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God Cannot Look Upon Sin?

By Jeremy Myers
64 Comments

God Cannot Look Upon Sin?

God Cannot Look Upon Sin?Have you ever heard someone say that God cannot look upon sin? I have, and a reader recently sent in this question:

It has been told to me that God cannot look upon evil, so why does the beginning of the book of Job portray God and satan conversing?

I have written about this before as part of the book I am writing on the goodness of God and the problem of violent portrayals of God in the Old Testament. Regarding this question of whether or not God can look upon sin or be near evil, I wrote this:

Sometimes we get this crooked view of God where He cannot look upon sin or be near sin because sin would somehow taint His holiness. Such a view gives sin way too much power and gives God way too little.

God is not like a pristine white couch upon which no one can sit for fear of it getting soiled. No, sin cannot be in the presence of God because whenever God draws near to sin, the raging inferno of His love and holiness washes all sin away. God can no more be tainted by sin than the ocean could be dyed red with a single drop of food coloring.

This is why God takes all sin upon Himself in Jesus and in the Old Testament.

Sin crushes, enslaves, and destroys humanity, but it vanishes away into nothingness at the smallest touch of Godโ€™s blazing holiness.

God Cannot Look Upon Sin (Habakkuk 1:13)?

This idea that God cannot look upon sin or see evil probably comes from Habakkuk 1:13. In one translation, for example, it says this:

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong (NIV).

Ironically, the text then goes on to say that God does in fact tolerate wickedness and evil. Habakkuk is a book where the prophet asks numerous questions to God such as this one. The prophet Habakkuk looks around him at what is going on in the world and has trouble reconciling it with what He knows about God, and so He asks a whole series of challenging questions about God’s behavior and actions. Habakkuk 1:13 is one of those questions… the first one actually.

Habakkuk does not believe that God cannot actuallyย seeย evil. No, Habakkuk knows that God sees everything that goes on in the world. From the very beginning, God saw that Adam and had sinned, and He saw when Cain killed His brother Abel, and He saw when the people on the earth became so wicked that a flood was going to destroy them all. We could go on and on throughout the Bible to see that God both knows the evil that is going on in the world, and He sees it. God sees every bit of evil in this world.

So to say that God cannot look upon sin is not accurate biblically, and is not what Habakkuk 1:13 teaches. Instead, it seems that what Habakkuk is saying is that God, by not seeming to do anything about evil, appears to be looking upon evil with approval. But we know that God does not look upon evil in approval; He disapproves it. So how then is it that the treacherous seem to be in God’s favor, and the wicked seem to win at everything? This is what Habakkuk is asking.

And if we look around in the world, we often have the same question. Why do the wicked prosper? Why do the treacherous thrive? (Jeremiah 12:1). Job asked a similar question as well in Job 21:7.

God Can Be in the Presence of Sin

Which brings us back to the specific question that was sent in. Obviously, if God cannot look upon sin or evil then God should not have been able to look upon satan, or even allow satan to enter His presence. But according to Job 1, God does both.

This dilemma goes away when we realize that it is not true that God cannot look upon sin and evil.

In fact, far from averting His gaze or blinding His eyes to all the sin and evil that goes on in the world, God dives right into the thick of it. He finds the vilest places, the most terrible times, and the evilest situations, and jumps in there.

Why?

Because He loves us too much to leave us in the darkness of sin, and because the light shines brightest in the darkest of areas.

Look at it this way: To say that God cannot look upon sin or be in the presence of evil is to deny that Jesus was fully God. Did Jesus come to this earth? Of course! Did He ignore sin and keep Himself away from all who were sinners! Far from it! Rather, He sought out the sinners. He hung around the prostitutes and tax collectors. He laid hands on the lepers and showed love to adulterers.

And on the cross, Jesus took our sin upon Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says He became sin for us! He took the curse upon Himself (Galatians 3:13).

Jesus took our sin on the crossAnd if Jesus reveals God to us, then we can assume that God also likes to hang out with sinners and show love to the wicked. To say that God cannot look upon sin is to say that sin can defeat and defile God; that sin is more powerful than the righteous holiness of God! May it never be! God is not so weak and powerless!

So when satan comes into the presence of God in Job 1, God is not threatened by satan. God sees satan, talks with satan, and even agrees to let satan have his way with Job (which I actually have some major problems with, but that is a topic for a different post).

So don’t say God cannot look upon sin.

Instead, be grateful and thankful that God can look upon sin, and in fact, looks upon it every second of every day, and not just looks upon it, but decides to do something about it.

It is only because God can look upon sin that He sent His son Jesus Christ to do something about sin, and it is only because God can be near sin that He is able to be with each one of us in the midst of our sin and filth.ย 

God loves us so much, He is willing to walk with us and be near us through the worst of our sins.ย 

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: evil, Habakkuk 1:13, Job, satan, sin, Theology of Sin

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The Flood of Genesis 6-8 in Context

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

The Flood of Genesis 6-8 in Context

In the flood of Genesis 6-8, did God really send water to kill every living thing on earth? We have been considering the issue of the violence of the flood for several posts now, and will continue to do so for several more. This post briefly introduces the context of the flood in Genesis 6-8.

The Context of Genesis 6-8

Though this is the most common view of these chapters, there are numerous clues left by the text itself, by the surrounding context, and by other passages in Scripture which indicate that something else is going on in the flood account. The truths of Genesis 6-8 (and especially 6:7, 13, 17; 7:23) can be understood differently when we grasp the Scriptural and cultural contexts in which these texts were written, what other Old Testament authors had to say about the flood, and also what the Apostle Peter writes about it in his second letter. This section will look at the surrounding context of Genesis 6-8, and subsequent sections will consider other biblical passages that deal with the flood.

the flood in Genesis 6-8

Our understanding of Genesis 6-8 depends in large part on how we understand Genesis 1โ€“11 as a whole, and especially Genesis 1:1-2, 6-10, and 6:1-12. There are numerous questions and issues surrounding the opening chapter of Genesis that will shed light and guide our understanding of Genesis 6-8.

The Creation of the World from Water

We first need to ask questions about the water in Genesis 1:2. Where did these waters come from? Were they part of what was created in Genesis 1:1, or is 1:1 more of a summary/title for chapter 1? If the latter (as many Bible scholars believe), then the text doesnโ€™t really tell us where the waters came from, only that they existed. And either way, how should the waters be understood? Are they referring to literal liquid water or is the water a literary symbol for something else?

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Genesis 6-8, God, Nephilim, Noah, sin, the flood, Theology of God, Theology of Sin, When God Pled Guilty

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Troubled Translations of Genesis 6:13

By Jeremy Myers
9 Comments

Troubled Translations of Genesis 6:13

Bible translation Genesis 6When I first sat down to study and research the flood account through the lens of Jesus Christ, I initially thought that the key to this text was found in faulty English translations.

We must admit that the vast majority of Bible translators hold a view of God in which He is angry about sin and violent toward humanity as a result. As such, they often translate texts to reveal this theological bias, even if the text as originally written does not. I initially thought that the account of the flood was a perfect illustration of this bias.

Translating Genesis 6:13a

For example, according to many translations, the first part of Genesis 6:13 says that because God saw the great evil and violence that was upon the earth, God decided or determined that He would destroy everything living upon it. Here are three sample translations which show this perspective:

So God said to Noah, โ€œI am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of themโ€ฆโ€ (NIV).

And God said to Noah, โ€œI have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through themโ€ฆโ€ (RSV).

So God said to Noah, โ€œI have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violenceโ€ฆโ€ (NLT).

As can be seen from these two translations, the text seems to indicate that as a result of violence in the world, God decided or determined to send some violence of His own, and wipe out every living thing.

But a brief look at a few other English translations shows that another way of reading the text is possible:

And God said to Noah, โ€œThe end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through themโ€ฆโ€ (NKJ).

And God said unto Noah, โ€œThe end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through themโ€ฆโ€ (KJV).

Then God said to Noah, โ€œThe end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of themโ€ฆโ€ (NAS).

These three translations show that the first part of Genesis 6:13 can clearly be translated in a different way. In contrast to the first three translations above, these second three translations show that it is not that God decided or determined to send destruction upon the earth, but that God saw that death and destruction was going to come upon the earth. The destruction of the earth had come before Him. The Hebrew literally reads that it had come โ€œbefore His face,โ€ or โ€œinto His presence.โ€

Genesis 6 and Job 1

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Genesis 6, God, Job 1, sin, the flood, Theology of Sin, When God Pled Guilty

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Is the Flood Account a Beautiful Story about Rainbows?

By Jeremy Myers
23 Comments

Is the Flood Account a Beautiful Story about Rainbows?

the flood rainbowOf all the violent texts in the Old Testament, the portrayal of the flood in Genesis 6โ€“8 may be the most difficult text to understand.

As I was struggling with the way the flood is presented in Scripture, I had frequent conversations with my wife about this troubling text. One night, as we went back and forth on how to understand this passage, she playfully said, โ€œI donโ€™t know what the flood story means! All I know is what I was taught in Sunday school, that itโ€™s a beautiful story about rainbows!โ€

We laughed, but the tragic reality is that this is what most people think about the flood. It is often read and taught sort of like an old-wives tale about how rainbows came to be.

The Flood Story is Appalling

The flood story, however, is anything but a beautiful fairy tale.ย On its surface,ย the flood story is an appalling account of how millions (and possibly billions) of people died a horrible death by drowning because God was angry at them.

family drowning in the floodAside from the grim image of every living thing on earth gasping for breath and choking on water as they sink beneath the waves, the flood story also paints a troubling portrait of a God who seems incompetent because He regrets that He made mankind (Didnโ€™t He know this would happen?), and who then foolishly tries to solve the worldโ€™s addiction to evil and violence by committing the greatest atrocity of all: worldwide genocide. One author describes the story with these words:

The Old Testament also describes God as a mass murderer. โ€ฆDespite cute songs, child-friendly play sets, and colorful artistic renderings of the story, โ€œNoahโ€™s Arkโ€ is not a happy tale of giraffes and panda bears clambering aboard a floating zoo. It is a story of catastrophic death and destruction that, incidentally, results from divine decree. Nearly the entire human population perishes because God drowns them. It is a disaster of such epic proportions that even some of Hollywoodโ€™s doomsday scenarios pale by comparison (Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior, 20).

Strong words! Yet the apparent genocidal behavior of God in Genesis 6โ€“8 is not the only troubling element to this text. Although there is a rainbow at the end and a promise by God that He will never do such a thing again, one is left with several questions about the way God is presented in this text.

The Troubling God of the Flood

For example, if He can promise that He will never do it again, why did He send the flood in the first place? Did He realize the flood was a mistake? If so, He sure seems prone to mistakes, for He first regretted making mankind, and then He regretted killing them all. So is God schizophrenic? Is He bi-polar? Did God realize the flood didnโ€™t work as intended, and that mankind would not learn to refrain from evil simply because God annihilated them all? Maybe He realized this isnโ€™t the example He wanted to set for mankind, and so resolved to be a nicer, gentler, more merciful God in the future? Was the flood โ€œPlan Aโ€ and when the violent drowning of all mankind didnโ€™t work, God decided to go with โ€œPlan Bโ€ in eventually sending the Messiah?

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Genesis 6, Genesis 6-8, rainbow, scripture, sin, the flood, Theology of God, When God Pled Guilty

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Why Accountability Groups Don’t Work

By Jeremy Myers
64 Comments

Why Accountability Groups Don’t Work

I have never been fond of accountability groups. I have been a part of several over the course of my life as a pastor, church member, and seminary student. I always felt like there was something… manipulative about them.

Accountability Groups I Have Been In

accountability group bondage

Here is my sense of every accountability group I have ever been in: they pretty much only force people to become liars. Oh sure, maybe the specific sin that the group meets together about is discussed and out in the open, but most often, the other sins are kept hidden and safely locked away. Furthermore, what happens most often in accountability groups is that if a person doesn’t want to talk about his sin, all the accountability group does is make him feel more guilty about it, which then makes him fall into the sin even more.

I was in one accountability group where we were dealing with issues of sexual temptation. The group lasted about two years, and we all did pretty good admitting our failures and praying for and encouraging one another. The group fell apart when one of the members got arrested and sent to prison for molesting a young girl. In the two years we met, he never said a word about any such struggle, temptation, or risk he was facing in this area. Not one word.

I was part of a different group a while back, and I recently learned that one of the men in the group is facing the possibility of divorce because of an addiction to pornography which he hid all those years.

I am not judging or condemning these men. What I am saying is that accountability groups don’t “work.” Some people will swear that accountability groups do work, and that every person should be part of one, but I’m just not so sure….

While counseling and accountability groups might be temporarily helpful for some, they do not result in lasting success for the vast majority of people who participate in them.

What Accountability Groups Focus On

Accountability groups usually focus on guilt and peer pressure to modify behavior. There are other behavioral management techniques that are sometimes used as well, but for the most part, there is very little about an accountability group that is overtly “Christians.” Oh sure, the accountability group might pray and talk about the Bible, but in general, there is very little difference between a Christian accountability group and any other form of behavioral management group. And usually what is discovered in these groups is that even IF a person is able to modify one behavior or overcome one addiction, they often fall into some other sort of destructive behavior or addiction, which often makes their overall condition worse than it was before.

[Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: accountability group, Discipleship, flesh, law, love of God, Romans 8, sin, victory over sin

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