God Loves… Himself

It is a provoking and perhaps sickening thought that the world has so invaded the professing Church that there is little difference between the two other than some language and rituals. The professing Church is so eager to please the world, be like it in so many ways, and perhaps listen do what it does in order to gain an audience that it has forgotten that the Church is to please and glorify God and not the world. The world hates God and as long as the Church stands for God it will be persecuted. After all, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” If a particular church is indeed full of those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, then that church will in be persecuted in some way and to some degree.

The preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is offensive to the world and it is only when the edge has been taken off of the Gospel (and so it is no longer the Gospel) is it inoffensive to the world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is also offensive to all church members that do not have Christ in truth. But of course when there are many people within the professing Church that are deceived, they may manifest their displeasure in differing ways that appear righteous to them. The minister will be said to be offensive, too doctrinal, not nice enough, or perhaps not preach the love of God enough. There are many pious excuses to rid of the Gospel in order to find something that tickles the ears enough to be pleasing. But of course this is not limited to any particular denomination or theological bent. There are many within the camp of the Reformed as well that love the academics and consistency of Reformed theology but hate the God of that theology in truth. There are many that love to hear of a sovereign God as long as that sovereign God is all about them and their agendas. But when that sovereign God is declared to them as holy and demands that their own hearts are shown to be sinful, they no longer love that God and in their orthodox ways they will do what it takes to get rid of the teaching that they so hate.

Jesus told us in John 7:7, though He was speaking directly to His biological brothers, that “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” Jesus was testifying to the religious elite of the day and saying that their deeds were evil. The world is a way of thinking and a way of approaching things apart from the ways of the true God. Even very religious people can be worldly if their thinking has been captured by the world’s way of thinking. Very religious people can be outwardly righteous (as the Pharisees were) and perhaps very orthodox (as the Pharisees mostly were). But they are just like the world in their hearts. The Pharisees loved money as the world likes money. The Pharisees loved to be honored among men as the world loves to be honored by men. The Pharisees thought of themselves as righteous as indeed most of the world thinks it is righteous. But when Jesus preached to the religious leaders that even their righteous deeds were as filthy rags, they hated Him. Religious people will hate it today as well when someone points out that their deeds are in reality evil.

Imagine what would happen if Jesus came to your church and told the people that their worship was false, that the preaching was wrong, and that all the people were a bunch of hypocrites. One does not have to wonder how most people would react. Their self-righteousness would be attacked, their honor before others would be shattered, and so they would respond with hateful hearts. Those who had broken hearts might weep knowing that what was said was true. Imagine Jesus going to an Arminian group and telling them that their belief in free-will was nothing but a trusting in themselves. Imagine Jesus going to a Reformed group and telling them that they had lost their first love (if they ever had it) and that they were lovers of themselves as they loved their orthodoxy but not Him. Imagine Jesus going to any congregation that prided itself on social activities and telling them that all that they did was wicked because they were not doing those things for Him. Imagine Jesus going to a congregation that prided itself on evangelism and telling them that they were serving themselves with a man-centered teaching that was hateful to the living God. This would rouse the anger and hostility of people who hated God though they did much with the name of Jesus on their lips.

The world has invaded the professing Church and it has become almost just like the world. God is a God of great irony and when He turns people over to their sins, they become like what they love. When the professing Church takes on the thinking of the world (using religious language) it is like the world not matter what else it does. In the judgment of God He has turned the professing Church over more and more to be like the world because that is what a judgment on sin is like. It started off with giving a little here and then a little there, but the end result is that the professing Church hates God and this is seen by how much like the world it really is though the language and the rituals are different. The pride of the world is now the pride of the professing Church and it hates the true God.

In the last post I tried to show how atheism and hating God has a wide hearing and practice in the professing Church today. Another way to show this is to look at how friendly the professing Church is to the world. Worldly practices and thinking have taken over in the professing Church, yet Scripture is clear that if we are even friends with the world, this is hostility toward God. “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Now this is quite uncomfortable and so we will wish to deny it in some way, but if we love God and His truth we need to bear down on this verse and hear it. If you find your heart rising against it, perhaps the reason for that is that the true love of God is not in your own soul. Remember, all unbelievers hate God and that hatred is discovered by an aversion to the true God and the truth about ourselves. If we find our heart rising against the truth of Scripture, that might be our own hearts showing its aversion to God and His truth.

James is quite clear in the passage above that those who are friends of the world are adulteresses. He was writing to people in the visible church and he was telling them that they were fighting and quarreling over things. They prayed, but they did not receive because they only prayed to get things to spend on their own pleasures. James called this adultery. True enough, it was spiritual adultery That is, the people were not being faithful to God. But spiritual adultery is still adultery, and it is also against God Himself. This spiritual adultery is seen in that the people were being friends with the world and that is hostility toward God. A person that is a friend with the world, regardless of the religious things that s/he does, is a spiritual adulterer and one that is hostile toward God.

How is the professing Church friendly with the world today? It takes the ideas of the world on what criticism of the Bible is. It takes the idea of the world on what rationality is. It brings worldly ideas into the church by bringing business ideas on church growth and church leadership into it. It brings in worldly ideas of entertainment. It brings in worldly ideas of preaching and of refusing to deal with sin. It brings worldly ideas into the church on how to do evangelism. It brings worldly ideas of how to get people committed to the church. It brings worldly ideas on how to raise money for the church. It has taken the world’s ideas on self-esteem and self-actualization. It has taken the world’s ideas on social programs for those in the church. It has taken the world’s ideas for what is truly moral. It has replaced the biblical teaching on love for that which the world has come up with. The biblical teaching on grace has been replaced by a more human one. The biblical teaching on hell has certainly had the fires put out to make the world more comfortable. The biblical teaching of salvation has become more man-centered with each passing year and is no longer the declaration of a God who may grant repentance to vile sinners. We have replaced the biblical idea of sin with the idea of mistakes and being victims. We have replaced the biblical teaching about God with some nice teaching of some higher power who somewhat helplessly tries to do good to us. We have replaced the concept of humility with that which the world has offered. We have replaced the idea of God with one that provides health and wealth to us depending on our faith and goodness. In other words, the world has saturated the professing Church and has taken it over for the most part.

If the world has saturated the professing Church with its ideas, then the best we can say is that the professing Church is friends with the world. It may be more true to say that there is almost no difference between the professing Church and the world. But if being friends with the world is hostility toward God, how are we to respond when even our religious actions are hatred and hostility toward God? Going to meet with a “church” is simply going from one part of the world to another. God called the Israelites harlots (prostitutes) for forsaking Him (Hosea 1:2). He still yearns for a pure and holy church that is a faithful bride: “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin” (2 Corinthians 11:2). Exodus 34:16 speaks of going after other gods as playing the harlot. Simply put, the world has saturated the professing Church with its own ideas. The professing Church has received those ideas and is a friend and lover of the world at its root. The professing Church is indeed at enmity with the living God and is an adulterer and harlot against Him. We can go on hearing soothing and even orthodox messages, but they will do nothing but confirm our hearts in our sin. We must be jolted awake to see that we are in the embrace of a lover that God hates and that our love for our lover (the world) is a continuing act of hostility toward Him. We must begin to pray and ask the Lord to grant us broken hearts in order that we may seek Him out of true love rather than what the world teaches us about love. A worldly kind of love seeks God out of self-love which is actually hatred toward Him.

Atheism is simply an effort that people put forth to deny certain truths about God and about themselves. Atheists are quite virulent in their efforts to show themselves as moral people. Aside from the problem they have of showing any basis for morality or any real need for morality, they take for granted that they are more moral than religious people. Psalm 14:1 tells us that “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.” A person who says in his heart that there is no God is a fool. It says that they are corrupt and have committed abominable deeds. The religious people of the world will look on the “fool” who says there is no God and feel quite superior. They can see that these atheists hate God and try to shut Him out of their minds and hearts. But the religious folks are not like that. They are the ones that love God and sing songs of praise to Him and do good things for others. Atheists are the ones that try to take prayer out of schools and are responsible for the killing of many people. But in our pride we need to be very careful because we who judge are doing the same things in different ways. We scream that atheism is wrong and it is that hatred of God that leads to wicked practices. But in our judgments we are judging ourselves.

While the atheist tries to deny that there is such a being in the world as God, many religious folks are busy trying to deny the truth of God. These are nothing more than practical atheists. Is it worse to deny that God exists or to deny that the God who exists is perfectly holy? Is it any worse to deny that God exists than it is to deny that God is absolutely sovereign and can do as He pleases? Is it any worse to deny that God exists than to worship some foolish and small being as God? Is it any worse to deny that God exists than it is to practice evangelism for a false idea of God? Is it any worse to deny that God exists than it is to preach of a small god that human beings can control by their prayers and good works? Is it worse to say God does not exists or to preach of a God that is not focused on Himself but human beings? In some sense, all those who are not true Christians are atheists to some degree. All those who do not worship God in truth through Jesus Christ in fact hate Him. This means that all the false forms of Christianity and the false forms of worship are acts of hatred against God. These are hard words, but at some point we must come face to face with this.

Matthew 6:24 tells us this too: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” If any person does not love God supremely, then that person hates God. If any person is serving self in the things of religion, then that person hates God. When we are devoted to the one (self), by nature of the case we will despise the other (God). When we preach many things about God for the sake of self, we are in the process of hating God. Jesus told us that He preferred that we would be hot or cold rather than lukewarm (Rev. 3:16). Those who are lukewarm are trying to serve self with the name of God attached to it and that confuses things for the church and the world. The attempt to serve God partially is really an attempt to serve self fully. Regardless of how religious people attempt to be and regardless of their committed activities, if they are doing them out of love for self they are hating God and those religious acts are acts of atheism because they deny the true God.

The claim that I am making, then, is that there is a lot of atheism in the world because there are a lot of people denying the truth of God in the world. The reason that people deny the truth of God is because they hate Him. It is not just because the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons are deceived in their intellects about Jesus Christ that they do what they do, but because they hate the true God as He shines forth in Jesus Christ. There are many liberals in our day that deny Jesus Christ, but they do so out of hatred and not just the intellect. There are many conservatives in our day who deny the sovereignty of God who do so out of hatred for the true God rather than just an intellectual issue. The intellect will work to deny what it hates. We must get beyond trying only to convince people intellectually. The problem of unbelievers is not just that they don’t have the proper information, but that they hate God. They need a change of heart and not just a change in intellectual information. Indeed they need the information, but we must understand that their hearts need to be changed by the hand of God so that they will love the truth of God. Atheism is a massive problem within the Church today and it is simply being ignored or not seen. False doctrines and false beliefs about God are being covered over and hidden by a form of love which is nothing more than politeness and self-love. Until the Church has enough of God Himself to love Him and His truth, it will not set out in true love to uncover the massive amounts of atheism and hatred that is hidden in Her midst. True love does not wait in this sense, but it must become active in exposing atheism and hatred of God in the works of self and others in the local churches. Oh how we must pray.

It is a hard thing for people to think of their friends who are nice and perhaps very religious as being those who hate God. It is even harder to think of ourselves as being those who hate God. It is, however, a very simple thing for those who hate God to deceive themselves into thinking that they love Him. First, each human being has a deceitful heart (Jer 17:9). This heart is more deceitful than all things. This heart will deceive others, but it also deceives itself. This heart is deceived by the lusts of deceit (Eph 4:22) and the deception of sin itself (Rom 7:11). This heart is deceived and enslaved by various lusts and pleasures (Titus 3:3). If a person is religious and yet does not bridle his or her own tongue, that person has deceived his or her own heart (James 1:26). Our hearts are full of self and self-love and so will distort the clear evidence in its own favor. Our hearts are really idol makers in the service of self and all pretenders to the throne must go down in our estimation. If God comes in the way, we will do something in order to take care of Him in our own way. We will deny certain things about Him in order to be able to sleep and in order to retain our “rightful” throne.

The second thing that a person does which, quite clearly, flows from a deceitful heart, is to distort the teaching of God. This will take on a rational approach or perhaps more of a human centered angle. But the deceitful heart will do anything to convince itself that it does not hate God. It will take up various forms of religion and religious practices trying to convince itself that it does not hate God. It begins to deny certain things about God because it convinces itself that those things cannot be true. It takes the things it hears about God and makes self out to be the standard and then judges God by that standard. It is to judge God by self rather than to judge self by God. It is a trick of the heart that trusts in its own reason. But clearly that is a practice that is widespread and is a very wicked practice. But the knowledge of God will not be allowed to stand in these hearts.

John Calvin wrote that the human being cannot understand who self is apart from knowing God. Since human beings are made in the image of God, this is an evident truth. However, the fallen human heart hates the knowledge of God and also the knowledge of self. This is one reason why the human heart hates the knowledge of God and that is because that knowledge is instructive about the self as well. The proud heart that is given over to self-love will not retain the knowledge of God because it shows self to be wicked and vile. That is simply more than the proud heart can handle. This is also why people must arrive at a true knowledge of self and of sin. If they do not it means that they have not seen the truth of God and they are still deceiving themselves rather than receiving the truth of Christ.

We must understand that the religious person is seeking to justify self in the eyes of self. S/he will water down the teachings of the Law and of the character of God so that self can be justified in the eyes of self. S/he will set up stringent religious standards, but it is still possible to keep them. Others will arrive at the truth of certain doctrines in an intellectual way and never see the glory that shines out of them and so never see the depravity of their own hearts while they hold to a creedal form of depravity. If evangelism is thought to be the height of obedience to God that can become a regular practice but still be nothing but a way to hide the heart from the truth of God and of self. Doing work on a church building and being involved in social issues can also be ways of hiding the truth of who God is from us and deceiving ourselves from seeing our own hearts. People can take up the duties of a priest or a pastor in an effort to hide the truth of God and of their own hearts from themselves. This may be one reason that so many pastors and church leaders are found to be hypocrites in their sin. The people take up the practice of religion to hide their own hearts from themselves and make an effort to disguise themselves before God.

It will probably be admitted that many people do this, but not so many are ready to say that those people hate God. However, what is it but an aversion to who God really is in His holiness that these people are hiding from themselves? True enough they are trying to hide something about themselves, but they are also trying to hide their hatred of God from themselves. It is the light of God shining in them to some degree that shows them something of their sin that they don’t like and then they try to hide that from themselves and others. But it boils down to a hatred of God. What is it that people hate when the truth of God is preached to them? It comes out as against the one preaching or teaching, but the real hate is toward God. Men and women have an aversion to the truth of God and they are trying to flee from it by wrapping themselves up in religious activities. The hatred of God is spread far and wide in all the heretical teachings that are going on, but there are also many who are hiding their hatred of God beneath orthodox teaching and committed external lives. The heart must love God or all it does is hate Him.

When we hate other human beings, there is something about them we are disgusted with and have an aversion to. This is true of God as well. Psalm 81:15: “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him.” The people this text speaks about actually have an aversion to God and yet they pretend obedience to them. The context of this passage is speaking of the people of Israel. God is calling them to listen to His voice, but they didn’t and so He turned them over to hardness of heart. These people knew more of God than the other nations, but their hearts did not love Him. So instead of listening to His voice they pretended obedience to Him. This pretended obedience is one where the externals are done and some moral things are done, but the heart is far from Him. They know that there is a God and that He can and will punish them, so they pretend obedience to Him out of self-love.

What must be understood is that hearts that pretend obedience hate God in reality. These are the same hearts that are refusing to keep the knowledge of God in their minds (Romans 1:18-32) in order that they may love themselves and their idols. The Pharisees hated God and yet kept a stringent obedience to God in the externals. They gave lip service to God while with their stringent keeping of the Law was a lowering of the Law and a mocking of God. We see their extreme aversion to God by their aversion to the teachings of Jesus Christ. They plotted to kill Him despite His miracles and biblical teachings. It would have been very hard to deny the reality of His miracles, but their hearts were so averse to God that they just wanted to get rid of Him. They had their own religion and they did not need God to come along and tell them the truth about Himself and how to worship Him. Al Gore filmed a fiction movie called “An Inconvenient Truth.” If Jesus were to make a movie about the Pharisees He could entitle it the same. He who was truth itself and the only true way to God was hated by the Pharisees in both His Person and in His words. He was hated, as Scripture tells us, without cause (John 15:25).

It is easy to shake our heads at the Pharisees and keep on going in our own opposition and hatred of God. There are many politically correct religions and there are many hyper-conservative religions that are not born out of love for God but instead come from a hatred of Him. The Gospel is rare today because very religious people who hate God have come up with another gospel that they like better. It is true that they use the word and shed tears at the words of their pseudo-gospels, but that does not mean that the true Gospel is loved by them. Instead they have come up with false gospels because they hate the true God that shines in the real one. False gospels do not always just come up because people misunderstand some facts, but they come up because people hate God. Wherever the true God shines hatred for Him is sure to follow. Even those who hate Him will pretend obedience to Him (in their own way) while they try to cast the truth about Him which they hate behind them.

There are many forms of Christianity today that pretend obedience to Him while the adherents go on their own ways with a true aversion to the true God. It is easy to hide our aversion to God behind some of the externals that have come up today. We can hide our aversion to the true God by finding groups that teach self-love instead of love for God. We can hide our true aversion to God by finding groups that teach extremely conservative teaching (usually a great focus on the externals) in the name of the Bible. We can hide our true aversion and hatred of God by hiding it in all forms of religious activity, even doing good things. True Christianity is of the heart and is fueled by love for the true God. False Christianity is anything else no matter how rigorous the outward activities are.

It is easy to point to the liberals and think or say how deceived they are. It is far harder to look at conservative denominations and people and see hatred for God in them. One reason that is hard is because they are so much like “me” and certainly “I” am not that way. We must see that people who hate God will band together under differing forms of religion and religious practices because the sinful person loves those who love him or her. The group can easily deceive itself because they all agree that their hatred for God is actually love. We can make evangelism out to be true Christianity and hide our real hatred of God by “evangelism.” We can express love for self and hatred of God by twisting the Scriptures. We can love self and hate God in our prayers as we focus on self instead of Him. We can express love for self and hatred of God in choosing to worship in ways we like rather than the ways set out in Scripture. God is thoroughly hated in our day and that among very religious people. How can I say that? The Bible tells me so. People can be easily fooled by external religion, but God can see the hatred and aversion for Him that those things can cover over. He knows our hearts thoroughly despite our best efforts to hide them from Him and ourselves. If our obedience is truly a pretense to cover our hatred for Him, the exposure on judgment day will teach us that we have waited far too long to be honest about our own hearts.

Psalm 51: 1 – For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

Psalm 51 is David’s confession of his sin in the matter of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. David starts the Psalm by asking for God to be gracious to him. What is foreign to us today is that David asked for God to be gracious to him “according to Your lovingkindness” and “according to the greatness of Your compassion.” He saw that his sin was so great that nothing but forgiveness according to God could possibly deal with his sin. He then moves on to v. 2 where he wanted God to wash and cleanse him from his sin. He knew that he was in the hands of a great and glorious God and that his sin was not something that he could deal with himself. In v. 3 he said that he knew his transgressions and that his sin was ever before him. Verse 4 explains verses 1-3. The reason that he saw sin as so hideous and awful is that it was against God Himself. The reason that David cried out for God to be gracious to Him according to His lovingkindness and the greatness of His compassion is that his sin was against God and only a grace and compassion from God was big enough to deal with a sin against God. The reason that he asked God to wash and cleanse him from his sin is because only God is big enough to deal with sin against Him.

If we look at the words of David in Psalm 51 we can see something of the enormity of sin. Sin is a heart and/or act that is against God. While we would not want to say that David’s heart hated God, his sin was still against God Himself and the act was an act of hatred. The act of sin is so malignant and vile that in itself there is venom and hostility toward God. We can see something of the sin of others and then of our own sin by David’s view of sin here. David was involved in the death of Uriah the husband of Bathsheba. In fact, though David was not at the battle and even though it was enemy soldiers that killed Uriah, II Samuel 12:9 speaks of David as striking down Uriah with the sword. David was guilty of murder. Genesis 9:6 tells us what is wrong with murder: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”

The phrase at the end of the verse tells us why murder is wrong. It is because man is the image of God. Murder of a human being is an attack on God because man is the image of God. With each murder God is attacked and the nature of sin is expressed. David had attacked God in setting up Uriah to be killed by the swords of the enemy. There we see the real nature of sin and why God alone can forgive that sin and why God alone can take that sin away. When David planned to have Uriah killed, he was casting the true God out of his knowledge by disregarding the truth of who God is to take action on this plan. He carried out the plan as if Uriah was his (David’s) to dispense with as a matter of convenience for him when in fact the only person that had the right over Uriah’s life was God. But surely, some would say, David wronged Uriah as well. Perhaps, but Uriah was owned by another and did not belong to himself. As in the OT days of slavery, when a slave was killed the owner was the one wronged. So in all of humanity murder is an attack on God and wronging Him because He owns all.

But how were David’s acts of adultery hatred against God? II Samuel 12 has the answer: “‘Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. 10 ‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife'” (vv. 9-10). By taking Bathsheba in adultery and then as his wife David despised the word of the Lord and God Himself. The seventh commandment is a clear command against adultery and the sixth command is very clear against murder. Yet all the commandments can only be kept out of love for God and they can only be broken out of hatred (of the heart or action) for God. David looked on Bathsheba and desired her for himself. In that desire he did not love God or his neighbor. Instead his heart lusted (coveted his neighbor) and then he took the steps to have her. In all of this he did not love God or his neighbor. In all of this he loved himself and chose his own desires over God. Matthew 6:24 is clear on this: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one & love the other, or he will be devoted to one & despise the other.” David’s master was himself at this point and he was mastered by his own coveting heart. This is serving another master and a hating of God.

In the last BLOG the attempt was to see a more biblical thought on what hatred toward God is. It is not necessarily a conscious hatred toward a Divine being. But according to the text above, it is a mind that is set on the things of the flesh (fleshly nature rather than the spiritual nature). The mind that is set on the flesh is death (spiritual death) because that mind that is set on the flesh is hostility toward God. The mind that is set on the flesh is by definition a mind that is hostile toward God and is engaged in evil deeds (Col 1:21). This mind is not subject to the law of God and has no ability to do so. It lives in constant hostility toward God.

The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. This command is not limited to the time a person is in a church building. It is not limited to the time at home. There is never a time when a person is allowed to go on vacation from the Law of love to God. The Greatest Commandment is one that reaches the whole of the soul and of the entire being. There is not one aspect of the soul that escapes this command. There is also not one moment that the entire soul is free from this command. True love for God can only come from a spiritual nature and so the mind that is set on the fleshly nature is doing whatever it does (even strict religious actions) out of enmity and hostility toward God. The Law of God is to be obeyed 24 hours a day and seven days a week. This is the law of liberty and so the command of love is the law of true freedom.

From Romans 1:18-32 it is clear that a human being only pursues sin by casting out the knowledge of God that is in his or her heart.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper

The only way a person can pursue sin is by rejecting the truth of God. Each sin is not a simple matter of doing something that is wrong, but instead it is rejecting the knowledge of God. It is an exchange of the truth and glory of God for the desires of the flesh and self which is a lie. The mind set on the flesh pursues the things of self out of love for self. This mind set on the flesh is given over to love for self rather than God, yet the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of the being. The person that is in the process of committing evil deeds (and that includes the very religious as well) is in the act of violating the Greatest Commandment each moment with the heart and with the actions. God, as the absolute Ruler and Lawgiver of the universe, is the One that each act of sin is against. If we violate His Law, our actions are acts of hostility against Him as Lawgiver. Each act that is in violation of the Law is also an act of casting out the knowledge of God and of utter disregard for the Ruler of the universe. There is far more evil in sin than the human mind can imagine. That means that with each act of the mind that is set on the flesh is also an act of hostility and hatred of God Himself. Perhaps we are not cognizant of it each moment, yet it is still there. The service of the self and flesh is hatred toward the living God in all ways.

Romans 8:1 – Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This passage of Holy Scripture is simply astounding in its directness of how it shows us the nature of the unbelieving world. What has happened to the believer? The believer has no condemnation in Christ for the Spirit of life in Christ has set the believer free from the law of sin and death. The Law was utterly weak because the flesh of human beings is weak. Christ was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin and so condemned sin in the flesh. Why did He do that? He did this so that the requirement of the Law would be fulfilled in those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Why is it that the Law can only be fulfilled by those who are not living according to the flesh? It is because their minds are set on the things of the flesh and the mind that is set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. The mind set on the flesh is death, is hostile toward God, cannot please God, and has no ability to subject itself to the law of God.

The believer has life because s/he is free from the law of sin and death. The unbeliever has death because s/he is under the law of sin and death. The believer has life while the unbeliever has death. The believer has the Spirit of life while the unbeliever has death. The believer has life and peace with God, but the unbeliever has death and hostility toward God. The text tells us that the reason that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God is because it does not and cannot subject itself to the law of God. Those in the flesh not only cannot please God, but in not being subject to the law of God they cannot please God. A human being that has a mind set on the flesh or the sinful nature (even if very religious and outwardly devout) is a person that lives apart from life and love and so lives in a manner that is hostile to God. Living in hostility toward God is hatred for God.

It is vital to notice something in this text. Verse 6 tells us that “the mind set on the flesh is death.” If we go past the next phrase and go to the “because” at the start of verse 7, we can catch with more clarity what the text is saying. The mind set on the flesh is death “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.” How can we know that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God? Because the mind set on the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God and cannot please God. There are so many that deny that they hate God, yet by their aversion to the law of God and their not striving to love and please God their hatred is still there. We must not look upon the ways of the world as simply light things, but instead the ways of the world are contrary to the Law of God and are open acts of hostility toward Him. Those who live good lives and yet are not subject to the Law of God are not good in the eyes of God, but even their goodness is a display of their hostility toward Him. Those who are very religious can do many religious things and yet hate God.

The Pharisees did many outward things in religion. They knew their “Bibles” and they prayed. They gave alms and traveled across land and sea to make converts. They set out many laws in order to keep the Word of God. Yet their laws demonstrated hatred to the true Law of God in that by their external rigidness they had virtually annulled the inward strictness of the true Law. All of their religious actions were acts of hatred toward God because they demonstrated a true hostility toward the Law of God. The mind set on the flesh is a mind that can do many things with the Bible and in the things of religion. However, it is still a mind set on the flesh. In our day there has been a resurgence of Reformed theology in some ways. Some of the resurgence is limited to an external doctrine, but it does not reach the heart. It is possible for many to believe all the points of Calvinism or all or some of the points of Arminianism and still live in hostility to God. One can love doctrine and the externals of religion and yet hate the Law of God in truth. Religion and perfect doctrine do not guarantee that a person has grace and those things are not saving grace in and of themselves. If we do not love God in truth, we don’t love Him at all.