“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”–2 Cor. 5:21
The fact that God hates sin is evident–He tells us so! Over and over again the Bible affirms that God, who is holy, hates sin. Not only does He tell us so, He shows us. No where is God’s hatred of sin seen more clearly than at Calvary. Sin never appears more awful than it does when you consider the cost of being cleansed from it–the crucifixion of Christ, God’s own dear Son.
Since sin cannot go unpunished, Christ became sin for us and allowed Himself to be put to death that He might pay the awful cost and provide life for those dead in trespasses and sin. God hates sin and loves the sinner to such a great degree that He gave Himself to be both “just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”(Rom. 3:26). While my mind cannot comprehend so great a love, my heart cannot constrain itself– I am compelled to shout, “Hallelujah what a Savior”. There is no greater love than this–nor is there any greater hatred of sin! He who is pure and spotless became “sin for us— that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”(2 Cor. 5:21). As to how such love and hatred should affect us, Samuel Davies wrote:
“Oh! what still more dreadful havoc would Sin have made, if it had been punished upon the sinner himself in his own person! Surely all the various miseries which have been inflicted upon our guilty world in all ages, and even all the punishments of Hell–do not so loudly proclaim the terrible desert and malignity of sin–as the cross of Christ! The infinite malignity of sin, and God’s hatred to it, appear nowhere in so striking and dreadful a light–as in the cross of Christ! Let a reasonable creature take but one serious view of that cross–and surely he must ever after tremble at the thought of the least sin!”
