they replace the worship of the true God with falsehood thus sealing their doom (Romans 1:21-23).

What about those with mental incapabilities. How can they believe when they do not understand the gospel?

Many regard someone mentally challenged like an infant. Babies cannot comprehend anything so someone, lest say mentally retarded, cannot understand Biblical truth. Depending upon the severity of their mental disability would determine if they could understand the gospel. If they are unable to, they can never reach the point of moral accountability where they understand the need for repentance of their sins and placing their faith in Christ. I believe God places special grace on them when they die and takes them to heaven. Why do I believe this? Because trusting in Christ is a faith-based decision as well as a moral decision to believe. Adults or children with minds of infants do not even know their right hand from their left or even their name sometimes so how could they be held responsible to choose something they could never understand? You see people in this type of condition are what I call morally neutral. They can neither accept nor reject the gospel due to their mental ineptitude.

Their curse I believe ultimately is their blessing because I am convinced a divine exception is granted to them.

Let me provide a Biblical reason why I believe this.

In II Samuel 12 we read about David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba who was the wife of a man named Uriah. Bathsheba becomes pregnant as a result of the affair. David has Uriah killed in battle so he can marry Bathsheba. When the child is born, the prophet Nathan rebukes David for his sins of adultery and murder. The worst part is Nathan tells him that their son will die. The son becomes ill by God's hand (not due to the child's sin because he had none, but as a result of David's sin which was forgiven, but he suffered painful temporal consequences the rest of his life). As a result, David fasts and prays hoping the child will get well but he dies. David then gets up washes and anoints himself changes his clothes and worships the Lord. Afterward, he eats. His servants see this behavior as strange - why he is eating now? David said to them, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that my child may live?' But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (II Samuel 12:15b-23).

Why did David make that statement? Because he knew where his deceased son went and where he was going when he died. It was David who said in Psalm 23:6, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  David's son went to heaven and that is where David is now. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (II Corinthians 5:8). David is in heaven because he was a righteous man. His son was granted a divine exception and taken to glory because he had no mental or moral capability to believe God regarding anything.

Jesus said in Matthew 19:13, "Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them; for such is the kingdom of heaven." Children who have not reached the age of what is called accountability are extended grace and granted salvation by God if they die very young. It does not mean they deserve salvation because they are still sinners by nature, but for whatever reason(s) unknown to us, their lives are cut off prematurely due perhaps to an illness suffered at birth or they are tragically killed.

Concluding, those who have never heard the gospel will eventually receive it in one form or another; through creation, conscience and finally the full gospel itself (Christ). God will hold a person responsible for what light and truth has been revealed to them. God saved the Old Testament saints without them hearing the name of Jesus Christ. How they were justified is they believed the word of God they heard and knew at that time (Genesis 15:6). Their justification is just as valid as those of us who have received the full gospel truth. The only differences in their justification and ours are time, and amount of revelation presented. Their justification was granted to them as a credit because it was before Christ went to the cross; Jesus had not come yet (pre-incarnate) to purchase their redemption and physically pay for their sins (again Genesis 15:6). Our justification was granted to us as a deposit because Christ  (incarnate) has already died and risen and paid the price for our sins with His blood (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:12;13:12; 1 John 1:7; Rev 1:5). The Old Testament saints were looking forward to the cross anticipating the redeemer; while we in the New Testament are looking back at the cross loving and praising the redeemer for what He has already done for us.

If God is so good…

A subject my wife and I discuss frequently is that if you're looking for flaws in people you're sure to find them - guaranteed! That is the view of the pessimist. They always look at life from a negative point of view. Think about it for a moment, if people criticize God 24/7 and He is absolutely perfect in every way, how much more do you think we will be criticized? 

Just a thought.

Back to the subject at hand, "If God is so good, then why"....everyone can fill in their own blank(s). This is an age-old question that for most has not been answered satisfactorily. I recently heard a person on social media raise this question from those who do not attend church because they do not see the need to worship a God who allows death and tragedy every day. Believe me, I understand the frustration and disenchantment people are experiencing. We want things to be better. We want the world at peace and harmony. We want to cure every sickness and disease and get rid of world hunger and poverty. We want to save the planet and protect wildlife. We need to stop polluting our air and oceans. We must preserve and protect our natural resources. We must go green and be Eco-Friendly. We want everyone to love one another with all of our religious, philosophical, political, and ideological differences. Unfortunately, the extremists will try to do this at any cost - even to the point of killing those who resist their agenda. Of course, we call those type of people terrorists.

Well, none of the things I mentioned above has happened completely. Guess what? It will never happen by the hands of sinful mankind. We cannot make things better. Sorry to burst your bubble. We are masters of making things worse though. That is why we must call on God. But what is God's problem? If He is so good as you Christians say, why is He taking so long to fix things? He must not be real or He simply does not care, or He does not have the power to fix the world's problems.

It is amazing to me how blind and short-sighted the world is. We are definitely the offspring of our first father Adam. Let me explain.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God asked Adam did he eat the fruit the Lord commanded him not to eat. Adam responded, "The woman who You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate" (Genesis 3:12).

 Do you see what Adam did? First, he blamed his wife then God for what he did wrong. Not once did he blame himself for disobeying the command of the Lord. That is what scholars call the "Adamic (pronounced A-da-mic) Nature" or the sin nature. You see the sinner blames everyone for their problems except themselves. So it is natural or in our nature to blame God for the problems of this world. Just like it was Adam's fault he ate the forbidden fruit, it is our fault the world is in the misery and pain it is currently in. Sadly, we cannot and will not get out of our own way and call upon the Lord in humility and contrition to deliver us from the pain we are in. The world keeps trying to fix what it was never designed to fix. What has been the net result, we are making things worse and worse. Who gets the blame ultimately? God does.

The world is defiantly saying to God after continuing to ruin things, "Why don't You fix this mess You have made?" When He does not fix it on demand, God is not good in the eyes of those who are usually the greatest offenders in the world.

Is God serving us or should we be serving Him?

Understand this, the Bible says God is good and His mercy endures forever (Psalm 136). That is forever true because God is immutable. So when someone says, "If God is so good why does He allow bad things to happen" etc, that is not God's problem, It is ours. Evil in this life never diminishes the goodness of God, rather evil is the magnifying glass that should show the world clearly its own wickedness. Sadly, it usually does not which reveals to the writer the abysmal depths of man's hopeless depravity apart from divine intervention.

The idea that God sent His only Begotten Son to pay the price for our sins is the ultimate love.  Better question(s) we should be asking is, "Why does God cause wonderful things to happen to us when we do not deserve them? "Why would God send Jesus Christ who was/is perfect die for those who are hopeless and guilty and deserve to go to hell? Why would a good God send His perfect Son to die for wicked human beings; forgive their sins when they trusted in Christ and adopt them into His family as sons and daughters? On top of that, why would God give them an eternal inheritance and seal them with His Holy Spirit claiming them as His own (Ephesians 1:5-14)? Why in the world would a good God do all of these things to those who hate Him?"

Answer? God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son. That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

You see God has already taken care of all of our problems when we trusted in Christ. We are victorious and more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We as believers realize that the way things are now will not remain. This hopeless world is passing away with all the evil that is in it. We as Christians are looking forward to new heaven and earth where eternal peace will dwell (Isa 65:17;2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1).

One must have an eternal perspective to see there is a blessed eternal hope past this life of sin. When one has this hope, they have victory because this is not all there is. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says that we are not to look at the things that we see, but on the things that we do not see. For the things that we see are temporary, but the things we do not see are eternal. That is our blessed future inheritance for those of us who are children of  God.

My God is so good that He promised that the present sufferings of this life are not to be compared to the glorious future that awaits us (Romans 8:18).

So the pessimist will continue to ask, "Why does God allow bad things to happen?" The writer's reply is, "Because of the wickedness of man and sin has to run its course". One can also think of it this way, as long as evil exists, it is a clear indication of God's mercy on full display toward sinners. God can very easily get rid of evil. You know how? Get rid of everybody and immediately evil would be gone! Do you see the point I'm driving at? Evil and calamity exist because we are here. Want evil gone? Then we have two choices: 1) stop sinning completely or 2) die.

So, what do you think about evil now?

You want your evil forgiven forever? Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your soul salvation. Once you have been forgiven, you can then look at the wickedness in the world and not blame God for the evil that He graciously allows because He desires that all men repent and not perish.

God has already solved the problem of evil forever through the sacrificial atoning death of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. There is no other solution to mankind's problems. This is what makes God not only good but what I would call Omnigood (or all good)! One day God will get rid of all evildoers so that this world will return to Eden paradise it was in the beginning.

In God's timing, all will be made right. Just wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31).

What is Justification by Death?

I realize this is a question that many are not familiar with so I will explain it. When someone dies and they are eulogized at their memorial service, what you often hear is "Well they are in a better place." Sometimes this is true, but it is not always true.

In other words, if we believe that everyone goes to heaven when they die, we believe in a false doctrine called universalism, or justification by death. What this means is many believe that a person automatically goes to heaven because they are dead - their death justifies or makes them righteous in the sight of God. Why do so many people believe this? Because of their ignorance of Biblical truth. In the world's eyes, their loved one who was a loving, kind, giving soul who would not harm a fly is just the type of person God would (or perhaps in their eyes should) welcome into His kingdom. While this is a novel and heartwarming sentiment, it is a master deception by the enemy. Mankind continues to make the perpetual mistake of thinking they have the right to determine for God how His kingdom is to run.

There is no such thing as justification by death. It is a false doctrine whether someone knows it or not.

I understand those who are not Biblically minded will emotionally and mentally default to this pseudo-ideology.

Justification is the act whereby one is given a declaration of righteousness by God when one trusts in Jesus Christ as their sin bearer. We are given a divine pardon and acquittal from God. In God's eyes He treats us as if we had never sinned! How? Because Jesus took the punishment for our sins (Isaiah 53:5). An incredible reality! 

We have to realize the implications of such a belief system. For those that believe in justification by death, you automatically deny the reality of the clear teaching on the doctrine of hell and eternal separation from God which is undeniably taught in scripture. Who taught on hell more than anyone else? Jesus! While I can cite numerous passages that teach the reality of hell, I will only point out some. 

Mark 9:45-46

• And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched - where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Matthew 23:15,33

• verse 15: Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
• verse 33: Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the damnation of hell?

Matthew 25:41-43

• Then He will say to those on the left hand (the goats), Depart from Me into the everlasting fire prepared the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and did not visit Me.

While I understand that it is heart wrenching to many - including Christians who are unfamiliar with this truth, there is a really horrible place called hell. Anyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ will end up there when they die. Don't hate me because I told you the truth (Galatians 4:16). Love always tells the truth (Ephesians 4:15).  We should be way long tired of fake news by now. We also need to stop telling ourselves lies about death and the afterlife to make us feel better. Like someone wisely said, "Eternity is a very long time to be wrong!"

Let's know the truth and be set free (John 8:32). 

This is one of those sacred cows I needed to kill. Those of you who have been following the blog should know my pedigree by now. My endeavor is to bring nothing but the truth.

To believe that everyone automatically goes to heaven when they die destroys the entire Bible. There would no point in preaching the gospel. Jesus came to the earth to preach repentance and ultimately died in vain. There would no need for the church, missionaries or pastors. Christianity would not exist. Why bother with any of this if when we die we go to heaven anyway? We can do whatever we want if justification by death is true.

You see how the world is hopelessly duped? Why? Because lies are more alluring than the truth. When Biblical truth goes against someone's worldview, they take the path of least resistance - the popular path, the wide gate which is the path to destruction (Matthew 7:13)! 

Let's be willing to uphold Biblical truth even to the point of ridicule, and persecution by all. This position will distinguish between those who are true soldiers in the Lord's army and those who are not.

Remember, we are in a truth war. It ain't for the faint of heart!

Will everyone that has ever lived be Resurrected?

In Daniel 12:1-2 we read this, “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

So, what does all of this mean? Daniel receives visions and records what is going to happen to his people in the future, the nation Israel. Michael is the archangel who watches over the nation. In the latter days, Israel will experience the worst time in its history. As a matter of fact, it will be the worst time in human history because the Lord will unleash His wrath upon mankind for their rebellion. Sin has a payday - death (Romans 6:23).  In verse two Daniel says that many of those who are in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Jesus mentions this same reality in John 5:28-29, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth - those that do good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

What Jesus and Daniel have declared is that there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust; a raising of the righteous and the wicked. What are they being raised for? For reward and judgment respectively.

During the end times, when the seven year tribulation period has ended, there will be two resurrections; one at the Millennium, and one after the Millennium. The Millennium occurs after the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-21).  Revelation chapter 20 talks about a thousand years of global peace where the devil will be chained and thrown into the abyss or bottomless pit (Revelation 20:3).  Also in the same chapter, it talks about those who remained faithful to death in that they did not accept the mark of the beast and were beheaded.  These were resurrected and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection (vs 4b). 

Let’s review: During the end times, there is great tribulation on the earth. As I mentioned earlier it will be the worst time the world will ever know. The devil, the antichrist (also known as the Beast, the man of sin and the lawless one) and lastly the false prophet will form an alliance, an unholy trinity. The world will worship them. The beast will have a mark that he will force all those on the earth to receive either on the right hand or on their foreheads. Those who do not will be put to death by beheading. These are the faithful that we call tribulation saints. Many Christians believe the church has been raptured to heaven during this time (pre-tribulationists). 

What I wrote in the last paragraph can be found in Revelation 13.

Now after the thousand years are completed, the devil is released from his imprisonment. In one last-ditch effort, he deceives and gathers all the enemies of God (called Gog and Magog) to converge and destroy Israel. Scripture says fire will come down from heaven and destroy them. The devil will be cast into the lake of fire where the beast and false prophet are. This act will end the reign of global terror by the devil forever (Revelation 20: 7-10).

The Great White Throne Judgment

All those who were not resurrected during the Millennium will be raised during this time. All the wicked dead from all time will be raised from the dead to face judgment for everything they have ever done while they were on the earth. This group includes all the OT enemies of God like Pharoah of Egypt during the time of Moses, and Adolph Hitler of Nazi Germany and even those who live and die during the Tribulation and Millennium period. The Bible tells us the books will be opened. These books are records of the deeds of those who have rebelled against the Lord their whole life long. In other words, they will be facing Jesus Christ as their judge, not their Savior for their wretched life. They will know why they are guilty. Understand, prior to these countless lives facing eternal judgment, they were in hell when they died physically. Their ultimate destination is the lake of fire that death and hell will be thrown into (Revelation 20:14).  Just as the redeemed will live eternally with the Lord, the holy angels, and all the saints, the unredeemed will live eternally without the Lord, with the devil, his angels, the beast and the false prophet. The saints are given new resurrection immortal bodies fit for heaven and eternity whereas non-believers are given bodies fit for eternal hell. No one ever goes out of existence. Believers receive everlasting rest. Non-believers receive everlasting torment because their names are not found in the book of life (Revelation 20:11-15).

The Bible refers to this as the second death. You can also call it eternal death.

So, all who die will be resurrected; either to be rewarded or be punished. Keep in mind that many will never die but will be changed and given immortal bodies when Christ comes for His church but that is for perhaps another article (1 Thess 4:13-18; 1 Cor 15:51-58). 

Lord I Believe Help My Unbelief!

There was a man who had a demon possessed son. He brought him to the disciples who could not cast the demon out. Jesus frustrated with His disciples lack of faith asked the father how long his son had been in that condition. The father replied that his son has been this way since childhood. The father requested that if Jesus could do anything, have pity on them and help the boy (Mark 9:23).

This father is completely desperate and has nowhere else to turn but to Jesus. Jesus said to him, all things are possible to them that believe. To me, the following reply by the father is one of the most honest and prolific statements in all the Bible, "Lord I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24)!

No doubt that man's faith was emboldened when he saw the demon cast out of his son. The man received two things he asked for; for his faith to be strengthed by Jesus which the Lord did when
He cast the demon out of his son. Jesus gave the man a two for one deal.

Sweet.

For those of us who are children of God, we have experienced doubt in the promises of God. Our faith sometimes gets weak like this man. We want to believe, but oftentimes we allow our trials to overshadow our trust in the Lord to deliver us or to make His strength perfect in our weakness in the trial. I do not know if this man is in heaven, but if he is I would love to shake his hand when I get there. Why? 1) He went to the person who he knew could help. 2) Because of his love for his son and the agony of his son's demon possession he pleaded for mercy to Jesus to help him. 3) The father knew that his faith was not strong and was willing to admit it - he had doubt in the power of God.  As a result, Jesus being the merciful God-Man that He is cast the demon out of his son (Mark 9:25). 

Now let us switch reels. I likened the above account to a parable. Everyone is in need of deliverance from the Lord. The world needs salvation. There is only one person who can deliver your soul. Just like there was only one person who could deliver that demon possessed boy, the Lord Jesus Christ. When you have a person who has complete authority of the natural world by healing the sick, and the supernatural world by casting out demons, you're dealing with someone who is omnipotent.

So, just like this man who was completely hopeless before meeting Jesus, all the world is hopeless and like that demon possessed boy until they encounter the Lord, plead for mercy for Him to save them when they believe on His name. For anyone that is sincere about their repentance, God will give them faith to believe in Him and receive eternal deliverance in salvation.

God loves the Sinner but hates the Sin right?

Is this a true or "churchy" statement? it may surprise many that the Bible never makes the above statement. We in the church have popularized it. Does the word of God even imply the statement is true? Let's examine the word to find out.

Psalm 5:5 says the Lord hates the workers of iniquity. Psalm 11:5 says the wicked and the one who loves violence His (the Lord) soul hates. The word wicked in Hebrew means someone who is intent on breaking God's law, His rules. They do not want to stop sinning. For them sinning is insatiable. We would call someone like that a menace to society. This is the type of person that God hates. Please hear me clearly as I write, God not only hates the sin, He hates the person who commits sin without remorse.

Why?

Because God cannot punish sin without punishing the sinner right? It would be just as illogical to say an oncologist will treat cancer but not treat the cancer patient. By getting rid of the cancer, they cure the patient of the disease.

How God's love rescues us from sin's penalty

It is because of the Father's love and hatred of our sins that the Father sent the Lord Jesus to die and take away our sins (John 3:16; Rom 4:25; 1John 2:2;4:10). As we all know, our sins were not crucified, Jesus was crucified as if He was an actual sinner bearing our sins and suffering our penalty which was death (II Corinthians 5:21). Do we see how deplorable it is for someone who knows the most extreme lengths of God's love for them through the death of Christ to despise that love and to persist in rebellion against God? God has every right to hate that person. Here is the wonderful thing though - God's arms are still open wide to receive recalcitrant sinners to repent and believe the gospel. But time is of the essence. God will not be patient forever.

What about Christians who sin?

The difference between a believer and a non-believer is that our sins have been removed from us forever when we trusted Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the justification of our souls. We are no longer in sin, we are now in Christ. He is our blessed refuge and hope. He earned salvation for us so sin's penalty has been removed forever because we acknowledge our need for Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. God no longer hates us when we sin. But we must be quick to confess and forsake it to God so that we do not break sweet fellowship with the Lord (1 John 1:9).

For the unrepentant sinner, their sins have not been forgiven because they refuse to confess them and trust Jesus for the forgiveness and removal of them. Their sin remains (John 9:41). What is the tragic result of their sinful condition? God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11).

Rounding The Bases

For those who believe that God is a God of love only, what I have written is a shocking revelation to you. God is the only being who loves and hates perfectly.  What is perfect hatred? It is hatred without malice or evil. We can't relate because we can neither love nor hate perfectly.

God does indeed love sinners and hates all sin. Notice I did not say God loves all sinners. God hates the wicked. I know that type of thinking runs antithetical to what we have been taught to believe.

It is most important we know and understand this characteristic of God so that we have a greater reverence for Him. The greater our knowledge of how the Almighty's pedigree is, the deeper we can go in our relationship with Him. Every child wants to have an intimate relationship with their father. How much more should we desire a deep relationship with our Heavenly Father?

So, let us spend the rest of our natural lives loving what God loves and hating what He hates.