I came across this post at Already Not Yet. You can see it for your self here.
“The cliché, God hates the sin but loves the sinner, is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty Psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible, the wrath of God rests both on the sin (Romans 1:18ff) and on the sinner (John 3:36).”
-D.A. Carson
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, Crossway, 2000, p. 70.
(HT: Reformed Voices)
You can read The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God on line here.
So how do we apply that/ do we apply that......??
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems on one level the saying "God loves the sinner but hates the sin" is not accurate. I think that if one were going to use that saying, one might consider clarifying what one meant by it.
ReplyDeleteThe saying is also used in a different form as an instruction to another person: "you should hate the sin but love the sinner." It seems to me that this is still a legitimate way of looking at things...at least I cannot think of how we as Christ-followers have been instructed to hate anyone though I think we should hate sin.
Also, it would be good to read the Carson quote in context...I guess I threw it on the blog because it piqued my interest.
ReplyDeleteHere is the quote with some helpful context:
ReplyDeleteHow, then, should the love of God and the wrath of God
be understood to relate to each other? One evangelical cliché has it that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. There is a small element of truth in these words: God has nothing but hate for the sin, but it would be wrong to conclude that God has nothing but hate for the sinner. A difference must be maintained between God’s view of sin and his view of the sinner. Nevertheless the cliché (God hates the sin but loves the sinner) is false on the face of it and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, his wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible, the wrath of God rests both on the sin (Rom. 1:18ff.) and on the sinner (John 3:36).
Ha zaa! Thanks for clarifying, DA!
ReplyDelete