I used to say that, but now I'm not so sure. It seems God has some form of hatred for the sinner him/herself as well.
Psa 5:4 NASB - For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.
Psa 5:5 NASB - The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.
Psa 5:6 NASB - You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
Well, man being sinful, God showed His love by sending His Son to die for sinners. That's what I am trying to say. God had to love us as sinners, if not, He wouldn't have sent Jesus to bear our sins upon the cross.
Psa 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psa11:5 The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. In Psa 5:5 God said he hated the workers; the person that did the works. In psa 11:5 the person that God hated was he that was behind the violence. The God that hates as well as loves is a God that religionist and wordlings cannot stand. They cry out with the Jews that crucified Christ, away with this man, we will not have this man to rule over us.
But seriously though, this issue like others (Election, sovereignty etc) need to be held in 'tension.'
My pastor describes it this way: Imagine you have a rubber band
looped around your thumb and forefinger. Spread your fingers apart and you get tension, the band trying to bring your fingers together again but your fingers resisting. In the same way we have seemingly opposing views in scripture that must be held in tension to avoid a 'lopsided' view of God.
So someway, somehow, God loves sinners enough to pour out His wrath on Jesus in our place. But He also hates sinners enough to damn them to the lake of fire if they do not repent and believe.
Tension.....so very true RL....scripture and our lives and existence are replete with many such "tensions".
I "think" that it just might be intentional.... God desiring us to wrestle with these tensions....never in our capabilities able to resolve them.....
Maybe. All any of us can go by is all the examples put forth in the scriptures. We know He loved sinners enough to send His Son to die in our stead. Eventhough we were, and still are, worthy of eternal death, He enterceded by placing His Son there to bear our sins. That's love to the inth degree.
I think where a lot of people miss the point is they try to classify the wicked and the sinners together. The bible says in 1 Pet 4:18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? I don't think you will find in scripture where God hates a sinner but his wrath is kindled against the wicked and ungodly. We that are saved had to be convinced by the Holy Ghost that we are sinners, and we are convinced that we are nothing but sinners saved by grace all the day's of our lives. I believe it was Martin Luther that said, a sinner is a precious thing, the Holy Ghost has made him such.
Heavens sake, I love this 3 year old girl!! But thanks to her you won! And after her order, she didn't even eat it!!!!!!!! 'Here Da-Da!!!!' and she threw it on my desk! :laugh: