...Second, the argument made by many theologians is that God hates anything that is sinful, and only loves Christians because of imputed righteousness through Christ. As such, this hatred extends to all unjustified sinners, even those who have been elected but not yet come to repent and accept Christ. Keeping this in mind, I guess the proper question to ask is: Does God love unjustified sinners, those who in their current state do not accept Christ (regardless of whether they will in the future repent)?
A. Thanks for your follow up question and I apologize if my answer has been confusing. I will try to clarify and hope that we can resolve this issue.
Fundamentally, God hates sinners. Because God is righteous and without sin, He hates anyone that sins. Passage such as Psalm 5:5 and Proverbs 6:16-19 talk about the sins that God hates. As a result, God must punish the sinner for what they have done. This is part of His justice and righteousness. He is holy and the sin offends Him.
At the same time, in His wrath and righteousness, God is also loving and merciful. The punishment of sin is death (Romans 6:22-23). Those who sin should die, which means that all sinners must pay for their sins. In His love, God gives us Jesus Christ, who dies on the cross in place of our sins. Justice is served, and the price was paid. The wages of sin are death...and the death has come in the form of Jesus Christ. Our penalty for our sins have been fulfilled.
And so, while God has a hatred for sinners and sins, He also has a love for those He has created. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive. God is just, and in his justice, the sin has to be punished with death. Jesus comes to save us from this death and dies in our place out of love. It's a mystery how this works, that God could perfectly love a person as someone He has created and can redeem, but also hate him for his unbelief and sinful lifestyle. As we are imperfect humans, we cannot understand or do this. But we have the opportunity to accept God's love in His judgement of us.
For more information, please read this.
[answered by Pastor KJT]
