God has no sort of use for hateful things
From AM Farrer Lord I Believe
I Believe Jesus Christ Died and Rose
God has no sort of use for hateful things, and therefore it is that his hatred of them is absolute. His hatred of my failures of love and corruptions is exactly proportioned to His love for us. He who loves me, loves my health, He who loves my health hates my sickness; if his love for me is infinite, His detestation of my evil is immeasurable.
… And what is the fate of things which earn the detestation of Almighty love? Is it not that they should be abolished? God's hatred or wrath is, indeed, nothing but this, a simple desire for the abolition of its object. It is not, like mine, a passion.
… He hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Here is a saying which must be true in substance if there is to be any hope for sinful men; yet it is misleading and dangerous, if it suggests to me that my sin is not myself, but somehow detachable.
… The death of Christ has been called the reconciliation of God's wrath and love; but they need no reconciliation, they are one in God and the perfect unity between them is expressed in Christ's death. How He hates sin, for He dies to destroy it; and how He loves sinners for He dies to rid them of it.
The Christ who dies for men makes no comfortable distinction between the sin he hates and the sinners He loves; no, He dies to make them the thing He loves in them. He kills them in His death, to bring them alive in his resurrection. This is the revelation of God's righteousness, that He rejects (and it costs the death of His son) the lies of the devil. For the devil says that I can remain essentially good, and therefore worthy of my creator's love in spite of my sin; and his saying this is the unrighteousness or crookedness of the devil. But God says, no, I am a sinner, neither good nor capable of being loved; but that He will love me nonetheless, for His son shall die to make me lovable. And His saying this is the honesty, or righteousness of God. "For this cause the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil."
I Believe Jesus Christ Died and Rose
God has no sort of use for hateful things, and therefore it is that his hatred of them is absolute. His hatred of my failures of love and corruptions is exactly proportioned to His love for us. He who loves me, loves my health, He who loves my health hates my sickness; if his love for me is infinite, His detestation of my evil is immeasurable.
… And what is the fate of things which earn the detestation of Almighty love? Is it not that they should be abolished? God's hatred or wrath is, indeed, nothing but this, a simple desire for the abolition of its object. It is not, like mine, a passion.
… He hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Here is a saying which must be true in substance if there is to be any hope for sinful men; yet it is misleading and dangerous, if it suggests to me that my sin is not myself, but somehow detachable.
… The death of Christ has been called the reconciliation of God's wrath and love; but they need no reconciliation, they are one in God and the perfect unity between them is expressed in Christ's death. How He hates sin, for He dies to destroy it; and how He loves sinners for He dies to rid them of it.
The Christ who dies for men makes no comfortable distinction between the sin he hates and the sinners He loves; no, He dies to make them the thing He loves in them. He kills them in His death, to bring them alive in his resurrection. This is the revelation of God's righteousness, that He rejects (and it costs the death of His son) the lies of the devil. For the devil says that I can remain essentially good, and therefore worthy of my creator's love in spite of my sin; and his saying this is the unrighteousness or crookedness of the devil. But God says, no, I am a sinner, neither good nor capable of being loved; but that He will love me nonetheless, for His son shall die to make me lovable. And His saying this is the honesty, or righteousness of God. "For this cause the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil."
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