Making Sin Abhorrent—Understanding the Reason for God’s Fury against Sin
By Jay Wegter
We must make sin utterly deplorable when we preach the gospel. Recently I spoke with an unsaved neighbor of mine about the coming Day of the Lord (Zeph 1:14-2:3). When I described the cataclysmic events that will accompany Christ’s return, my friend’s response was quite revealing. “Why would God send all those disasters? Why is God so upset?” “What is His problem, why does He want to do that to us instead of being good to us?” As I began to explain to him that we as sinners are very sensitive to suffering and injustice, but very insensitive to sin, he became noticeably uncomfortable. In fact he said that he had to walk his dog and might be back later. It was clear that he was ‘found out’ so to speak. God’s truth, even when communicated as general biblical principles, makes those outside of Christ uncomfortable—Jesus tells us why: it is the fear of exposure which disturbs—John 3:20.
What modern sinners seldom consider is that sin is the ultimate cause of suffering in the world (Rom 8:18-25; Rev 21:1-8). Disasters are the result of a cursed creation (Gen 3:17-19). Natural disasters find their ultimate cause in an ‘unnatural disaster’—that is the entrance of human sin into human history (Rom 5:12). Natural disasters are the consequence of man’s failed stewardship according to Isaiah chapter 24. “Therefore a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left” (Is 24:6). Apart from the gift of repentance, the natural man always tends to discount the severity and gravity of the ruin caused by the entrance of human iniquity. Therefore, in our evangelism we find it useful to ask the following question, “How much of a disaster do you think sin is?” “May I share with you what God says about its seriousness?”
Why is God so furious against human sin? To begin to answer this question adequately we must consider the reason why God made mankind. The purpose God made human beings is bound up in our creational identity; we are “the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:26-28). In His final creative act, God said, “Let us make man”—words which show the peculiar importance of the work to be done, the formation of a creature who was to be God’s reflection and representative, clothed with authority and rule as visible head and monarch of the world (Ps 8).
“In our image, after our likeness”—this was a peculiar distinction, the value attached to which appears in the words being twice mentioned. And in what did this image of God consist? Not in the erect form or features of man, not in his intellect, for the devil and his angels are, in this respect, far superior; not in his immortality, for he has not, like God, a past as well as a future eternity of being; BUT in the moral dispositions of his soul, commonly called original righteousness (Eccl 7:29).
God took immeasurable delight in His creation. “He spoke and it was done. He commanded and all things stood fast” (Ps 33:9). “Great and manifold are thy works, Lord God Almighty! In wisdom hast thou made them all” (Ps 104:24). God is represented as pausing at every stage to look at His work. No wonder He contemplated it with pleasure, joy, and complacency. Every object was in its right place, every plant process going on in season, every animal in its structure and instincts suited to its mode of life and its use in the economy of the world. He saw everything that He had made answering the plan which His eternal wisdom had conceived; and, “Behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31).¹ This benediction of “very good” was inseparably joined to mankind’s created purpose to represent God; to reflect God; to serve God; and to know God. God created the universe as a stage or theatre for His moral majesty (His holiness). Mankind as the image of God was designed to reflect God’s character in all of life’s activities. Thus, tragically, when sin entered, man became like a broken mirror—the reflection of his Creator was no longer true, but distorted and fractured. Every sin we commit tells a lie about God. Because we are God’s representatives (and His image); our transgressions profane His great Name. Our Creator is truthful and good, but our lies and coveting say that He is not truthful or good. Our iniquities are against God because they besmirch His great Name.
Because our creational identity is the very image of God, our glory is bound up in the knowledge of the God of glory. Jeremiah 9:23 –“Thus says the LORD, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not 1 Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D. (1997). A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (Ge 1:26–28). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things.’ declares the LORD.” When man ‘puts God out to pasture’ (replacing his Creator with created things)—there is a radical loss of human glory. Mankind’s loss of the glory of God is a function of having exchanged the glory of our Creator for the ‘glory’ of lower life forms (Ps 106:20), “birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Rom 1:23). Our glory is derivative—it is closely tied to knowing the God of glory. The entrance of sin produced a forfeiting of the glory of God. Now every sinner ‘falls short of the glory of God’. By reason of sin we have forfeited the ability to comprehend, reflect, know, and love His glory—this gives us initial insights into the depth of the disaster of human sin and the great need of a perfect Redeemer.