Does God Really Hate Us

Does God Really Hate Us?

[This was my sermon in response to the shooting at Tucson.]

Jesus is God-The-Eternal-Word who came into our world of Time as one of us - flesh & blood, skin & bones. He came to show us Who God Is. John the Apostle wrote: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16-17 (NKJV) Jesus taught us: "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt 5:44-45 (NKJV)

A medical doctor said: “Death is the yardstick which measures us all.” Because our personal death is certain, we reorganize our priorities. And we also do our best to hang on to life. Since we know our time is limited, we work to make the best use of it.

The shooting at Tucson should never have happened. But it did, and so do many other terrible things. Jesus spoke in Matt. 24 of wars and calamities. God knows what He is doing. In what seems despair, men and women are making choices, choosing to help, or wringing their hands.

John the Apostle wrote: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Rev 3:10


1. Times of trial and testing.

a) “Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.” Deut 4:34-35

Although the faithful will not be spared from sufferings, persecution, and martyrdom, they will be sustained and supported so as to persevere in their faithfulness. God intends us to know good and evil, to experience difficulties and to learn and grow into His Image.

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” James 1:12

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,” Phil 2:14-15


2. God uses the wrath of man to praise Himself.

“Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself.” Psalms 76:10

God has set up our world in such a complex and integrated way that even what seems to be evil may produce good. God is God and we cannot defeat His Purpose. But He wants us to turn to Him in love. And He gives us the ability to do this (Romans 5:1-5).

We shake our heads at the Picketers intruding in the sorrow of Tucson. They shout of God’s hatred for the world! Satan tries to convince us that God is our enemy. Sometimes Christians so emphasize sin & guilt that they lose sight of God's goodness and mercy (Romans 2:4).

Yet as Paul the Apostle wrote: “For there must also be factions (heresies KJV) among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.” 1 Cor 11:19. Our reaction to extremism causes us to rethink what we think we believe.

“Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” Matt 18:7

What sorrow awaits the world, because the dark side of the world tempts people to sin. Satan is a roaring lion. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.


3. God’s Answer.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14-15

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” 1 Cor 15:20-22

What good is Christianity without the Resurrection - both Christ’s and ours? His death would do us no good without it. What use is forgiveness if we remained dead? His disciples were transformed by His Resurrection; and this they preached above all. On ‘Easter’ morning Christians sing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing life upon those in the tombs.”

The resurrection body which we will have then is the fulfillment of what God intends for our present body. “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” 1 Cor 15:49

Johnson's Notes (The People's New Testament) says: "When we are raised to heaven we shall have spiritual bodies like Christ's, not like the body he received from Mary, but the glorious body in which he appears to saints and angels on high. Do we ask what body we shall have? It shall be like Christ's glorious body. See Phil 3:21."

Note how Paul the Apostle speaks of this. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
2 Cor 5:1-10 (NKJV)