"God did not hang sin on the cross, except as Jesus Himself bore the sins of all those in whose stead He died, by the imputation to Him of all those sins. God hanged Jesus on the cross. God cursed Jesus, so that Jesus Himself, not some impersonal entity, sin, became 'a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one [not sin] that hangeth on a tree' (Gal. 3:13). Jesus, not sin, cried out in the pain of His punishment in the stead of others, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Jesus, not sin, died under the wrath of God about three o'clock on Good Friday afternoon."
- Rev. David Engelsma, "Gospel Truth of Justification," p. 165 (emphasis in the original)
It has become a common slogan among American Evangelicals that "God hates the sin, not the sinner." It is a proverb tossed around as a trump for any rebuke against the wicked.
But is it biblical?
Those evangelicals will turn purple if I quote Scripture in opposition to their proverb. "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; You [God] hate all evildoers" (Psalm 5:5). "The LORD tests the righteous,
but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence" (Psalm 11:5). Both of these verses tell us that God's hatred isn't just for sin, but for sinners. And, as Engelsma says in the quote above, it was a Person, Jesus of Nazareth, who was slain on the cross as the surety for elect sinners. It wasn't some amorphous substance called sin.
The problem is that Christians have allowed the humanists to define the argument. To oppose the works of sinners is "judgmental" and "intolerant." And so it is. But the Scriptures require us to judge sin with God's judgment, whether in ourselves or in others. God's truth requires us to be intolerant of falsehood. If we get called names as a result, well, let us remember what was done to Jesus, and let us give thanks that we have been called to share in some fractional part of the shame that was heaped on Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment