Some people say that they can’t see how God can “hate sin” and yet “love the sinner.” It isn’t that hard to understand! The Bible tells us that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
Please notice the words “while we were yet sinners.” It does not say, “After we became saints,” nor does it say, “When we were trying to be saints.” That is how some would try to read the gospel story, but God loved us when we were still sinners, and He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us in order that we might be delivered from our sin.
God’s love for mankind-sinful mankind-has never failed since the day that man came forth from his Creator’s hand, but sin has entered and separated us from God. And the wages of sin is death. Justice has entered; penalties and punishments have fallen on transgressors, but love remains.
A poor woman whom I once met told me that after she had lost her husband and everything seemed dark to her, she happened one day to turn over the pages of a Bible without paying much attention to what she was reading. Suddenly a verse stood from the page before her: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)). It was like a stream of sunlight shining into her soul.
She closed the book to think of everlasting love, and just then it dawned upon her that she had forgotten to notice where these wonderful words were. It was a long time before she found them again, but the light and comfort that then entered her heart never left her.
To all who read this we would say, “God loves you, and longs to bless and save you. Why not, then, take Him at His word and receive that everlasting love?”