While it is true that God has demonstrated a benevolent heart towards sinners and has especially commended His love for sinners through Christ’s death for them (as Romans 5:8 shows), it is also true that God hates the wicked way of the sinner.

Proverbs 15:9: “The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.”

Psalm 5:4-5: “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.  The foolish (or, the boastful) shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”

Workers of iniquity (or, sinners- they are basically equivalent) are hated by God in the sense that they are not favored by Him and they are regarded as His enemies.  This does not mean that His benevolent attitude towards them is not present while they remain candidates for His mercy- yet it means that they must be delivered from the guilt of their deeds before Him and turn from the evil way which puts them in opposition to His righteous ways in order to not be His enemy anymore.

Therefore, the call of the Gospel of Christ is a call to change our minds about sin and utterly forsake the pursuit of it to instead walk in surrender to the Lord’s righteous ways, and better learn His righteous ways, while pleading for His mercy through the shed blood of Christ.  

Isaiah 55:6-9: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We see in Romans chapter 2:4-11 that the Lord requires we turn in response to His goodness (and His goodness is supremely demonstrated through the death of Christ for sinners); and we also see that wrath and condemnation remain for those who will not turn and walk in truth as He demands.

To claim “God hates the sin but loves the sinner” is misleading at all times due to how God is angry with sinners even now and demands that sinners turn to Him and separate from their sin; and He is ready to slay them in His wrath if they don’t (see Psalm 7:11-12 here).  

To claim “God hates the sin but loves the sinner” is even worse yet because God will eventually rise to judgment against the sinner.  The sinner at that point is the direct object of His hatred expressed through the ruin of the sinner.  There is also no potential remedy for the sinner at that point.

Proverbs 29:1: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

Those destroyed by the flood in Noah’s time and the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are just two key examples of many judgments in the Bible where people found this out the hard way.  As with all times when the Lord rises up to judgment in this life, these are strong foreshadowings of the ultimate condemnation which unrepentant sinners will face on the Ultimate Day of Judgment.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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