Does God Love Everyone? - 2
2. Sinners are Dead
I started the conversation by asking “who are sinners?” This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, some folks think that God loves only people that are not sinners. Well, as we saw previously, if that’s the case then God loves no one. Secondly, we have to understand what sin means to us in order to grasp God's love.
A lot of us want to play down the issue of sin. Recently I was told that people understand sin well enough and that Christians ought to be talking about God’s love instead. They are concerned that telling people about sin will simply push them further away from the splendid realities of God’s love; that we should love them, not judge or condemn them. Now there’s a part of that I agree with – we should love all men, and should demonstrate and communicate God’s love at every opportunity. However, if sin is indeed their problem – the thing coming between them and God, the thing that propels them on a trajectory towards ultimate and eternal torment, then it wouldn’t be very loving if we failed to draw their attention to that fact.
The Bible certainly doesn’t try to hush sin. Jesus was prophesied as the one who would save people from their sins. The first words of Jesus’ ministry are “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” He said that He would die “for the forgiveness of sins.” In his first sermon Peter answered the question, “What shall we do?” with “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” In his very next sermon he urges people to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.” And so on.
Paul tells us that we are all “dead in our sins.” This means that we are naturally lifeless and unresponsive towards God. Even our best actions are considered futile and rebellious – “filthy rags” – by God. In this state we are “haters of God.” We want nothing to do with a holy God and reject as foolishness the idea that we need to be saved from anything at all.
So we are all helpless sinners, twisted away from God by our own desires, lusts, and actions.
But, even still, even if we hate God, doesn’t He still love us?
I started the conversation by asking “who are sinners?” This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, some folks think that God loves only people that are not sinners. Well, as we saw previously, if that’s the case then God loves no one. Secondly, we have to understand what sin means to us in order to grasp God's love.
A lot of us want to play down the issue of sin. Recently I was told that people understand sin well enough and that Christians ought to be talking about God’s love instead. They are concerned that telling people about sin will simply push them further away from the splendid realities of God’s love; that we should love them, not judge or condemn them. Now there’s a part of that I agree with – we should love all men, and should demonstrate and communicate God’s love at every opportunity. However, if sin is indeed their problem – the thing coming between them and God, the thing that propels them on a trajectory towards ultimate and eternal torment, then it wouldn’t be very loving if we failed to draw their attention to that fact.
The Bible certainly doesn’t try to hush sin. Jesus was prophesied as the one who would save people from their sins. The first words of Jesus’ ministry are “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” He said that He would die “for the forgiveness of sins.” In his first sermon Peter answered the question, “What shall we do?” with “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” In his very next sermon he urges people to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.” And so on.
Paul tells us that we are all “dead in our sins.” This means that we are naturally lifeless and unresponsive towards God. Even our best actions are considered futile and rebellious – “filthy rags” – by God. In this state we are “haters of God.” We want nothing to do with a holy God and reject as foolishness the idea that we need to be saved from anything at all.
So we are all helpless sinners, twisted away from God by our own desires, lusts, and actions.
But, even still, even if we hate God, doesn’t He still love us?
Comments