In the minds of some, the idea prevails,
that sin quenches pity for the sinner, in
the heart of God. It is not so. That it shall
do so hereafter, and that God will cease to
pity the lost, is an awful truth. The lost
soul’s eternity will be an unpitied eternity
of woe. But meanwhile, God’s hatred of
the sin is not hatred of the sinner. Nay,
the greatness of his sin seems rather to
deepen that to lessen the divine
compassion. At least we may say that the
increasing misery which increasing sin
entails, calls into new intensity the
paternal pity of God, ‘the God of the
spirits of all flesh.’ ‘It grieves him at his
heart’ (Genesis 6:6).
The further the prodigal goes into the far
country, the more do the yearnings of the
father’s heart go out after him, in
unfeigned compassion for the wretched
wanderer, in his famine nakedness, and
degradation, and hopeless grief.
No; sin does not quench the pitying love
of God…The most gracious invitation ever
uttered by the Lord was to Capernaum,
and Bethsaida, and Chorazin – ‘Come unto
me.’ The most loving message ever sent
to a church was that to Laodicea, the
worst of all the seven (in Asia Minor). It
was Jerusalem in her extremity of guilt
and unbelief that drew forth the tears of
the Son of God. No; sin does not
extinguish the love of God to the sinner.
Many waters cannot quench it, nor can the
floods drown it. From first to last, God
pursues the sinner as he flies from him;
pursues him not in hatred but in love;
pursues him not to destroy, but to save.
God is not man that he should lie. He
means what he says, when he speaks in
pity, in truly as when he speaks in wrath…
He words are all true and real. You cannot
exaggerate the genuine feeling they
contain... (Nothing can) cast the slightest
doubt upon the sincerity of the great oath
which God has sworn before heaven and
earth, that he has ‘no pleasure in the
death of the wicked’; nor in the least blunt
the solemn edge of his gracious entreaty,
‘Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?’
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
that sin quenches pity for the sinner, in
the heart of God. It is not so. That it shall
do so hereafter, and that God will cease to
pity the lost, is an awful truth. The lost
soul’s eternity will be an unpitied eternity
of woe. But meanwhile, God’s hatred of
the sin is not hatred of the sinner. Nay,
the greatness of his sin seems rather to
deepen that to lessen the divine
compassion. At least we may say that the
increasing misery which increasing sin
entails, calls into new intensity the
paternal pity of God, ‘the God of the
spirits of all flesh.’ ‘It grieves him at his
heart’ (Genesis 6:6).
The further the prodigal goes into the far
country, the more do the yearnings of the
father’s heart go out after him, in
unfeigned compassion for the wretched
wanderer, in his famine nakedness, and
degradation, and hopeless grief.
No; sin does not quench the pitying love
of God…The most gracious invitation ever
uttered by the Lord was to Capernaum,
and Bethsaida, and Chorazin – ‘Come unto
me.’ The most loving message ever sent
to a church was that to Laodicea, the
worst of all the seven (in Asia Minor). It
was Jerusalem in her extremity of guilt
and unbelief that drew forth the tears of
the Son of God. No; sin does not
extinguish the love of God to the sinner.
Many waters cannot quench it, nor can the
floods drown it. From first to last, God
pursues the sinner as he flies from him;
pursues him not in hatred but in love;
pursues him not to destroy, but to save.
God is not man that he should lie. He
means what he says, when he speaks in
pity, in truly as when he speaks in wrath…
He words are all true and real. You cannot
exaggerate the genuine feeling they
contain... (Nothing can) cast the slightest
doubt upon the sincerity of the great oath
which God has sworn before heaven and
earth, that he has ‘no pleasure in the
death of the wicked’; nor in the least blunt
the solemn edge of his gracious entreaty,
‘Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?’
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
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