Most of us know that GOD doesn't like sin, but this simple statement doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. It isn't just that HE doesn't like sin, HE is repulsed by sin. Sin is something our Eternal FATHER abhors with every part of HIS being. Sin isn't something that HE makes a case by case decision on as to whether to tolerate being around. Now that we understand just where GOD stands on sin, and don't think for a moment that I've even began to scratch the surface with my few inadequate sentences, let's throw another issue into the mix that GOD has a very distinct position on. Let's talk about love for a bit, and mix it up with HIS intolerance of sin. If we let it, this can get just a bit confusing, so we just won't let it, okay? When we talk about the devil and GOD, we easily fall into the cadence that GOD is good and the devil is bad, that GOD is positive and satan is negative, that GOD is heaven and the devil is hell. This particular area of what we call religion is probably just about the only one in which most people agree, even though some are making noise about there being no hell. In regards to that, I believe that if we give people enough time, someone will be trying to convince everyone else that there is no sun in the sky, that what appears to be the sun is actually something else. Anyways, back to the issue at hand. Getting back to the cadence thing, the point I was after there was that most of us, even those who do not profess CHRIST, see GOD and satan as opposites, and it's only natural that attributes identified with GOD and satan preserve the same status of being opposites. So, is it a reach to see love and sin as opposites? Yes, I know that we commonly view love and hate as opposites, but let's take a different tack on things for a moment. We know that GOD has nothing for sin but hate. Yes, our LORD GOD does hate sin. Do you suppose that HE could ever feel the opposite emotion [of hate] for sin? Isn't the question really do you suppose that HE could ever love sin? I know what my reaction is to that one, my gut tightens up, and I feel that everyone would answer that with a very loud and far reaching, "NO!" So now where does that leave us, as Christians? GOD hates sin, and there is no chance that HE'll ever feel any differently about it. We all know not only from reading HIS Word but also from living in our fleshly natural bodies that sin is as much a part of us as is breathing and our heart beating. But we also know that because of love, our LORD sent HIS only SON to the cross. With GOD hating sin so much, how could HE have basically buried HIS SON in sin? Don't even think that I'm going overboard with this, that is exactly what did happen. Read your Bible! Don't take my word, or the word of any other Minister of the Gospel, take the FATHER's Word.
'And about the ninth hour JESUS cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My GOD, My GOD, why have YOU forsaken ME?" ' (Matthew 27:46 NKJV)
What we have here is the reaction of JESUS CHRIST when HE experienced something for the first time in HIS life. Just as our kids draw strength from us when they know we're watching their first ballgame, or their first band concert, CHRIST had always felt the presence of HIS FATHER's eyes on HIM, and had drawn strength from that. But then, at the precise moment of HIS [physical] death, two things happened. First, all of mankind's sins were [figuratively] piled onto HIS body. And second, because GOD hates sin so much that HE cannot and will not, even for the sake of HIS SON, gaze on it, HE turned HIS eyes from it. HE wasn't turning HIS eyes from HIS SON, HE was taking HIS gaze off of the sin HIS SON was buried in. I've taken us into the death of CHRIST in order to illustrate just how much GOD hates sin. Now don't go trying to get your minister to explain away this scene of death and momentary abandonment as being something other than exactly what it was. Let's bring a question we looked at earlier back into play, "Where does this leave Christians?" It leaves us in just about the same position JESUS was in there on the cross, but with a distinct advantage HE didn't have. When CHRIST died, and 'yielded up HIS spirit' (Matthew 27:50 NKJV), HE spent three days 'amongst the dead' before arising. What we have to remember here is that HE arose. That's what is important, not how many days HE spent 'amongst the dead.' I believe that HE arose on the day HE did, the first day of the week, so that we would use that day as a day of celebration. Isn't that what our worship should be, a celebration of life? The day HE arose as victorious over death, which is the opposite of life, shouldn't that day be celebrated by our worship as the day our lives began? This is where we as Christians stand in regards to GOD'sHE'll always love us. That is, and will always be the reason HE 'forsook' HIS only begotten SON. And just like we'll sometimes separate ourselves from HIM by sin as CHRIST separated HIMSELF from HIS FATHER by sin, when we have victory over sin, which represents death, as CHRIST did, HE'll be waiting with outstretched arms. A point to be made here, and that is that CHRIST did make the decision to separate HIMSELF from GOD by sin. When HE made the decision to accept the will of the FATHER, HE knew what was in store for HIM. This is what gives such value to HIS obedience in contrast to the disobedience of Adam.
'For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one MAN's obedience many will be made righteous.' (Romans 5:19 NKJV)
This is also the position the 'one MAN's obedience' puts us in before GOD, as righteous, not on our own accord, but by the obedience of the ONE who made the conscious decision to separate, by sin, HIMSELF from GOD.
So, has your decision been made? To 'unseparate' yourself from GOD?
Be BLESSED!
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