There are some of those statements that I’ve grown to accustomed to hearing – and saying – that I simply accept as true. Take this one, for instance: “God hates the sin but loves the sinner.”

Hmmm…

I get the intention behind the statement. It’s meant to be a commentary about the love of God – the perfect, unearthly, love of God which drives out fear, inspires courage, and motivated the death of Jesus Christ. But this post caused me to take a second look at the statement. Among other things, the quote found there recognizes that fourteen times in the first fifty psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, his wrath is on the liar, and so forth.

So what about it? Does God love the sinner but hate only the sin? I can’t say that it’s true, not only because of the biblical evidence above, but also because the statement subtly separates the sin from the actual sinner. But if that could be done, wouldn’t the solution to sin simply be to quit sinning? And then you’ll be okay?

But anyone who has ever struggled with sin (which is all of us) know that it doesn’t work like that. We sin because we are sinners. Our sin is an expression of our deepest desires, the ones we’re ashamed to admit in good, moral circles. To say then that God loves the sinner but only hates the sin implies that we’re not really sinners. Not really. We’re basically good people who occasionally make bad choices.

But thank God He knows our problem goes deeper than behavior. We don’t need to change our behavior; we need to change the core of who we are. And thank God the message of the gospel is not “Do better,” but become someone new in Christ.

In Christ, we are righteous.

In Christ, we are children of God.

In Christ, we are fully justified and adopted.

In Christ, we are fully and completely… loved.

For it’s in Christ, our behavior changes because our identity changes. Our behavior still reflects our core personhood. But now we are a different kind of people entirely.