No Condemnation

 +Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

Most Christians have heard the cliché "Hate the sin, but love the sinner." It may be a cliché but I believe that is exactly how God feels about it. 

Why does God love us so much?
He loves us because he is our Creator and like a loving mother who adores the child she brought into the world, God loves each of us, with no exceptions. But he hates the sin that hurts us so terribly. 

Why does God hate sin so much?
That is exactly why God hates sin. He hates it because of how greatly it harms his beloved children. What if your beloved son or daughter was attacked by an intruder in your home after he had bound you up so all you could do was watch and suffer vicariously? How much would that hurt? I believe that's how it always feels to God when he sees sin attacking us.

Satan is always on the attack.
Just like the intruder in my make-believe tragedy, Satan is always on the attack. The Bible says "Sin crouches at the door and it would have you" and we all know that's true. Temptation can attack at any time and if we give in to it we are always hurt by it. No doubt we bring much of our pain on ourselves by the choices we make, but God still sees us as the victim of Satan's attack. He understands that we are human and therefore vulnerable. He knows that the only way we can have victory over Satan's attacks is by trusting in His strength rather than our own. When we fight temptation in our own strength we will usually or perhaps always lose. 

So God understands and he wants to help.
He didn't plan for us to go it alone. We are only supposed to resist the devil after we draw near to God (James 4:7) But he knows we are weak, impetuous and strong-willed, so we will often try to live live on our own without Him. And that is how sin enters the picture. But God still loves us even when we sin. And like a parent who sees a child mess up and wants to help, God also wants to help. He will try to show us how we went wrong and how to do it better using the tool of conviction. But he never uses condemnation!

Condemnation is not from God
When condemnation rears its ugly head it does not come from God, but from Satan or our own guilty conscience. Romans 8:1 reminds us "...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (NIV) Condemnation does not come from God (Father, Son or Holy Spirit)  God convicts and God forgives, but God does not condemn. 

God Frees us From Sin
Rather than condemning, God convicts us of our sin and forgives our sin to set us free from it's chains. Condemnation does not come from our Heavenly Father. 

And when we condemn 
We are not being like Jesus.

I'm Rick Blumenberg and that's My View from Tanner Creek.