Sometimes Christians throw out the phrase, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” At best, there is some truth to this, but it's easy to be misunderstood. This statement didn’t even come from a Christian. The first person to say that was a modified Hindu named Ghandi. Why did he say that? Because he didn’t understand Christianity.
You see the Bible doesn’t teach that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Yes, it’s true that God has nothing but hate for sin. But it is not true to say that God has nothing but love for the sinner. Just in the first fifty Psalms, we are told that God hates sinners no less than fourteen times (e.g., Ps 5:5; 11:5)!
God hates sin, but what are people but sinners? Since the fall of man in Adam, sin is wrapped up in the very essence of what it means to be human. Since then, all humanity has been alienated from God. More than that, we are his enemies. If God is the sovereign King over all things, then we are the insurrectionists. We refuse to submit to his leadership and provision. We renounce him as Lord and actively seek to live in rebellion against him. That’s what sin is all about.
Nevertheless, because God is God and not like us, he can do what we cannot do. He can both hate the sinner and love the sinner at the same time. And in fact, this is what he does. In Romans 5, Paul says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8).
God hates sinners, but in his love for them, he has also worked to redeem them from their sin. In the cross of Christ, God has sought to save sinners from his wrath against their sin and give them eternal life. In this great work of salvation, Christ has been our propitiation. He was our sacrifice that fully satisfied God’s wrath against our sin. Christ also secured our redemption. Christ paid our ransom to free us from our slavery to sin. We are no longer bound to sin but have been freed from its guilt and power. More than that, through his death on the cross Christ enabled our justification. In Christ we have a right legal standing before God; we are declared righteous in Christ.
We rejoice in these wondrous gifts from God! But, perhaps, less often we think about, sing about, and are thankful for our reconciliation to God in Christ. Paul emphasizes this in 2 Corinthians 5. In part he says,
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:18–21).
The Oxford English Dictionary explains that the phrase “at one” was used as early as the year 1300 to describe two people who had been brought into a state of peaceful agreement after a time of estrangement. After being alienated, they are now “at one accord.”
This expression of at-one-ness appeared in many of the early English translations of the Bible. Eventually, Tyndale combined the phrase ‘at one’ into as one word: atone. In 1527, he translated verse 20 as “We praye you in Christes stede, that ye be atone with God.” And over time, it began to be used as a verb and gave rise to other related words like atonemaker—one who makes peace between two groups. Thus, to make atonement was “the action of making ‘at one’ after discord or strife.”
Thus, at the very heart of what Christians means when we speak of the atonement of Christ is the making of peace between God and sinners through the work of Christ. To be at one with God is to be reconciled to God. We need this work of reconciliation because apart from it we stand as enemies of God.
Usually as God’s enemies, as the one who rebelled against him, it would be our place to seek the reconciliation. When there is a problem in human relationships—whether it’s between friends or large corporations—the one who has offended always makes the first move in seeking reconciliation. He is the one who offers the apology or offers some other act of contrition that serves as a call for the restoration of the friendship or partnership.
But that isn’t the case with our reconciliation to God. Though he is the offended party, he is also the one who begins the work of reconciliation! Paul says, “All this is from God” (5:18). This includes what was said before this as well as what he goes on to say in the following verses. Paul says that all of it is from God. Everything involved in our reconciliation not only comes from him but begins with him. God is the one who takes the initiative in our reconciliation.
This is evident just by looking at the grammar of the passage. Paul says, “God reconciled us to himself” (5:18). Eight verbs in this text all have God as the subject, as the one doing the action. God reconciles, God gives, God does not count sin, God entrusts his message, God is making his appeal, God made him who knew no sin to be sin. So, it’s with good reason that the New English Bible translates verse 18 by saying “From first to last, this has been the work of God.”
This is what we see this all throughout the Bible: that God is the originator of our salvation. He is the one who makes the first move and provides everything that we need to be saved; everything we could never provide for ourselves. And when we understand the reality of God’s mercy and grace in initiating our reconciliation we are left believing what William Temple once wrote that all we contribute to our redemption is the need to be redeemed.
It is not uncommon today to hear of even Christian marriage threatened by infidelity. But I am always amazed when I hear that it was not the adulterer who begged forgiveness and reconciliation, but rather the innocent spouse who seeks reconciliation. Here is one whose very soul has been injured. And yet they are first to restore the broken relationship. Yet how much more amazing is it for God—the supreme, all-glorious creator and Lord of all who things—who finds himself the recipient sinful rebellion. How amazing that he should begin seeking reconciliation, even when we are not! How amazing that he should work to restore his relationship with humanity while we are still in rebellion against him!
And how amazing the great cost with which God achieves that reconciliation! It is only through the death and resurrection of God’s own Son that he can reconcile his people to himself. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself . . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” It was in Christ that God brought about reconciliation for sinners. Specifically, Paul says it was through the cross that God did this: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (5:21).
This verse gives us a description of the work of Christ on the cross distilled to its very essence. Here we have the great exchange which brings us peace with God. Paul says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” Before we get to what this means exactly, let’s think about what it does not mean. First, it does not mean that Christ himself became sinful. The Bible maintains over and over again that Jesus never sinned; that he was always holy and righteous because he was God in the flesh. Peter says we were ransomed by his blood, blood that was “the precious like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19). Christ wasn’t just holy as he went to the cross, he remained holy even as he hung on the cross.
So, what does it mean that Christ became sin? It means that God considered him to be sin. God imputed sin to him. Both in a figurative and in a real, judicial sense, on the cross, Christ became the very embodiment and symbol of our wickedness. We famously see this anticipated in Isaiah 53: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all . . . . Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . . [he] was numbered with the transgressors . . . . he bore the sin of many” (53:6, 4, 12).
On the cross, God poured out the fullness of his righteous wrath on sin. This was the high cost of our peace with God. This is what it took for us to be reconciled to God. But God wasn’t done. What we see here is a double-imputation. Our sin imputed to Christ, and his righteousness imputed to us. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Just as God imputed to all that was sinfulness in us, so he imputed to us all that was righteous in him. Again, God does make sinners righteous. But that’s not in view here. Before he begins making them righteous, he declares them to be righteous. This is what Paul is speaking of here. Just as Christ was not sinful, so we are not righteous in our reconciliation. Instead, God’s righteousness is counted as our own.
Though deserving of righteous wrath for our rebellion against God, he does all of the work to reconcile us to be himself! To turn enemies who work against his ways to friends who labor for his glory. The greatest relationship we will ever know was won for us by Christ. Meditating on these things will not only stoke the fires of joy in our hearts as we worship the Lord and draw near to him in faith, but motivate us to share the good news of this wondrous work that others might be reconciled as well (5:20).
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