Does God hate you…or love you? (Week 1 of a 2 week series)

{ This is Week 1 of a 2 Week Series }

Have you ever considered how your view of God effects the way you think God views you? 
Here are two avenues of thought when it comes to how God views you. One crowd tends to focus on man's sinful depravity which sometimes leads to people feeling like God barely tolerates them. Another crowd tends to put themselves at the focal point of Christianity. They love the idea that God loves them--but that should shock them and they're not shocked. 

It’s interesting seeing how if one side is emphasized to the point that the other becomes marginalized, you end up missing the whole gospel. 

In many cases, people struggle because they identify with only one perspective when it comes to God’s love and man’s sinfulness. If you ONLY emphasize man’s sinful depravity—it's hard for many to understand that God truly loves them.  For some, it leads to a “worm theology” view of self. 

But on the other side, if you ONLY emphasize God’s love, it leads to a very elevated, man-centered view of self.

This week, we will look at the view of those who may put emphasis only on man’s sin. Next week we will look at the view of those who put emphasis only on God’s love for man. In both cases, the point is to move to a more Biblical, gospel identity. 

WORM THEOLOGY

I’ve been around many people who struggle with the idea that God loves them. They may know the Bible well, and frankly, too well in some cases, meaning that they know doctrines or truths from the Bible—but it’s just black print on white pages and theoretical facts about God. They haven’t accepted, embraced, and allowed those truths to envelope them. 

If you were to ask them, 

“Do you believe God loves and enjoys you—or do you believe God is really sickened by you and barely tolerates you?” 

Many in this camp answer, “God miserably and barely tolerates me because of my sinful depravity.” 

Therefore, their view of God is that He really doesn’t “love” them—He is frustratingly obligated to be nice to them because of that deal He made on the cross with Jesus. I’ve even had a handful of folks say that they believe if God had it (the cross) to do all over again, that He wouldn’t do it! 

And in some sick and twisted way, those who hold to it somehow believe that God loves them more—the more they proclaim how pitiful they are in their depravity. 

“Look, look, I hate myself. I’m so pitiful. I know my Bible and the Doctrine of Depravity, God. Do you see me? Look, I know you hate me! Aren’t you proud of how lowly I think of myself!” 

That’s jacked up. And that leads to a jacked up view of Jesus!

They don’t realize they are pridefully trying to appease God by showing that they can parrot some truths from the Bible about their sinful state. But they get stuck there. They focus so much on quoting how bad they are—that they never lift their head up to the hope—and glorious shining face of Jesus Christ—much less the enjoyment of what Christ has done! 

GOSPEL IDENTITY FOR RECOVERING WORMS

Look at 1 Corinthians 6:11

• “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

And look at Ephesians 2: 1-6

• “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh, and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…”

Again, some people have a difficult time accepting and preaching to themselves the beautiful truth that God had a great love for us—even as we were dead in our trespasses and sins. 

And remember, there is another group who focuses only on “because of His great love for us…God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Hi in the heavenly realms…” And they don’t really know what to do with the whole first part about depravity. We’re going to address that view next week. 

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 expresses this beautifully and leads up to one of the most exhaustive single Scriptures in the Bible 

• “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. 5:21 ESV)

Someone very smart and dead (I can’t remember who) said, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” 

That’s very wise. The issue is not that God wants us to hate ourselves or hate others. We are to hate and despise the indwelling sin in our hearts. We are to hate our natural bent towards rebellion against God in thought, attitude, word, and deed. But we still have the image of God remaining in each person. 

Look at Philippians 2:3-8

• “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Notice “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus..”

And the humility needed to count others more significant than ourselves is not something we muster up on our own. It is not something we do spiritual push-ups to acquire as a goal. It is provided (already available) “in Christ Jesus.” So, do you ask for this? Do you look to this invisible Jesus and what He has available to help us change in our treatment of others? Or is it striving in your own power. Failure. Repeat.? 

Some people are afraid to admit that the image of God still remains in man thinking that it takes away from their admittance of depravity. These are not unreconcilable truths in God’s framework. They operate simultaneously. 

Romans 7:13-15

1 Timothy 1:15

Paul understood the sinful heart that dwelt in him even after salvation in Christ. He desired to be completely and ultimately rescued from his sin and its affront to God’s holiness. He looks and longs for the day of being ultimately renewed in glory. (2 Cor. 5:8-9; Phil. 1:21-24)

So again, the true issue is not about self-esteem. In fact, when you find people with true, secure, gospel-wrought identities, they will probably have what most would consider healthy self-esteem. They are humble, kind, gentle, patient, considerate, loving, compassionate, others-centered, and generous. They do not fear man or man’s approval of them. They live for the audience of One. They have a holy, reverent fear of God. All of those characteristics brought about by deep gospel contemplation and living will lead to a side-effect of self-esteem. It’s just that, a side-effect. 

You don’t focus on building self-esteem—thinking that all of those other things will come if it is established. Instead, you focus on gospel contemplation and living and those other things will follow. 

Now, for many people in mainstream Christianity this comes as completely shocking news to you. Many people never knew that there was this whole group of people who felt like God barely tolerated them. You might not be able to imagine even hearing this type of thinking. 

So, we all need gospel identities to help us think and act according to what Christ has done for us and in us. We have to constantly preach this to ourselves. 

If that is you, and you couldn’t imagine first, people focusing on our sinful depravity and second,  struggling with the idea of God loving us—that may be because of the circles of theology you have been surrounded by and the type of teaching you’ve been sitting under for your entire Christian life. You may have been exposed ONLY to the other types of preaching, teaching, and thinking—namely that YOU are the focal point of God’s eye. That you are so special and wonderful and awesome and amazing that God couldn’t imagine an eternity without you. Some even go as far as to make heaven about us! 

This type of preaching/teaching goes to the other extreme. Instead of focusing ONLY on man’s sinful depravity—it tells us that we are so wonderful and great that there is barely anything wrong with us. 

We will focus on that view next week. 

Sankie P. Lynch

www.nbchurch.info

www.nbfamilies.info

sankie@nbchurch.info