How Does God Feel About Us When We Sin?

How does God feel about us when we sin? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We'd love to hear from you. Here's our phone number. It's 833-The-Core.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us at questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Aaron. My question has to do with God still speaking through Scripture. I had a friend ask me a question recently about the historical view that the canon of Scripture has been closed, and God hasn't added any additional information. And we look to places like Deuteronomy 4, Revelation 22, about not adding words. However, what my friend was saying back was that those weren't the last books of the Bible written. More of it was written after that. So, I was just curious, why do we hold this view that the canon of Scripture has been closed, and where do we point people to show them that that is the case, and that God communicates to His people primarily through what He has already revealed?

Thanks so much. Aaron, this is such an important question, and we actually answered one recently. Actually, someone who's a Mormon, LDS, called in wanting to know the answer to this question because, of course, the LDS Church, they have a lot of other books, right, that they've added, another testament of Jesus Christ. And so, people wonder, you know, on what basis can we say that the canon of Scripture is closed? Sure, we have our Bible, and we use the Bible as our ultimate authority, but who's to say that we can't add other books to the Bible, that somebody can't get a revelation, and boom, there you go. You get another testament of Jesus Christ, or you think of something like Islam, the quote-unquote prophet Muhammad, and this new revelation, another testament, if you will. Of course, they wouldn't put it that way.

But so, what do we say in response? Well, first and foremost, I think all of these other views fail to understand the close relationship between revelation and redemption. In other words, revelation is the record. And when I say revelation, I mean, God speaking to us through His Word specifically, special revelation. Special revelation is the record of redemptive history.

So, it's recording for us what God is doing and has done in time to accomplish redemption. And so, the question is, has redemption been accomplished? If it has not been accomplished, then we should expect new revelation in other books of the Bible. If it has been accomplished, well, then we shouldn't, because we have the once for all accomplishment of redemption. And we have the revelation of that given to us in Holy Scripture. And of course, we would say fundamentally, looking at the cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead, that once and for all, redemption has been accomplished.

There's nothing that we're looking forward to. Jesus was the expected one, the one who was anticipated by the prophets, the fulfillment of all of the types and shadows of the old covenant, you know, the sacrificial system. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We're not looking for another one. And that's the entire point of books like the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter one, verse one says long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. In other words, God has spoken definitively. Jesus is the final word. And so we're not looking for another testament of Jesus Christ as though Christ's redemptive work for us was insufficient or incomplete, or we're looking for something else.

No, we have that. And and we have the entire record of that from Genesis to Revelation promise and fulfillment. And so now it's not that God isn't speaking today. God is speaking, brothers and sisters, through His holy and inspired word illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so if you want to know God's will for your life, don't go chasing another testament of Jesus Christ or some some revelation some revelation that some quote unquote prophet is saying that they're going to give you. Go to the prophets and the apostles, the record that we have in Holy Scripture, and hear the voice of Jesus Christ speaking to you by the power of the Holy Spirit through His word, because He is speaking today through that word. And that's really what we need to recover, I would say, Bill, in in today's day and age, where people are desperate to hear a voice from God, right? I mean, we want to hear from from the Lord, but oftentimes, we're not going to the places where God has so clearly spoken to us. We want something else. We're not satisfied with the Word of God. We're not satisfied with the ordinances of grace that Jesus gave to us, you know, baptism in the Lord.

So give me something else, something exciting. And God says, No, here's where I'm speaking to you. Listen, listen to my voice. How would you respond to a person who says, you know, I go to a church where people have words of prophecy or words of knowledge, and they tell me that this is what God is really saying. Yeah, you know, I used to go to a church like that as a newer believer. And I'll tell you something, you know, I think that these were sincere Christians, I know that they were loved Jesus. And I learned so many wonderful things about the Lord while I was at that church. And so God used that church very powerfully in my life. I think that oftentimes, you know, when somebody would get up and say, I have a word from the Lord, often they would just sort of string together a couple quotes from the Psalms and say, you know, I'm with you, I want to bless you, so on.

So it wasn't some sort of specific, it wasn't like they heard an audible voice. It was just a strong sense that they felt like they had, like, God wanted me to share this scripture verse with you or something like that. So I don't think it's helpful to refer to that as prophecy. If you want to encourage someone with scripture, do it. And maybe God does lay a verse on your heart or something like that. But let's not pretend that we're prophets like Jeremiah was or Ezekiel was saying, thus saith the Lord.

No, that's a category mistake. And let me just say, for myself as a newer believer, one of the challenges I faced at that time was really not being satisfied with just the preaching of the Word of God. I wanted somebody to stand up in the middle of church and say, I got a word for you, a special word for you. And I think that's the danger is in some of those environments, we can grow dissatisfied, discontent with just faithful Bible preaching. We're looking for something specific, something different than that.

I want somebody to give me, you know, like, a miraculous prophetic word. And we chase after that. And I think that can be really dangerous. And so I would just say, if you're going to a church like that, be very careful, probably not best to refer to that as prophecy. And certainly, we've seen all sorts of abuses in those contexts as well. And so we just have to be really vigilant and make sure that we're prioritizing the preaching of the Word.

Good word. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can leave us a voicemail anytime. Our phone lines are out of commission today, but we can take live calls, but we can take your voicemail. So give us a call at 833-THE-CORE.

We do our best to review our voicemails every day. You can also email us at questions at corechristianity.com. Well, here at The Core, we often talk about the overarching theme of the Bible, which really is the gospel, the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. And we have a wonderful book on that topic we'd like to offer you today. Yeah, once again, we're offering journeys with Jesus, how every path in the Bible leads us to Christ by Dr. Dennis Johnson, a professor that I had taught practical theology for many years. New Testament scholar also wrote our Revelation Bible study.

We say this all the time on the broadcast. One of the biggest issues in the church today is biblical illiteracy and just a lack of understanding when it comes to how to read the Bible, how to understand the big picture of Scripture and how all of Scripture leads us to Christ. And one of the things I appreciate so much about Dr. Johnson is he's able to communicate that in a way that is pastoral, accessible, and yet faithful to the text of Scripture. And so get a hold of this resource, really a wonderful resource. Again, it's yours for a donation of any amount over at corechristianity.com. Once again, it's called journeys with Jesus, how every path in the Bible leads us to Christ by Dr. Dennis Johnson. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. We have a lot of great resources at our website. Many of them are free and you can check them all out at corechristianity.com. Well, here's the voicemail we received last week from one of our listeners named Grant.

Hi, my name is Grant. I really appreciate you pastor, Adriel and core christianity and white horse. And I've just learned so much from all of them. My question is, how should I think about God's attitude toward me when I spin? Because I believe, you know, I'm justified by the blood of Christ, the punishment for my sin has fallen on him, but God is still holy. You know, so obviously, he doesn't like sin. So is it accurate to say he's displeased with me when I sin? Or is it some other attitude that we could ascribe to him with our limited human understanding?

Of course, appreciate anything you have to say on that subject. Yeah. Grant, you know, this is a really good question because I've heard some people say, you know, when you sin as a believer, because you're justified, you know, imagine what God is thinking. You know, what's the look on his face when you sin? Is he displeased? Is he angry at you?

Well, if you're justified, no, he just has a big smile on his face. Now, let me just say a couple things. One, it's never good to create images of God in our mind or anywhere else because we tend to just confuse things. I mean, this is something that the Bible says we ought not to do. But the other piece here is I think we're failing to make sense of a lot of texts in Scripture. Yes, God is displeased when we sin.

Now, I say that, and we need to understand that all of the Bible's revelation to us is what we call analogical. It's this analogy, if you will, because we can't say that God is having a bad day because of my sin today. God is God. He doesn't have bad days.

It's not like things are up and down for him. God, as he is in himself, is perfect, holy, righteous, good. And yet Scripture, as he reveals himself to us in his response to sin, there is, right? Oh, you look at these texts of Scripture, there's anger, there's disappointment, there's grief.

And we're told in Ephesians 4, verse 30, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of the Lord by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. I also think of that scene in 2 Samuel 11, David and Bathsheba. And of course, David is doing horrible things here, abusing the authority that God has given to him, sinning in ways that are just unthinkable. I mean, it's just shocking.

And at the end of that text there in 2 Samuel 11, we read in verse 27, and when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, speaking of Bathsheba, and bore him a son, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. This is the reality. Our sin displeases the Lord. It grieves the Holy Spirit. Now, it doesn't unjustify us, right? And Grant, I'm glad that you recognize that, right? We're justified. That's a definitive act, something that God has done through faith in Jesus Christ. It's not like we go from the justified state to an unjustified state, and then we get saved all over again, no. But as the justified children of God filled with the Holy Spirit, sealed with the Holy Spirit, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. And when that happens, I think we do experience a sense of God's fatherly displeasure, maybe this sort of cloud that looms over you when you've done something that you know you shouldn't do. It doesn't mean you're not saved anymore. It doesn't mean you've lost your justification, but it doesn't mean we need to turn to the Lord and confess our sins, because there is that break in fellowship, if you will, that breach that keeps us from having a sense of God's presence in our lives. And so there's a fine balance here, right? We're saying that when the believer sins, it's not that they lose their salvation. It's not that they're now no longer justified, but it also isn't that it's just like, hey, no big deal. God has just always got a big smile on his face when he thinks of him.

That's not the right way of looking at it. We want to be faithful to these passages of Scripture, and we should recognize that when we sin, it's a serious thing. And take those sins to the Lord and rest in the fact that Jesus can and does forgive us when we confess our sins.

Trevor Burrus Just a follow-up question for you. The Bible also talks about the fact that God disciplines us. And you know, it says as a father disciplines the son that he delights in, so the Lord disciplines us.

That's right. And Bill, I know that you know as a father, when you're disciplining your children, it's not like you're delighting in them. It's something that you do because you love them.

Yeah. And that's precisely what Scripture says. This is something that the Lord does for his children because he loves us. And of course, no discipline, you know, feels pleasant during the time that it's being carried out, but it's for our good. And it's one of the things that should remind us of God's care, fatherly care for us in our lives.

Darrell Bock Well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question for us, you can email us anytime.

Here's our email address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. Here's one from Mike, and it has to deal with a question that you answered on last week's program. He says, thank you for helping folks with the various questions we all have. I was surprised at your answer to the speeding question a few days ago.

I was expecting you to refer to the Bible's teachings about being not conformed to the world and how we are a peculiar people saved for good works and a holy people who are set aside. I was disappointed to hear you confirm to the caller that speeding was okay and not to beat yourself up too badly for it, seeing that all those around are seemingly doing the same thing. Peter Van Doren Yeah, Mike, thanks for that.

Thanks for that email. Darrell Bock You better tell them about the context of the call because it's – Peter Van Doren Yeah, yeah. You know, this is where it's always helpful to get these follow-ups that give me an opportunity to clarify, why, no, it's not okay to be flying down the freeway. My response, it sounded like the individual who was asking this question was saying, look, if you're in a situation where you have to do a maneuver or something like that or drive more quickly in order to avoid getting into an accident, does that mean I'm sinning because I'm going faster than 65 miles per hour?

Darrell Bock When everybody else is going 90, right? Peter Van Doren Yeah, and well, that sounds – just get off the – if everybody's going 90, just pull over and wait until it's nighttime or something to drive. But the funny thing is, in God's providence, I got my first ever speeding ticket just a couple of weeks ago. And I was mentioning to you, Bill, that my wife has been telling me, ha, ha, because I've always prided myself and I've never gotten a speeding ticket. So I've actually been doing a defensive driving class. I'm about to have my master's degree in defensive driving. And it's interesting because even in that class as I've been taking it, I'm paying close attention so I can answer these questions on core Christianity related to traffic laws. What they'll say is driving the speed of the traffic is the safest thing for you to do. I mean, you can get a ticket for driving too slow as well.

And so the reason I answered the question the way that I did is because I didn't want somebody who's – okay, speed limit is 65, I'm going 69. Do I need to confess that as a sin? Is that a sin? And I would say, no, that's not a sin. Fundamentally, you need to drive in a way that's safe, not putting yourself and anyone else in danger.

And I think that's what they would say. I mean, even the traffic law instructors that I'm listening to, I think would support me in this, sort of the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law kind of a thing. But yeah, if we're doing anything to put ourselves or our neighbor in harm's way and speeding can very well be that, well, then yeah, you do need to confess your sin to the Lord. I mean, it's a part of the commandment not to murder in the Ten Commandments. It isn't just don't kill. It's also this call to pursue the good of our neighbor, the thriving of life and the protection of life. And so anything we do recklessly that puts another person's life in danger is an issue that God is concerned with, that we should be concerned with. But if you're going 68 in a 65, I don't think that you need to confess that as a sin. Thanks for the clarification. And by the way, given the fact you never got a ticket before and you were feeling kind of prideful about it, the Bible does says that pride comes before the fall. Yeah, that's right. So I just constantly here at Core Christianity proving to you all the truth of God's Word is what we're happy to do.

And even when it comes at my own expense. Okay. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We do receive voicemails here at the core and we'd love to hear from you anytime. 833-The-Core is the number you can even call us at night or over the weekend. 833-843-2673 and leave us your question.

Here's one we received from one of our listeners named Deborah. I'm a newlywed. I have a husband that found out he's heavily involved in pornography. And I do mean heavily. I want to do it by the Lord and by him. And I would love some advice.

Thank you so much. Deborah, I'm so sorry. I mean, I would have some more questions here. I mean, is this a sin that your husband has confessed to you and is confessing? Which needs to be the case? I mean, or is this something that you've just found this out and he's tried to hide it and he's in denial or depending on the situation. There are I think different approaches. It sounds to me like this very well could be a sexual addiction. And so I think as Christians one, there needs to be confession, repentance, accountability, which looks like for him being open and honest, getting help, getting accountability. If you're in a church and you need to be in a church, him having maybe an accountability partner, being able to talk with the elders and the leadership of the church about this and maybe get some support there. You don't want to be your husband's primary accountability partner. That's a ton of weight on you, I think as a spouse. And so I think there are ways that you can support and encourage, but there needs to be that ecclesiastical accountability and oversight and care.

And again, genuine repentance and confession has to be something that he recognizes. This is a serious issue. This is an addiction and a sin and it's going to destroy me, my life, my marriage, if I don't address this.

And then again, when there are situations of sexual addiction, I think getting professional help as well. And it sounds to me like you're a newlywed, you've entered into this marriage and there's this great big issue that is terrifying and it is a serious issue. So I want to take a moment to pray for you. And then just to give you a quick encouragement, Deborah, let's pray for Deborah in this situation. Lord, we lift our sister up to you, Jesus, we ask that you would give her wisdom. I pray that for her husband, Lord, you would grant him true genuine repentance, that he would be grieved over his sins, that he would confess them to you, that he would be open and honest with his wife and that he would be willing to get the help that he needs. So that by the Spirit, this sin could be put to death in his life and that you would bless their marriage, Lord, give them a healthy marriage that honors you. And so would you be also with, again, with Deborah, ask that you would fill her with your Holy Spirit, that you would grant her a sense of your love and your presence in Jesus name.

Amen. Let me just say something, Deborah, so often wives in situations like these, they feel like there's something wrong with me. This is maybe my fault.

If I was more one way or looked a different way, then this wouldn't be an issue. Let me just say that's going to be a temptation, a satanic temptation, I think a lie that you're tempted to believe, but that's just not true. And so don't feel like this is your fault in any way that this is a burden that you carry. This is your husband's sin that you guys as one flesh, I mean, you want to come alongside of him, you want to provide care and love for him, but I don't want you to carry that burden specifically. And let me just say, remember when I was about to get married, our pastor, when we were going through premarital counseling, he said, you don't know what you're going to encounter in marriage, skeletons in the closet, or sins that you struggle with, or addictions, or whatever, you just don't know, right? What's down the line?

Thickness, pain, loss. But he said, here's the good news. If the two of you are committed to Christ and the gospel, there's always hope because there's forgiveness, there's grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ is big enough to help us through these things. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is big enough for you, and it's big enough for your husband, Deborah. And so there is hope, there's hope for him, for you, for your marriage. And I think that that hope comes through that honesty and confession and really walking in the light. And so may the Lord be with you, sister, and be with your husband as well. And I pray that you guys are able to get the help that you need and that the Lord brings great healing and restoration, even at this early stage of your marriage. Reminds me just of the importance of premarital counseling. I know it's something you believe in very strongly.

Yeah. I mean, important for us to talk about these things as we're going into marriage. But again, marriage is two sinners coming together, and our hope is in Christ and in his grace and his forgiveness. So I just want Deborah to know there's hope for her and there's hope for you if you're struggling in your marriage too. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-Core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.