Good News! God Hates Sin by Trevin Wax

One of the vexing challenges in our day is helping people understand the biblical vision of sin and why God responds so vehemently against iniquity. The Bible doesn’t shy away from visceral descriptions of God rejecting evil in stark, unsparing terms. Take the image of the land of the Canaanites “vomiting” out its inhabitants due to their immorality and idolatry—a dramatic metaphor if ever there was one.

John Stott comments,

The holy God’s rejection of evil is as decisive as the human body’s rejection of poison by vomiting. Vomiting is probably the body’s most violent of all reactions. . . . God cannot tolerate or “digest” sin and hypocrisy. They cause him not distaste merely, but disgust. They are so repulsive to him that he must rid himself of them. He must spit or vomit them out.

God hates sin. Full stop. It’s an abomination to him. It disgusts him. It angers him.

But why?

In evangelism and discipleship, we often move quickly from “we’re sinners” to “the wages of sin is death” to “we need a Savior.” That progression makes sense, but in my experience, even among believers, we don’t always feel the weight of God’s revulsion toward sin or understand why he hates it so much that a penalty of death and hell would fit. Perhaps this is because we live in a world that has reduced God’s benevolence to tolerance, assuming he’ll be overly accommodating toward all our offenses. The biblical image of a majestic God vomiting at sin is far removed from the sentimental deity our culture often imagines.

Naturally, some Christians attempt to make sin’s seriousness clearer by simply repeating, in effect, Sin is bad, bad, bad. But we need to go deeper. Why is sin so bad? Why does God respond with such intolerance?

Need for Clearer Explanation

In The Gospel Way Catechism, Thomas West and I have sought to articulate core Christian teachings in a way that counters today’s cultural assumptions. One key question we address is this: How does God respond to sin? Here's our answer:

God is not a permissive grandfather who winks at sin, but a perfect Father of fiery love. He hates sin because it defies his righteous character, disrupts our fellowship with him, and defaces us—his beloved image-bearers.

We’re pushing back against the idea that “it’s my job to sin; it’s God’s job to forgive me.” In today’s world, sin—if acknowledged at all—is seen as a failure to live up to personal standards, not an offense against a holy God. Many accept the need to resist selfish impulses but only for self-improvement, not because they’ve defied God or failed to love their neighbor.

The Bible tells a different story. God isn't a passive observer, indifferent to our rebellion. He isn't a permissive grandfather who shrugs at sin. Nor does he sweep evil under the rug. Instead, Scripture reveals a God who thunders against sin, whose holy love demands he confront and destroy it.

God’s hatred of sin isn't at odds with his love; it’s an expression of it. If sin separates us from the source of all life, leading to death, how could a loving God remain indifferent? His wrath isn't cold, detached anger but the white-hot response of a holy, loving Creator who sees sin corrupting and destroying his people. If God stood passively by as sin disfigured those made in his image, then we’d have reason to question his love.

Spider Infestation

To make this reality more visceral, we use an illustration in the children’s version of our catechism. Imagine waking up in a room full of spiders. They’re crawling on the walls, scurrying across the floor. You look down and see bites on your legs—your skin burning, infection setting in. You cry out for help. Now, what if your dad walked in, saw the infestation, and simply shrugged? You’d be perplexed. You want someone to crush the spiders, not ignore them.

Sin is like that infestation—poisoning our hearts, distorting our desires, and destroying our relationships. It doesn’t just harm us; it defies God’s holiness and love. Because God loves—he loves his glory and whatever will bring about our ultimate good—he must hate sin because not only is it an affront against his goodness, but it stands in the way of all he wants for us. He sees how sin wounds, deceives, and leads to death.

C. S. Lewis on Why God Hates Sin

C. S. Lewis arrived at a similar conclusion in a letter he wrote to Arthur Greevesshortly after his own conversion. He realized God’s hatred of sin isn’t arbitrary. God hates sin because it keeps us from him. Evil is a barrier to what we ultimately long for—God himself. In Augustinian terms, all sin is misdirected love, a grasping for idols out of the deeper desire for God.

“This is why we must be prepared to find God implacably and immovably forbidding what may seem to us very small and trivial things,” Lewis wrote. “When we are tempted, we must remember that just because God wants for us what we really want and knows the only way to get it, therefore he must, in a sense, be quite ruthless towards sin.”

Lewis saw that the image of a passive grandfather can’t be squared with the God of the Bible. Sin isn't only a personal failure; it’s an assault on both God’s holiness and our humanness.

God is not like a human authority who can be begged off or caught in an indulgent mood. The more he loves you the more determined he must be to pull you back from your way which leads nowhere into his way which leads you where you want to go—to God.

Good News of God’s Hatred of Sin

This is why we must do better at explaining why God hates sin. It’s not enough to say sin is bad. We must show how sin is a parasite, feeding on the good and beautiful things God has made, warping our affections, deceiving our hearts, and leading to destruction. Sin is what keeps us from the God we were made for. Sins are like spiders that must be stomped.

God’s hatred of sin reveals the severity of his love. If he were indifferent, we’d be lost forever. The fact that he thunders against sin, that he refuses to tolerate it, that he has made a way to defeat it through the cross of Christ—all this is good news.

The softened, sentimental vision of God so common today doesn’t match the God of the Bible. Scripture presents a blazing sun of holiness and mercy, whose wrath against sin erupts from the volcano of his everlasting love. Because he loves, he will not tolerate what destroys. Because he loves, he has acted in Christ to rescue us from sin. Because he loves, he will one day purge this world of evil.

That’s why, in the end, it’s good news that God hates sin.

(This blog appeared first on April 1, 2025.  You can view the original here.) 

Harnessing the Winds of Revival by Geoff Chang

Editor’s note: This article is taken from the introduction to C. H. Spurgeon’s Sermons (Expanding Ministry—Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: 1861 to 1876, Volumes 7–22) in vol. 7, pp. v–vii and pp. xiv–xv. Used by permission of Reformation Heritage Books. This collection is now available for purchase.

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The first seven years (1854–1861) of C. H. Spurgeon’s ministry in London were accompanied by a surprising revival. No one could have expected it. Through a nineteen-year-old country preacher, a dying congregation was revitalized, and hundreds—perhaps thousands—were converted under his ministry during those early years. Though only a few dozen were in attendance when Spurgeon first arrived at New Park Street in 1853, by 1861 membership was at 1,473, with thousands more regularly attending.

But revival also brought its challenges. During those years Spurgeon warned his congregation, “If the Lord sends his Spirit like a hurricane, it is ours to deal with skill with the sails lest the hurricane should wreck us by driving us upon some fell rock that may do us serious injury.”[1] Spurgeon had seen churches shipwrecked in the winds of revival.[2] One church boasted of taking in a hundred or so new members in a year, only to excommunicate eighty of them the following year for “disorderly conduct and forsaking the truth.”[3] Other churches were happy to swell their ranks but gave no thought as to how to disciple or engage their people in ministry.[4] Some self-proclaimed revivalists had begun resorting to new tactics and emotionalism, hoping to fabricate the work of the Spirit.[5] Even as Spurgeon experienced a revival in his church, he refused to compromise his theological and ecclesiological convictions. “Take care, ye that are officers in the church, when ye see the people stirred up, that ye exercise still a holy caution, lest the church become lowered in its standard of piety by the admission of persons not truly saved.”[6]

At the same time, Spurgeon did not want to let the winds of revival simply pass by. There was such a response to his preaching that he contemplated at one point becoming a traveling evangelist. But in his experience of itinerant preaching, it was hard to know what the long-term effect was. While preaching in an open field in Wales, Spurgeon describes how “the Spirit of God was poured upon us, and men and women were swayed to and fro under the Heavenly message.” Still, once the meeting ended, the people went their separate ways, and he would never see them again.[7]

While one must be careful not to let the winds destroy the ship, the skillful sailor will look for ways to harness that wind. But how does one harness the hurricane winds of revival? Spurgeon believed it was through the church. As converts gave credible professions of faith, they were brought into the membership of the church, where they could be cared for by the elders and discipled under the ministry of the word. Not only that, but these church members were then engaged in the work of ministry, in both caring for one another and bringing the gospel to the lost around them. Spurgeon’s effort to harness the winds of revival was represented by the building and opening of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1861. This magnificent new building that seated six thousand would become the base of operations for Spurgeon’s ministry for the next thirty years.

If the New Park Street Pulpit tells the story of a revival in London, then the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit tells the story of the harnessing of that revival through an established and expanding church ministry. Like the previous volumes, they are a collection of the published Sunday morning sermons that were being preached week by week at the Metropolitan Tabernacle and then collected into a single volume at the end of each year. But just as God uses the preaching of the word to revive His people, He also uses it to sustain them and send them out. These sermons were the lifeblood of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, establishing that congregation in the word and providing the spiritual vitality needed for all the endeavors that would flow out of it.

~

The stories from Spurgeon’s ministry are remarkable: the vast audiences, the sermons published, the pastors trained, the churches planted, the orphans fed, the missionaries sent out, and the battles fought, all on a vast scale that is hard to imagine. Truly, it was a surprising work of God. It must be remembered, however, that Spurgeon did not do all that alone. He was surrounded in this work by his congregation. These sermons are a reminder that what motivated and sustained these congregational efforts was not human creativity or industry but God working powerfully through the preaching of the gospel. Through these gospel-rich sermons, God brought many to repentance and faith, uniting them to the church and motivating their service.

Church growth experts today will have thousands of new ideas on how to grow a church and keep people engaged. Some of those ideas may be useful. But not if they come at the expense of this one central call of the minister: preach Christ. Spurgeon’s fruitful ministry stands as a stirring commendation to the power of faithful gospel preaching. That’s not to say we can ever presume a particular kind of result. Spurgeon’s story was a surprising and unique work of God in a particular historical context.

Still, those who preach the gospel faithfully can pray and expect that God’s word will not return void. In his one thousandth published sermon, from the parable of the prodigal son, Spurgeon stated the aim of his sermon, once again echoing his words at the opening of the Tabernacle and continuing in the themes that he had already preached thousands of times before:

My desire this morning shall be to put plainly before every sinner here the exceeding abundance of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, hoping that the Lord will find out those who are his sons, and that they may catch at these words, and as they hear of the abundance of the bread in the Father’s house, may say, “I will arise and go to my Father.”[8]

__________

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit (1855–1916; repr., Grand Rapids: Refor- mation Heritage Books, 2024), 4:167.

[2] Though in some of these cases, Spurgeon would have questioned whether a real, Spirit-wrought revival took place at all.

[3] Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit, 2:76.

[4] Spurgeon states, “Alas! there is such a thing as having a large addition to the church of men that are of no use whatever. Many an army has swelled its ranks with recruits, who have in no way whatever contributed to its might.” New Park Street Pulpit, 2:76.

[5] Spurgeon recounts, “I have heard of the people crowding in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening, to hear some noted revivalist, and under his preach- ing some have screamed, have shrieked, have fallen down on the floor, have rolled themselves in convulsions, and afterwards, when he has set a form for penitents, employing one or two decoy ducks to run out from the rest and make a confession of sin, hundreds have come forward, impressed by that one sermon, and declared that they were, there and then, turned from the error of their ways.” New Park Street Pulpit, 4:162.

[6] Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit, 4:167.

[7] C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography: Compiled from His Diary, Letters, and Records, by His Wife and His Private Secretary (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1897–1900), 2:93–94.

[8] Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 17:386–87.

Only Trust Him- the Essence of Salvation

In the Garden of Eden, the serpent introduced something into Eve's mind that she had never had reason or opportunity to encounter - distrust.  All her existence on the earth, she and her husband, Adam, had lived in total trust and dependence on their Creator and Father, God. 

Then the serpent said, "Did God say....?"  (Genesis 3:1).  These words from the serpent were a deliberate twisting of the words of God designed to achieve one objective...to introduce doubt and distrust in Eve.  

All sin has the character of distrust and unbelief in God.  All sin is self-reliance and self-sufficiency.  God is not all that good, and if He is, it is only for His benefit and not yours.  The flickering ambers of doubt about the goodness and truthfulness of God were now burning in Eve's mind.

Soon, this doubt will be full-blown, resulting in her and Adam being driven out of the Garden and the relationship with God severed without the full trust and belief of man.

The Old Testament shows God's continual faithfulness and trustworthiness toward His people, ending with the full light of God's Son revealing in human flesh who God is. By never sinning, doing miracles, raising the dead, and revealing His unique oneness with the Father, Jesus demonstrated that both the Father and the Son are trustworthy and faithful. He was the Messiah, the one and only true Son of God.

Then the cross.  Questions replaced answers.  Doubts again flooded the rich valley of faith.  And on the Sunday after His crucifixion, these doubts took on words when Cleopas said to an unrecognizable Jesus, "But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.  And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place..." Luke 24:21 (NIV)

Do you hear the avalanche of doubt, hopelessness, and lack of faith pouring from his heart through his words?  "And what is more...desperate words.

They had put their full trust and faith in Jesus, but now....

But within seconds of their disclosure, something marvelous and life-changing happened.  "Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him..." (verse 31).  Oh, what a revelation.  Jesus is alive.  Their trust and faith are not dead.  And their "heart burns within them" as they return to Jerusalem to find the eleven exclaiming to them all, "The Lord is risen indeed and he has appeared to Simon!" (verses 33-34)

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves once-and-for-all He is trustworthy and faithful.  What sin took from humanity in the first garden, God restores without any conceivable doubt in the second garden.  

The old hymn, written by John H. Stockton, says it best:

"Only trust Him, Only trust Him,

Only trust Him now;

And He will save you; He will save you:

He will save you now."

Jesus restores the gift of trust and faith!!!!  Trust Him only.  Trust Him completely.  Trust Him now.

Liar, Lunatic, or Lord By: Boyd Bailey

 

But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16:15-16

C.S. Lewis famously presents the argument that Jesus is either a liar, lunatic, or Lord in his book Mere Christianity. He writes: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. Was Jesus Christ a Liar? Jesus' critics labeled Him a liar. We experience this today when someone is threatened by another or disagrees with him. They seek to discredit by pointing out their adversary's character flaws. But the son of God was flawless. Jesus threatened the status quo with His sermon on the mount, flipping pride on its head and elevating the poor in spirit. His claim to be equal with God erupted in a fury of pushback from the Pharisees (religious leaders). Naysayers dismissed His miracles as deceptive manipulation to gain followers. Yet, if we are fair-minded, Jesus clearly and compellingly spoke the truth and was the Truth. How do we know? You can trust that Jesus spoke the truth because His words matched His actions. He preached love, integrity, and sacrifice—then lived it out, even to death. He had nothing to gain from lying and everything to lose. His resurrection fulfilled prophecies, and eyewitness accounts confirm His truthfulness. Jesus didn’t just teach truth—He is Truth. So, not a liar. Lunatic?  Was Jesus Christ a Lunatic? His own family publicly declared that He was out of His mind. "When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind'” (Mark 3:21, NIV). Why? Jesus’ family initially thought He was out of His mind because His actions and claims were so radical that they didn’t understand His true mission. Some of you recall your family’s reaction to your newfound faith, “She’ll get over it,” “He found religion, give him time to come to his senses,” and “The church has brainwashed you.” Yet, you knew you were not crazy but no longer a slave to sin, free to love and serve. Lunatics are delusional, yet Jesus healed real pain and solved complex problems. Jesus wasn’t a lunatic because everything He said and did reflected wisdom, truth, and purpose. His teachings transformed the world, and His actions aligned with His words. Lunatics are confused and erratic, but Jesus was calm, clear, and composed—even in death. His resurrection proved He wasn’t crazy—He was exactly who He claimed to be: Lord. Jesus Christ was Lord: everything He predicted came true. Was Jesus Christ Lord? Jesus Christ is Lord because His words, actions, and resurrection prove His divine authority. He wasn’t just a great teacher—He forgave sins, controlled nature, healed the sick, and even defeated death. No liar or lunatic could do that. His resurrection is the ultimate evidence that He is who He claimed to be: the Son of God. What does that mean for you? It means you’re not alone. It means His love, grace, and power are real. It means your sins can be forgiven, and you have a purpose beyond this world. Since Jesus is Lord, then following Him leads to true life, peace, and eternity with God. The question is—will you surrender to His Lordship? Wherever your Lord leads, you can trust His love will be good and beautiful for you. (Originally published here)

The Resurrection by David Allen

The resurrection is the foundation stone of Christian doctrine, the Gibraltar of Christian evidence, and the Waterloo of rationalism.  Without the resurrection, there would be no Christianity.  "If Christ is not risen from the dead, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain." I Corinthians 15: 17

All but four of the major world religions are based on mere philosophies.  Of the four that are based on personalities, only one claims an empty tomb for its founder.  Abraham, the father of Judaism, died about 1950 B.C., but no resurrection was ever claimed for him. Buddha died in 487 B.C., but no resurrection was ever claimed for him. Mohammad died in 632 A.D., but no resurrection was ever claimed for him.  Jesus died in 30 A.D., yet three days later there was an empty tomb.

Some skeptics say, "Come on,...resurrection?  You've got to be kidding. People don't rise from the dead.  That's not reality.  You Christians want us to believe the resurrection is real like Reality TV is real.  Skeptics have scoffed for 2000 years.  Yet the tomb remains empty.  The resurrection is the Father's "Amen" to the Son's "It is finished."

Among the many things the Resurrection accomplished, three are important to remember this Easter.

1.  It is the proof of God's acceptance of Christ's atonement for my sin.  That takes care of my past.

2.  It is the promise of the defeat of death and the guarantee of my bodily resurrection.  That takes care of my future.

3. It is the provision for my daily life.  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." That takes care of my present.

The resurrected Christ is the key to my past, my present, and my future.

Commitment to Prayer by John Thweatt

From time to time the Spirit leads me to pull out my copy of the book, Praying Hyde.  It’s the story of John Hyde, a missionary to India, who was called The Apostle of Prayer by those who knew him.  His commitment to intercessory prayer convicts me…he spent hours and sometimes days fasting and praying without sleep.  But he also would go out and share the Gospel after those times of prayer and see hundreds come to Christ.

 
He was a part of what was called the Punjab Prayer Union which started around 1904.  The principles of the Union were stated in the form of questions and those who joined had to sign each area as a commitment.  Read the five questions and pray about committing your life to this kind of prayer.

1.    "Are you praying for quickening in your own life, in the life of your fellow-workers, and in the Church?"

2.    "Are you longing for greater power of the Holy Spirit in your own life and work, and are you convinced that you cannot go on without this power?"

3.    "Will you pray that you may not be ashamed of Jesus?"

4.    "Do you believe that prayer is the great means for securing this spiritual awakening?"

 5.   "Will you set apart one half-hour each day as soon after noon as possible to pray for this awakening, and are you willing to pray till the awakening comes?"

The Mission of the Church by Wayne E. Ward

Based on Matthew 16: 18-19, This means that what the church is carrying out on earth is the purpose of God which has already been determined in heaven.  The church is doing the work of heaven on earth, according to God's plan.

The Acts of the Apostles is the story of the New Testament church in action.

The church was always a witnessing community.  Its whole reason for existence was to declare the marvelous story of redemption in Jesus Christ; to receive those who responded to their word, baptize them, and continue with them in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers.

Wayne E. Ward was professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1951 to 1991.  The above is a direct quote from his book "The Drama of Redemption," written in 1966 on pages 114 and 116.

The Church by Wayne E. Ward

It is extremely important to observe, then, that while Luke primarily uses the term "church" to designate the local congregation of disciples, he can also use it in a general reference to many of these congregations considered together.  He is certainly not referring to some regional organization which administered all these congregations, for there was no such thing.  And he is certainly not referring to some invisible or mystical "church" which is distinct from the local congregations throughout his region.  But he certainly is referring to the common life in Christ, which is shared by all these congregations, wherever they are gathered with Christ in their midst.

In other words, the church never exists apart from an actual fellowship of Christian believers, the so-called "local" church.  Yet this fellowship is not only local.  It knows oneness with Christ who is universal, and brotherhood with all who are truly in Christ.  Without this, it cannot even be the church.  The so-called "universal" church is always embodied in an actual fellowship of Christian believers.  It is always seen in a "local" manifestation.  It cannot exist in some kind of suspended realm of ideas, detached from time and space.  That is Greek philosophy, but it is not the Bible!"

The church in the book of Acts (and throughout the New Testament) is a gathered community.  It is Christian disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit, proclaiming salvation in Jesus' name.

Wayne E. Ward was professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1951 to 1991.  The above is a direct quote from his book "The Drama of Redemption," written in 1966 on pages 116-117.

The Real Definition of Church Membership by Wayne E. Ward

The foremost characteristic of this church is its dynamic unity (speaking of the church formed on the Day of Pentecost).  Membership in this community did not consist of a record book or an official letter which anyone carried.  Membership was actual presence and participation in the prayer, the witnessing, the fellowship, and the common life of the community.

That is what real membership in the church always is.  People who move away from their church community and do not promptly put their lives to work in a new church fellowship are not really members of the church in the New Testament sense of the word.  We say, "They have not moved their letter." But their "letter" is not their membership; it is simply a recommendation from brethren to brethren.  It means nothing unless it is used by actually joining the brethren.  Nor is membership simply the record of some former relationship to a congregation of Christian believers.  It is active participation in the living fellowship of the church.  

Its members shared a common life in Christ, and they were empowered by the one Holy Spirit.  This is the church that Jesus built!

(Wayne E. Ward was professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1951 to 1991.  The above is a direct quote from his book "The Drama of Redemption," on page 115 written in 1966.)

The Church is the Greatest Organization on the Face of the Earth

Read the title of this blog post again.  (I'm waiting...did you do it?). 

That's right.  You read it correctly.  There is no organization on the face of the earth greater than the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

It's founder is Jesus Himself. "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church..." Matthew 16:18 

It was Jesus who gave His blood for the church. "Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."  Acts 20:28

He is the Head of the Church. "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." Ephesians 5: 23

Every church (no matter its size, location, or name) is equally important.

It is comprised of His saints on earth for a purpose.  I Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1 - all addressed to the saints.  Matthew 28: 18-20

According to Matthew 16: 16-19, it has been given the message that "even the gates of hell can not prevail against."

He is coming for His church - the bride. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."  Ephesians 5: 25-27

It's capabilities is not limited to the sum total of its faults, but instead is empowered by Jesus Himself through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Someone once said, "I'm surprised the church does as well as it does when you realize what it is comprised of."  I'm the first one to acknowledge my weaknesses ("clay pot") and lack, but God still chooses to use the "weak things" to acknowledge His strengths and enhance His glory.

There is only one thing bigger and better and that is the Kingdom of God but it is internal and eternal.  "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."