The Ten Commandments remind us of God’s justice. God is a just God. He has promised to punish sin and sin He has punished. It is not a case of God loves the sinner but hates the sin. God hates both the sin and the sinner. We are reminded in Psalm 5 about God, “You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with You the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong” (emphasis added) (Psalm 5:4-5).
Fortunately for us, God is also a gracious and merciful God (and no, He is not schizophrenic). We know that His mercy always far out reaches His justice. The Close of the Commandments reminds us that God’s justice is but to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, but His love and mercy is to a thousand generation of those who love Him. Thus we see that our God is truly a gracious and merciful God.
Getting back to the verse from the Psalm quoted above, how can it be that God hates the sinner? If God hates the sinner how can He love us enough to send Jesus to die for our sins? It can be because God is greater than our logic and because God does not confine Himself to time. We have a hard time putting it into our own understanding when we talk about whether God sent Jesus because He loves us or if God loves us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is almost like the discussion of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Which came first, God’s love for us or Jesus death which brought God’s love for us. The answer is, we do not need to debate the question, because for God there is no question, but a resounding both/and. God loves us because Jesus died for our sins and it is because Jesus died for our sins that God loves us so that He sent Jesus to die for our sins. Not logical, but Godly, because for God, who is outside time, they are both happening at the same time.
What all this means is that we are not to rest on our cheap grace. God loves us. He sent Jesus to die for us, and for that reason He loves us. He loves us first so that we might also love others. Because God loves us we have no right to sin, but we have the privilege to live our lives, with His help (of course) to the glory of His name. The focus is always on the Lord, that way we know that the glory will always go where it is supposed to go, to the Lord. It is like the story of the man who, when commenting on how he would like to be remembered said, “I hope that when people see me they will say, not ‘what a great guy he is,’ but ‘what a great God he has.’”
Dear Lord Jesus, forgive me when I try to put logic before Your Word. Forgive me when I sit on my grace instead of living my life to Your glory. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Work in and through me so that others can see You in my life, come to know You and give praise and glory to Your Holy Name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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