Reconciling Sin, Judgment, and a God of Love Part 3

If you were brought up in a home or in a church with an overemphasis on sin with condemnation and fear of punishment, talking about sin can understandably be a real trigger. The temptation, however, is to fall in the opposite toxic ditch and say, “There is no such thing as sin,” or “Since everyone has sinned, it is not a big deal.” I addressed both these ditches in Part 1 of this blog series. In Part 2, I addressed how God sees sin and how we are justified and made righteous with no condemnation in Christ. 

Here in Part 3, I will continue to delve into how God handles sin, what the judgment and wrath of God is, and how this gels with a God Who is Love. This last part will be a bit longer to do it justice, but hang in there. It will be soooo worth it!

Last time, I discussed that God sees sin as a sickness that needs to be healed and that we have been fully justified and made righteous—un-condemnable because of Christ’s work, not our own. I also mentioned in both Parts 1 and 2 of this series that sin is NOT a NATURE. The struggle with it may feel like nature. This is expressed in the struggle in Romans 7:15, 18-19, 23-24a that we can all relate to:

15I’m a mystery to myself, for I want to do what is right, but end up doing what my moral instincts condemn.

18For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but willpower is not enough to accomplish it. 

19My lofty desires to do what is good are dashed when I do the things I want to avoid. 

23But I discern another power operating in my humanity, waging a war against the moral principles of my conscience and bringing me into captivity as a prisoner to the “law” of sin—this unwelcome intruder in my humanity. 

24What an agonizing situation I am in! 

      The Passion Translation (TPT, emphasis added)

This is the battle with sinful ways of being, and it can be agonizing. But here the Apostle Paul is talking about an entity or a foreign principle that is waging war against Him through the flesh of his fallen humanity. But sin is not a nature. He delineates this in verse 20.

20So if my behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am.

Romans 7:20 (TPT, emphasis added)

This idea of sin as an interloper (not a nature or identity) is seen when the word “sin” is first introduced with God taking to Cain about his fury that his offering was not accepted in Genesis 4:7:

So Yahweh said to Cain:

“Why are you so angry and bothered? If you offer what is right, won’t you be accepted?

But if you refuse to offer what is right, sin, the predator, is crouching in wait outside the door of your heart. It desires to have you, yet you must be its master.”

    TPT (emphasis added)

Note, sin is found in the rebellious attitude of Cain’s heart behind what was supposed to be an offering of love done out of a relationship of love with a God Who provides all things, including the offering. 

Note, too, that sin is outside, wanting access inside to prey upon Cain. Sin is lustful and perverse and aims to master and enslave Cain. But God urges His son to master it instead, for Cain’s sake. This is what a good, loving Father does. He disciplines a son/daughter who is teetering on the brink of sin with potentially disastrous consequences. We see Cain’s poor choice in the murder of his brother in the next verse. In passages following, God confronts the murder, reiterates the inherent consequences, but even in this, He protects Cain from the vengeance of others. 

So, sin is an entity on the outside, and even when we yield to it and become mastered by it, God still views us as His kids and aims to protect us. This falls in line with who we truly are as sons/daughters of

God—forgiven, justified, made righteous as Christ is in this world, and restored to original innocence because of the work of the cross. 

But because of the fallenness of the world we are born into, that brokenness all too often brings a desperate brokenness in our minds, wills, emotions, personalities, and bodies that needs to be healed. However, it’s so important that we understand that sin is not an identity or a nature.

Francois DuToit in the Mirror Bible in his commentary on Romans 5:12 brilliantly states: 

The word translated “sin”, is the word ”hamartia”, from “ha”, negative and “meros”, portion or form, thus to be without your allotted portion or without form, pointing to a disorientated, distorted identity;…Sin is to live out of context with the blueprint of one’s design; to behave out of tune with God’s original harmony.

This clarifies sin as not knowing who we are in the image of God/Love. This involves fallen ways of being that cause us to act in destructive ways that violate love toward others and ourselves. 

So where does all this fit with God as a Judge and with the issue of judgment?

Understand once again that much of the understanding of God’s judgment in the context of punishment comes from a fallen perspective of Who God really is. God’s primary nature is Love (1 John 4:8, 16), Truth (John 14:6), Life (John 11:25, 14:6; 6:35), Light (John 8:12), the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), the True Vine (John 15:1), and the Way/Door (John 14:6; 10:7). I would say that all of these are facets of Him as Love. Notice that judgment is something God does out of Who He is. He is Love—the just Judge (John 5:27, 30; Acts 17:31, Acts 10:42, 2 Tim. 4:8, Heb. 12:23). And because He is Love and just, He heals the sin that plagues His kids. He is the Great Physician, Who judges because He loves. 

And what/how does He judge? He has justified His kids and judges them as righteous. AND He judges or exposes the presence of sin that is molesting His kids. This is the alien entity, which hijacks His kids to harm others and/or themselves.  

He is not the type of Judge Who metes out punishment for sin. Sin has been forgiven—all sin for all time (Heb. 10:12). If it is forgiven by God, God would be unrighteous to punish sin. Even with our very questionable human justice system, if someone has committed a crime but the charges are dropped (or forgiven), that person goes free without punishment, even if they truly committed the crime. 

You don’t punish what you forgive. 

Remember too that sin is not the breaking of moral law, but the violation of the laws we are under post-cross: the law of Love, the law of Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit, and the law of freedom (John 13:34-35, Galatians 6:2, Romans 8:1-2, James 1:25). These are the laws that fulfill all the Mosaic Law and the prophets (Matthew 22:39-41) and can be summed up in the Law of Love, since all three members of the Godhead are Love (1 John 4:8, 16).  

Our just Judge has judged us righteous because of the salvific work of the cross. There is no condemnation in Christ, and who can lay a charge against us? It is God who justifies; who is he that condemns (Rom. 8:1, 31-34)? We judged are AS Christ in this world, which is why there is no fear in the Day of Judgment. First John 4:16-18 says specifically:

16 God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. 17By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world. 18Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection.

    TPT (emphasis added)

Brian Simmons, lead translator of The Passion Translation, comments:

4:17 The Aramaic can be translated “we will have open faces on the day of judgment.” For the true believer filled with God’s love, the day of judgment is not to be feared but looked forward to, for perfect love will have made us completely like Christ. Love provides us with no reason to fear the future or to fear punishment from God. 

(emphasis added)

But God is serious about sin. He WILL judge or expose it to heal it, and His “therapeutics” are sometimes brutal (but essential). You can trust Him. YOU are totally worth it—the object of His holy passion. He loves you way too much to let you be less than who you are. He disciplines you as a good Father because you are good, NOT because you are bad. I will say that again to help it sink in:

God disciplines you as a good Father BECAUSE you are good, NOT because you are bad. 

You are way too good to be allowed to operate in ways not worthy of who you are. And evil (or sick) ways of being are not worthy of you (Heb. 12:7-11). This is healing judgment, not punishing judgment. 

When you have a lens of God as a punisher, that is how you will read the Scripture. Understand when Scripture points to God as He is revealed in Christ on the cross as co-suffering, self-sacrificial, other-giving Love, it is reflecting God rightly. When it points to something else (angry, punitive, distant, transactional, disapproving, etc.), it is pointing to OUR hearts and what we are projecting onto Him. For more on this I refer you again to my 4-part blog series on How to Handle Scripture Rightly / Part One.

Who you are in your inner being is as pure and holy as Christ (1 John 4:16-18, Eph. 1:4, Rom. 8:1, 19-20, 29-30, 33-34; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21). Sin is not a nature, but it is the outgrowth of not knowing who you are and Whose you are. Your mind, will, emotions, personalities, ways of being, strongholds, and mindsets need healing, as do mine. 

But He will NEVER shame or condemn you, 

We are all guilty of violating the love commandment.

Guilt says we have DONE bad.

Shame and condemnation say we ARE bad and without hope.

God is after shame and condemnation, to strip them off of us because it hamstrings His precious children, and we are ALL God’s offspring (Acts 17:26-30). 

And He will convict us of righteousness, which will expose our sin and guilt, in order to heal them, so we can be free and truly ourselves (John 16:7-11). We are too lovely to be left less than who we are.

So, what about the wrath of God? The word wrath in the New Testament is the Greek word orgē, which means “a violent passion.” God is Love and is violently passionate toward you on your behalf, and He is violently passionate against all that molests His kids: namely sin, death, and the enemy of our souls.

William Paul Young, author of The Shack, The Lies We Believe about God and multiple other brilliant works, studied every word for wrath/punishment in Scripture. He found that the only word with implications of punishment was the Greek word timōria, used in the context of humans requiring/exercising wrath with punishment, not God. 

So how do we look at scriptures such as Nahum 1:2, which says:

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and prolongs it against his enemies.

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

This could be a really scary scripture, except when you know God’s true nature that never changes (Heb. 13:8). The work of the cross did not appease an angry God to change His mind about us, but to bring us back to change OUR minds about Who He really is!

God is jealous FOR us—on our behalf. 

God has no people who are enemies, even though many set themselves up as His enemy in their minds because of wicked deeds (Col. 1:20-22).

God’s enemies are not people. His enemies are sin, death, and the enemy of our souls (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

His wrath is toward His true enemies (sin, death, and satan)—enemies that are defeated but that still molest His kids. His wrath is on behalf of us, His kids. 

And God has forgiven and FORGOTTEN our sin.

1 Corinthians 13:5 says about Love:

 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

New International Version (NIV, emphasis added)

2 Corinthians 5:19 states this was not just Christ, but God (Father/Spirit) in Christ:

19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not 

counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message 

of reconciliation to us.

NRSV (emphasis added)

Also, this was not just for believers, but for the world!

Even in the Old Testament, Psalm 103:12 says:

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

NRSV (emphasis added)

And again:

Come now and let’s deliberate over the next steps to take together. Yahweh promises you over and over:

“Though your sins stain you like scarlet, I will whiten them like bright, new-fallen snow!

Even though they are deep red like crimson, they will be made white like wool!”

      Isaiah 1:18 (TPT, emphasis added)

God is ALWAYS Love, and Love looks like Himself: patient, kind, not envying, not boasting, not proud, not rude, keeping NO records of wrongs, not delighting in evil, but delighting in Truth, always hopeful, believing the best, persevering, and never failing (1Cor. 13:4-8).

Moreover, God is constantly conforming His kids into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:17-18, 29-30; Eph. 4:12-13). This involves purifying and cleansing.

The Bible likens the purifying of God toward His kids as a consuming fire and washer’s (or fuller’s) soap:

Hebrews 12:28-29 says:

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe, 29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire. 

NRSV (emphasis added)

Indeed, Mark 9:49 says:

49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.”

NRSV (emphasis added)

First Corinthians 3:11-15 brings this purification process to our foundation and works:

11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 the work of each builder will become visible, for the day[a] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14 If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. 15 If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

NRSV (emphasis added)

Malachi 3:2-3 not only brings in the refining and purifying fire, but also washing as with washer’s (or fuller’s) soap:

2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

NRSV (emphasis added)

This refiner’s fire that purifies as silver and gold is also seen in Zechariah 13:9.

All of this is the fires of Love burning up that which is not of Christ. 

God is Love and a consuming fire. So, what does God burn up? The answer is everything that is not of His kind—not of Love’s kind. God will purify with His fires of Love all that is not of Love. And He does this BECAUSE He loves and is not willing to leave us less than the full, glorious, spotless sons/daughters we are—fully whole/holy, fully free, restored to original innocence, and radiantly beautiful, just like Him!

ALL His kids are made in His image and likeness. Note that in 1 Corinthians 3:15, even if the works are burnt up, the builder remains. Our original design is of Love. What is NOT of the Spirit/Love will be consumed in His fires of Love: 

• the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) 
• everything that Love is Not (envying, boasting, proud, rude, easily offended, self-righteous, delighting in evil, suppressing the truth, not protecting, not trusting, not hoping, fearful, etc.) 

What remains is the true YOU and me—glorious, whole, holy, without spot or blemish, a radiant bride who looks just like her Bridegroom in our flavor (2 Cor. 3:18; Romans 8:14-19, 21, 29-30; Eph. 1:4; Eph. 2:10; Eph. 4:12-13; Eph. 5:26-27; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 4:17; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21)!

Wow, adored one. THAT is your destiny!

The more you yield to Him day by day, baby step by baby step, the more you will be apparent in your glorious, free, powerful, and beautiful self this side of heaven. This is the glorious manifestation of the sons and daughters of God! 

I am excited about that for ALL of us. Hallelujah! I suspect this has stretched many of you, and I trust it has in a really good way! I’d love to hear from you!

Much Love,

Catherine