Christian Mythology: 21. God – Myth: God loves everybody and has a wonderful plan for their lives

A half truth is no truth at all. This myth is all about balance. God loves. God also hates. We love God because He first loved us. Sinners hate God. But what about Christians? What is their attitude towards God when they sin? The answer I came up with may shock you as much as it did me.

“No God! Surely not I!” I cried. I knew I had unconfessed sin in my life. The surface consequences are well known. Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin and we are unclean and unrighteous. That may be tough enough to swallow. Many Christians will enter denial right there with the “I’m under grace” argument. When Paul asks the rhetorical question, “What? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” he specifically addresses grace and grace alone. Of course God’s grace is immediately present. But grace has nothing to do with unforgiven, unrighteous, and unclean. Rather, God’s grace and goodness leads us to repentance where Jesus forgives and cleanses us.

Sin left unrepented of leads to reprobation. This is a seared conscience. Think of searing as in cooking. Searing is meant to be a quick method of sealing in those wonderful juices of a steak before continuing to cook it the rest of the way. But if you don’t take the steak off the searing heat, eventually the steak will burn. Eventually that burning will leave behind nothing but ash. That ash is good for nothing but the garbage can.

Sin starts that way too. Left alone for too long and fostered and fed, the flames of sin will burn our consciences beyond repair. They become reprobate. This has nothing to do with salvation. It has everything to do with the glory of God and our usefulness in His kingdom.

Sin need go no further than the first instance for something far more horrifying to occur. Something most of us would not like to admit. Before I tell you what it is, think about this. God says that if we sin in one part of the law, we are guilty of all. Now put all that guilt of yours upon Jesus and multiply it by the billions of people in the world. That is the magnitude of sins Jesus saved us from. That is how much His blood covered and washed away.

When we sin after salvation, we trample on that blood. We are wicked. And here’s the killer that really got to me. We despise the Lord. Despise is a powerful word. It means to hate in the deepest way.

“No not me Lord. That’s for sinners, the lost, the unbelievers. Not me!” we cry. Yes, sin knows no bounds. It affects us all the same.

I discovered this truth in an exhausting word study. There was just no way around it. Find the word “despise” and it will be tied to believers. How great is His love and grace. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! Imagine the grief of God over this, inferior only to His superior grace. Is it any wonder that the warnings of Hebrews 10 are not all instant judgment instead as we trample underfoot the blood of Jesus when we sin? Sometimes, we end up reprobate. Sometimes we end up dead.