MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA TREATISE I. GOD. 25. GOD'S HATRED OF SIN.
BOTTICELLI, Sandro
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TREATISE I. GOD.
25. GOD'S HATRED OF SIN.
I. Sin is the only thing that God has not originated, the
only thing not represented in those archetypal ideas of God
which are the source of all positive being, the only thing in
which there is no reflection of God or participation of His
perfections. The state of sin, therefore, has no positive
being ; for all that has being has it as deriving from God.
Sin is rather the state of privation of all that comes from
Supreme Being ; it is the contradictory of being, or, in
the word of St. Augustine, it is nothingness. Being and
nothingness, as mutually exclusive, are said to be, in tendency, destructive of one another. Equally, God and sin
are diametrically opposed ; they are incompatible one with
the other. Hence the expression, " Sin, as far as in it lies,
would destroy God." Sin expels God necessarily from the
soul ; the presence of God in the soul is destructive of sin.
We express this in human terms by saying that God hates
sin infinitely. Gods love and tenderness do not make Him
tolerant of sin ; on the contrary, they are necessarily anti
pathetic to that evil which is their opposite. Our soi disant
tolerance of sin and error is not Christian charity, as we
would pretend ; it is indifference to Gods sanctity and is
covert sympathy with evil. Sin is further hateful to God
for the destruction it has wrought in Gods best-beloved
creatures. If you really love God you will hate and avoid
the smallest sin as worse than all the material evils of life.
II. Consider the qualities of Gods hatred of sin in this
life. 1. It is tranquil. It is not really the passion of hatred,
and there is no disturbance, fury, vindictiveness in it. To
express the intensity of God s opposition to sin vividly we
speak of it as having the attributes of intense opposition as
we know it in men. 2. It is just and reasonable. There is
no precipitation, no harshness, no excess of retribution ;
but the sin itself is allowed to be the measure and the
automatic cause of its own punishment. 3. It is loving.
It is caused by, and is identical with Gods love of good.
It involves no personal enmity to the sinner. God, though
expelled from the sinful soul, loves it for the natural good
that He has implanted in it, and for its possibilities of supernatural good ; and He uses every means to bring the
sinner once more to grace. 4. It disappears as soon as sin
is removed from the soul, however late in life this may be,
and however enormous and multiplied the offences. Never
be discouraged by your sins, and never despair of the most
obstinate sinner. There is more tenderness in Gods hatred
of sin than in the greatest mercifulness of men.
III. As soon as this life is over there is a change in the
character of Gods hatred of sin ; or rather in the relation
of the sinner to God. Then indeed " to God the wicked
and his wickedness are hateful alike " (Wisd. xiv. 9). The
sinner has persevered in his obstinacy, has refused the last
offer of reconciliation, and confirmed himself for ever in
hostility to God. The time of grace, probation and merit,
is at an end. The sinner knows infinite goodness sufficiently
to hate it as he hated its finite manifestations on earth ;
he resists the impulse which all nature has towards God,
as he resisted the attraction and calls of God during life.
Rejecting God, he rejects all kinds of good ; and this is
equivalent to incurring universal and infinite evil ; for evil
is simply the privation of good. Hence the overwhelming
torrent of miseries in hell. These are spoken of as the burning torrent of God s indignation ; but they are, more really,
the effect of sin itself, henceforth not checked by God, and
allowed to work its own havoc in the soul. For " God
made not death, neither hath He pleasure in the destruction
of the living" (Wisd. i. 13). How horrible and unnatural is
the state of sin as thus revealed ! What madness and folly
to rush headlong into it ! Present sin is one and the same
thing with the future hell.
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