August 29
August 29
Although God has a holy hatred of sin, he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
Ezekiel 18 shows us two things that every human being desperately needs:
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. . . .
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (Ezek. 18:20, 23)
First, we need to live in a world that is ruled by one who is perfectly holy all of the time and in every way. And, because God is holy, he has a holy hatred of sin and every destructive consequence of it. Because of his hatred of sin, God announces that sin is not okay, that it has consequences. The final consequence of sin is death. We would have no hope of any kind of moral order, any kind of human safety or peace, without God’s holy moral rule. His hatred of sin is our hope. His hatred of sin and his meting out the consequences of sin led Jesus to the cross. God’s anger with sin is what caused Jesus to take our sin upon himself and bear the penalty for our sin by his death. Jesus took God’s holy anger on our behalf.
Second, every human desperately needs our world to be ruled by the one who is the definition of grace. If God were only angry with sin, there would be no hope for us. But his anger with sin is accompanied by his lavish and inexhaustible grace. The one who rules everything has no pleasure in the death of the sinner. What gives him pleasure is when the sinner turns from his sinful ways and lives. This grace, too, drove Jesus to the cross. In Jesus, God provided a way for sinners to be rescued, forgiven, and empowered, so that they might turn from their ways and live.
Without these two things there would be no justice, life would explode into moral chaos, and we would have no hope that what sin has broken could ever be restored.
The righteous life of Jesus, his acceptable death on our behalf, his resurrection, and his ascension allow God to offer us his justifying grace without compromising his holy law, his holy hatred for sin, or the consequences that sin carries. On the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s anger with sin and his grace toward the sinner embrace. There we find everything we need to finally be what we were created to be and to live as God designed us to live. Be thankful that God hates sin as you celebrate the grace that grants you his forgiveness.