Is God a "Hater?"

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can crush my heart.  Public and private discourse are often shut down, not by engaging each other’s’ ideas, but by ad hominem attacks on the person—“bigot, sexist, homophobe, etc.”  None cut quite so deep as “hater.”  Now imagine that you are the Creator of the universe, the all-just, all-loving God of the Bible.  How many jarring and inflammatory epithets have been hurled at Him?  Part of the reason for that is that the emotions of God are complex.  What would one expect from a Deity that claims top position in the pantheon of gods?  But He is complex, and we would do well to avoid the trap of assigning human understandings and definitions to God.  God is capable of feeling and yearning and expressing those longings in ways that defy complete understanding.  For example, we read in Romans 9, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated.”  How can that be?  How can a loving God “hate” someone?  The answer is wrapped up in the very nature of God.

Another example.  Can or does God ordain things to happen that He hates to see happen?  Yes!  The prime example is the murder of His own Son, Jesus Christ.  Was God “happy” to see His son treated in that way, pleased over such a gross miscarriage of justice and then delighted in the fact that Christ actually became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21)? And yet we read: But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand (Isaiah 53:10 NAS).  For God, to be pleased to crush His Son AND pleased to prosper Him is not contradiction.  He can do both at the same time.

All this leads us to the “question” that was put to me regarding 2 Peter 3:9.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  So then, how does this verse square with the overwhelming evidence in Scripture that God “elects” some to salvation, and “hardens” others (Romans 9:18)?  If he doesn’t want anyone to perish, then how can He choose that some would perish?  The answer is that God can desire one thing while at the same time willing the opposite.  There is no contradiction for God.  God DOES want everyone to repent.  He is intentionally postponing the return of Christ precisely to give more time for more people to repent.  His heart “breaks” at the thought of people who willfully reject His free offer of grace.  Yet He ordains that only some will accept that offer, while others will be hardened to it. 

Is this some sort of game?  Is God “playing” with us?  Does God think this is fun(ny)?  No.  The fact remains that people go to Hell because they choose to reject God’s free offer of salvation.  And the fact remains that God elects some to salvation and hardens others.  And the fact remains that there is no way for us to perfectly reconcile those two facts to our human satisfaction.  So where does that leave us?

1.      Be content.  For those of us who love God and who long to experience the full measure of life “in Christ,” we often feel the need to defend God.  We want to remove every obstacle that might keep someone from coming to faith.  Of course, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE ALL BE PREPARED TO GIVE A GOOD DEFENSE OF OUR FAITH (1 Peter 3:15). But there are many things about God that remain beyond our complete understanding.  This is one of them.  As for this one, let God be God.  Rest in the confidence that the very God who remains “beyond” us is the same God who will be irresistible to those He has called.

2.      Be humbly grateful.  If you are a believer, it would behoove you to fall on your face and thank God for giving you the faith to believe and the grace to be saved.  That is ALWAYS the human emotion that should be the response to the teaching of election (Ephesians 3:7-8; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Ephesians 2:8-9).

3.      Be stunned.  God is Holy.  The word “holy” literally means “other, heavy, substantial…”  God is not like us, just as surely as we are like Him.  While we are made in His image, we do not MIRROR Him, we reflect His glory.  We are not identical to Him, but we echo Him.  But He is so completely perfect and righteous and just and loving that we could not possibly begin to comprehend His holiness.  THIS IS WHY WE WILL SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM, because it will take that long to begin to know Him fully!  That God can long for one thing and then act in ways that are at cross purposes to His longing is simply another indication that He is God and we are not.

4.      Be a witness.  “Witness” is a legal term.  We testify to what we know and what we have seen.  We must be witnesses to this great and glorious God who has, before we did anything good or bad, chose us to experience His grace unto salvation.  While we were still sinners, He saved us!  Every people on earth must hear this good news.  Election is not our prerogative, or even our concern as it relates to others.  Our calling is to “go and make disciples.” 

In the final analysis, God DOES desire that every person should repent.  This is precisely why He has not sent His son to earth a second time…yet! But that day is fast approaching.  Our concern must be to worship Him and glorify Him to the end that many more WILL come to repentance.  As for who responds to the witness we bring, God knows.  And that is where we must leave it, in the complex, infinite, unsearchable mind of God.

Ask The Pastor: The Holy Spirit and Heaven

This question came from a member of Manna:

Ephesians 1. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

What exactly is meant by 'guarantee of our inheritance...until we acquire possession' does that mean that when we are in heaven we will not have the Holy Spirit in us?

A great question.  First, what is the “inheritance” of which Paul speaks?  You have correctly associated "our inheritance" with "Heaven."  But it means much more than just Heaven. Paul often uses the word "inheritance."  For example, in Galatians 3 he writes, “What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.”  Here, Paul means us to understand the word “promise” as synonymous with“inheritance.”  In other words, whatever was promised to Abraham, was his inheritance, in this case, the land, a people, and most importantly, a covenant relationship to God.  All of those were his “inheritance.”  That this is Paul’s meaning is confirmed in Hebrews 11, where we read:  “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”  He was promised a “place” (the Promised Land) which was his inheritance.

We live under the umbrella of a “new covenant,” which was like the old one, only SO MUCH BETTER.  As good as the “old” inheritance was, ours makes the old pale by comparison.  Paul points us to this reality in Colossians 3:23-24-- “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”  What is implicit in Colossians is made explicit in Hebrews 9:14-15.  After discussing the shortcomings of the old covenant, the writer of Hebrews celebrates the new covenant:  “¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^[c] so that we may serve the living God! n¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Our inheritance is eternal!  This must mean that our inheritance is  the riches of personally experiencing the glory of God in Heaven.  Our inheritance is not so much a "place," like the promised land was part of Abraham's inheritance, as much as it is EVERYTHING that has been promised to Christ, which we will enjoy forever.(Romans 8:17)  Our inheritance is nothing less than actually sharing in the glories of Christ Himself, which means we will reign with Him, govern with Him, rule with Him, create with Him, and so much more.    So now the question becomes, “how certain can we be that we will get what is promised?”  Answer:  It is guaranteed on the full faith and credit of God Himself.  Just as surely as Abraham got what was promised, so shall we.  “But how can we be sure?”  Because God has made a “down payment” on the place that Jesus is at work preparing for us(John 14:2).  And it’s a beaut!  Mine is right on the ocean.  That is a big part of the role of the Spirit in our lives now--to assure us that we WILL make it to Heaven, and that God will remain true to His word. 

Now to the heart of the question:  “until we acquire possession…”  “Does that mean that when we are in heaven, we will no longer have the Holy Spirit in us?”  Yes.  That is precisely what that means.  The down payment is no longer needed when “paid in full.”  While on earth, Jesus was “filled with the Spirit (Luke 4:1),” but in heaven, He no longer requires that same indwelling.  In heaven, we will no longer face the assaults of Satan and his demons, while here on earth, we still need the Spirit’s protection (1 John 4:4).  In Heaven, we will no longer need the convicting presence of the Spirit, or His guiding us away from error and into the truth (John 17:7-15).  Above all, the very purpose of the Spirit’s presence is to reveal and glorify Christ here on earth.  In heaven, that will no longer be necessary, because we will enjoy regular time with Christ, face to face! 

So then, we look forward to the day when Jesus and we are no longer apart.  We look forward to the day when our need of the Spirit becomes redundant.  We look forward to the day when the struggle will be over and the final victory won.  Just as Jesus once said, “it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7), someday He will say, “Come receive your promised inheritance.  Well done.  Welcome Home!"  Maranatha.  Come quickly Lord Jesus.