I believe the saying devalues the cross. It is an attempt to explain the mercy of God toward sinful men apart from the suffering and death of Christ. In saying, God loves the sinner but hates the sin, or God hates the sin but loves the sinner, there is an implication (in my view at least) that God looks past our sin because He is kind and merciful, and just feels sorry for us poor sinners. It implies that we are victims instead of perpetrators. Kind of like a line from Michael Jacksons song, Man in the Mirror: Ive been a victim of a selfish kind of love
We look in the mirror and see a selfish man or woman, but like The King of Pop we mistakenly see the victim, not the criminal.
I do not believe there is a place in scripture where God ever separated sin from the sinner. In Noahs day, the entire world (men, women, children, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas) was destroyed, except for those in the Ark. They were destroyed because of their sin. The sinner and his sin experienced the anger and wrath of God. When God used Israel to destroy the wicked nations in Canaan, he destroyed the sinner with his sin. Most importantly, when Jesus was delivered into the hands of wicked men, crucified and forsaken by His Father, and accursed, it was because the sin of the world was imputed to Him. He was counted as a sinner and was cutoff for that reason. God does not separate sin from sinner. God judges sin mercilessly.
If men experience any mercy from God, whether temporarily during our life on Earth, or eternally in Heaven, it is ONLY because God has already satisfied His Justice and poured out His wrath and anger upon His own Son. Thats why the blood of bulls and goats was entirely insufficient. A man had to die. A man, a person, had to be sacrificed. The only reason God can smile at me, the only reason God can receive me as a son and love me is because His Only Begotten Son already experienced Our Fathers hatred for Sin and sinners.
God so loved the World that He killed His own Son, without mercy and without pity. And according to the Book of Hebrews, if we reject that sacrifice, if we reject or even ignore that demonstration of Gods Love, then the only thing left for us is, a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
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