How Does God Feel About Sin?

 Years back, when Winston was significantly smaller than he is now, I was telling him goodnight and started tickling him. As he laughed uncontrollably, he pulled his knee up quickly and he caught me right in the eye. I yelled in pain and he immediately started apologizing, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!". Erin was in the other room and came running in shouting, "Winston! What did you do to your father?!"

I couldn't even open my eye, but I started waving her down - "It's my fault! It's my fault! He's good!" And then he was so upset that he was crying at this point. Now even though I didn't feel much like comforting him since I was the one in pain - I managed to hug him and reassured him that it was an accident and no one was in trouble.

And because it was an accident on my son's part – I didn't deal with it in a way that matched my feelings about it. All I wanted to do was grab an ice pack, but instead, I comforted him despite the pain that I was feeling. That's what a parent does.

There are times when our feelings about a particular situation do match our actions. But there are also times when we 'ignore' our feelings and respond in a very different way.

And let's look at the spiritual parallel here, how does God feel about my sin? He hasn't sent any lightning bolts to zap me – but does His response, or seeming 'lack of response' – match how He feels about it?

Now, at this point I can promise you that we could find all sorts of opinions on the subject. Every person might interpret that question based on their own feelings, but fortunately for us – we don't have to guess. So how do we know how God feels about sin?

I. We look to the Bible

I've had many discussions over the years about people's opinions on different subjects. But I'm always intrigued when 'believers' hold opinions that are actually directly opposite of what the Bible teaches.

I kind of expect that I would get an answer like that from someone who doesn't believe in God – but it bothers me when I hear a believer talk that way. God is The Authority and if we want to follow Jesus, we need to work really hard to match up our beliefs with His Word and not the other way around. That applies to the easy teachings of the Bible as well as the hard ones.

People may say, "Follow your heart" in order to discern hard truths. But my heart is not a very good judge of truth. I am a flawed, sinful man with a flawed, sinful heart. My heart alone will not lead me to the right answers about truth. My heart - my feelings - will change over time based on my particular circumstances. God's Word does not change.

So how do we know how God feels about sin? If we go all the way back to the beginning of God's Word, we'll find the account of Adam and Eve disobeying God and eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - the very first sin. Let's look at Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)...

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. (19) By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

So, according to scripture – how do you think God feels about sin; about disobedience to His commands? He obviously was not pleased at all. God drove His children out of the garden paradise He had created for them, He cursed the ground and made mankind's life much harder and even allowed him to now grow old, sick and then die - something that didn't happen in the Garden.

God felt very strongly about sin and He dealt very strongly with that sin. And that's the pattern we see throughout the Old Testament.

In the book of Joshua, we read that God commanded the Israelites to take the city of Jericho and destroy every man and woman, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. That's brutally severe, but that's how God dealt with the sin of those who practiced idolatry and did not follow Him at that time. And we also see that God had commanded the Israelites to take all of the gold, silver, bronze and iron articles for Him and Him alone – they were commanded not to keep any of them for themselves.

But then we read that a man named Achan directly disobeyed and took some. Then, as a direct result of this sin, this disobedience – when the Israelites went into their next battle, God didn't fight for them and their enemies chased them off and killed 36 of them. God then commanded them very specifically on how to make things right and deal with this man Achan who had disobeyed Him.

Joshua 7:15 (NIV)

He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!

So, they took Achan, the silver, the gold, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had and burned them... Now, if you have a heart at all, you probably feel pretty conflicted about this example of how God felt about sin and how He dealt with it. It sure feels like the punishments were a bit of overkill for the crimes. A city full of 'innocent' people killed; Achan and his whole family killed – all because God commanded it.

Now, God doesn't need me to defend or justify His actions and I wouldn't presume to take that role... But we say 'innocent people' - but by God's perfect standards, there really aren't any 'innocent people'. But even despite that fact, I still don't feel great about what God commanded… And the point is clear - God takes sin far more seriously than we do.

If this is how God feels about sin, then we have a problem. - Because Achan isn't the only sinner in this story. Look back to the beginning - Adam was a sinner. Yes, Achan was a sinner. Israel was full of sinners. And you and I are sinners. However - that's not really the end of this story about how God feels about and deals with sin – I'll say more about that in a bit.

But, it's pretty clear from scripture that God certainly hates sin. The way He dealt with it so violently in the past demonstrates just how much God hates sin. So that begs the question…

II. Why does God hate sin?

Our first clue can be found in God's words to the Israelites from Leviticus 11:45 (NIV)...

I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Why does God hate sin? One reason we find in scripture, The Lord is Holy. God, as the author and beginning of everything is by very definition perfect. God's Word is perfect. When God said, "Let there be light," it happened. When He commanded that the oceans be, they came into existence. God's word is powerful! What He says is never pointless, vain, empty, or powerless.

God's Law, His commands, are a reflection of God's character which is pure and perfect. The Ten Commandments reflect God's holiness - and - His supreme justice. These commandments are not without punishment. A law without consequences is only an empty slogan. And, God is not solely an infinitely loving God. He is also infinitely just. He must deal with sin because of His very character.

God hates sin because it's absolutely contrary to his perfect and holy nature. It's impossible for God to do anything wrong. God can't cheat. God can't lie. God can't 'misrepresent the truth'. Holiness, which is the opposite of sin, is the standard as set by God himself. Anything in contradiction to this is sin and abhorrent to God's very being.

That's why Paul says this in Ephesians 5:1-8 (NIV)...

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children (2) and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (3) But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. (4) Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

(5) For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (6) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. (7) Therefore do not be partners with them. (8) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

To sin is to break God's Law and to offend His very character. To sin means to challenge God's authority. It means that you go against His Word. And God's Word is true and He has said that He will punish the lawbreaker. If he didn't, God would be tacitly approving of that which is contrary to his very Holiness. So because of God's Holiness, He must deal with sin.

Why does God hate sin? Because He is holy and because God loves His creation! Let's look at Paul's words from Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)...

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God created us to love us, and none of those things can ever separate us from God's love. However, Paul, as directed by God's Holy Spirit also says, in Romans 6:23 (NIV)...

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God hates sin because He loves His creation and sin is the only thing that can come between God and the object of His love - us. It's because of His supreme love for us that God hates sin. Sin doesn't hurt God. It hurt Him when He carried it to the cross, but sin hurts us. Sin hurts the object of God's love, therefore God hates it. Sin keeps us from Him and it destroys our faith, our families, our potential, our physical bodies and our lives.

Think about it – God created perfection in the Garden. Mankind was intended to live forever with Him. Because of sin – we now grow old, and struggle and hurt and die! That's not what God wanted for His children! That's why God hates sin! But as I said before, that's not the end of the story. God hates sin because He is Holy and sin hurts the object of His love – but we cannot forget the most important truth…

III. Jesus changes everything!

When you look at the Old Testament and how God punished sin, when you look at it – it's awful, it's bloody, it's violent. But God never intended judgment to be the final chapter of the story. Those Old Testament judgments pointed forward to something greater!

God hates sin and what it does to His creation! But He also knew that He was the only One powerful enough to do anything about it. The incarnation, Jesus, God becoming man was God's response to sin. Because of God's holiness and supreme justice – someone had to pay. Someone had to take the punishment that sin brings. Someone had to die. And God decided that someone would be Him...

Adam sinned and was expelled from the Garden. Achan sinned and faced judgment. Israel sinned and suffered God's discipline. We sinned and deserved the same fate. But instead of pouring out His judgment on us, Jesus - God in the flesh - took that judgment on Himself.

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

God wasn't going to settle for His creation being separated from Him by sin. God, in the person of Jesus, came to pay the price for sin, to make a way for His creation back to Him. And Paul affirms that in his words in Romans 8:1-2 (NIV)...

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (2) because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We still deal with the physical consequences of sin, but we no longer have to be separated from our Holy, righteous God. I no longer have to live with the burden and guilt of the eternal consequences of my sin. And notice, it doesn't say 'there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who now live perfect lives'. You see, we've talked about God's ultimate response to sin in the sacrifice of Jesus – now the question becomes - how should we respond?

As I've said – Jesus changes everything - everything except, perhaps, how God feels about sin. God definitely dealt with sin differently under the Old Testament law, but I'm not sure His feelings now about sin in our lives have changed. Jesus' blood, shed on the cross covers our sin, but…

Romans 6:1-4 (NIV)

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? (2) By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (3) Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

We don't have to pay the eternal price for our sin any longer, but if we're going to follow Jesus – we have to understand just how much God hates sin and 'why'. And then we have to reject sin and work toward fully obeying God's commands.

So What?

Man was kicked out of the garden because of sin. God hates sin because it destroys what He loves. But God defeated sin by giving Himself on a cross in the person of Jesus!

Your response to a person is drastically affected by your relationship with them. For instance, my son Winston is adopted. Biologically speaking, he's no more related to me than he is to any of you. And you may like him, but I love him - because he's my son, and I respond differently to my son.

When we accept Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, we are not merely forgiven criminals - we become adopted children. Because I am now His son – God responds differently to me, and my sin. That relationship makes all the difference. That's why God responds differently to us! Not because sin suddenly became acceptable, but because through Jesus we have become sons and daughters of the King!

Don't accept what the world tells you about how to live your life and what is acceptable or not. Go to God's Word and follow His commands. The world's promises are empty and bring nothing but frustration in the end. God's promises bring hope, and joy and freedom and life! Give yourself completely to God and you will find a loving Father just waiting to bless you!