How can I learn to hate my own sin?

But let us enquire what repentance is. It is the more important to be careful as to this, owing to the loose and insufficient answers frequently given to this question. Some say that it is sorrow for sin; some that it is a change of mind, dwelling upon the literal meaning of the word; while others affirm that it comprises the determination both to forsake sin and also to do the will of God in time to come. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined together, though some of the things mentioned may constitute a part of scriptural repentance. That sorrow for sin does not amount to repentance is seen from the apostle's words: "Godly sorrow [sorrow according to God] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. 7:10.) Mere sorrow for sin may spring from the sense of shame, or from the bitter consequences which sin often entails, and may often have no reference to God; and even sorrow according to God, as in the above scripture, is not, though it works, repentance. Much less could change of mind, or the vain effort to forsake sins and to do the will of God, be accepted as answering to it. No; scriptural repentance is nothing less than our identification with God in His judgment of our sins, our taking His part against ourselves, and our consequent bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment. This involves our hatred of sin, inasmuch as the moment, through grace, we side with God in His judgment upon our deeds, we are so far in communion with Him, as to His thoughts and feelings, about our sins. When we thus repent, we justify God and condemn ourselves. This can never take place but in His presence, when His light, the light of His holiness, reveals sin to us as it appears in His sight; so that we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6.) Or again, with the psalmist, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:4.)

But let us enquire what repentance is. It is the more important to be careful as to this, owing to the loose and insufficient answers frequently given to this question. Some say that it is sorrow for sin; some that it is a change of mind, dwelling upon the literal meaning of the word; while others affirm that it comprises the determination both to forsake sin and also to do the will of God in time to come. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined together, though some of the things mentioned may constitute a part of scriptural repentance. That sorrow for sin does not amount to repentance is seen from the apostle's words: "Godly sorrow [sorrow according to God] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. 7:10.) Mere sorrow for sin may spring from the sense of shame, or from the bitter consequences which sin often entails, and may often have no reference to God; and even sorrow according to God, as in the above scripture, is not, though it works, repentance. Much less could change of mind, or the vain effort to forsake sins and to do the will of God, be accepted as answering to it. No; scriptural repentance is nothing less than our identification with God in His judgment of our sins, our taking His part against ourselves, and our consequent bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment. This involves our hatred of sin, inasmuch as the moment, through grace, we side with God in His judgment upon our deeds, we are so far in communion with Him, as to His thoughts and feelings, about our sins. When we thus repent, we justify God and condemn ourselves. This can never take place but in His presence, when His light, the light of His holiness, reveals sin to us as it appears in His sight; so that we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6.) Or again, with the psalmist, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:4.)

When the truth of that is brought into the conscience, when I see that I have slighted the Christ, and preferred idle vanities to Him, how it shews me what I am! When I see the love of Christ, does not that come and say, "O you are a wretch to prefer a bit of dress to Christ, to take anything when Christ is disliked for it!" And when thus brought into the light, in the presence of God, we judge ourselves. I judge rightly what I am, and what I have been doing, all the while I have been in darkness. I must, of course, see the light; therefore it is by faith. Not that I may realise all, but yet I judge all in God's presence and hate myself. And it is just when we begin to think that God does not hate us that we begin to hate ourselves. When the spirituality of the law comes, we hate sin, but dread the consequences; but when the light of Christ comes, we hate sin through and through, and there is humbleness. I hate sin and abhor myself. Now, there is a real moral change. I am brought into the true light. O what a difference when a man is brought to God; not in terror which makes him run away, nor in full peace, but yet to a God who, in love, has brought me into His presence to shew me what I am. Then, I repeat, it is getting into the light. There is distress at first, but so much the better, for the heart is set right.

Thus, through Christ, we have power over sin. Before a sinner has beheld the Lamb of God slain on Calvary, sin has dominion over him. He makes resolutions; but he breaks them again and again. He reforms outwardly in various ways; but he only exchanges one class of sins for another. He is without strength. He cannot live without sinning. But when his guilty conscience is brought by the Holy Spirit before the cross of Christ, his heart melts, the thorns and briers of self-righteousness are burned up, his icy affections thaw before the burning love of Immanuel, and he is humbled before God, broken down under a sense of His love. By considering the deep agonies of the Sin-bearer, he hates sin, he loathes himself, loves the Saviour, and cries out, with gratitude of soul — "Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my heart, my life, my all!" Thus, by faith in the Son of God, who died for the ungodly, we have liberty from the dominion of sin; and the Divine assurance is, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace."

Even when born again, and our hearts turned to God, it has not pleased Him to deliver us at once from that indwelling sin, which if any man saith he hath not, he deceiveth himself (1 John 1:8). Nay, it is then we are brought face to face with it, not surely to fulfill its lusts, but to realize it in its abominable character, and to learn in the light with Him His own hatred of it.

Thus it is, in reference to God's dealings with His children, when they do wrong. He must have the whole thing brought out and thoroughly judged. He will make us not only dread the consequences of sin which are unutterable — but hate the thing itself, because of its hatefulness, in his sight. Were it possible for us, when we commit sin, to be forgiven, merely for the asking, our sense of sin, and our shrinking from it, would not be nearly so intense; and, as a consequence, our estimate of the fellowship with which we are blessed, would not be nearly so high. The moral effect of all this upon the general tone of our spiritual constitution, and also upon our whole character and practical career, must be obvious to every experienced Christian.*

We are told, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." We are not to overcome him (that we never could do), but when he meets Christ in me, he cannot stand that, he must flee. "Thou shalt bruise his heel." The blessed Son of God came down to go through this for us. He said, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God": and that will was our salvation. "By one offering he perfected for ever them that were sanctified"; but then that offering had to be made, See the Lord Jesus Christ coming down from heaven in love, to devote Himself to God for our salvation; and this changes a man's heart. Jesus drank the cup of wrath for sin, full and to the dregs. He tasted death - was shut out from God's presence - endured the hiding of His countenance; and all this, that He might bring us back into the presence of God without judgment and without sin, but with everything that could make us happy and blessed for ever. He lived in God's love; He dwelt with the Father; and He knew well what He was bringing us into, what He was giving us to share. But He knew too what the holiness of God was, and what His wrath was; and therefore He knew what He was delivering us from. How I shall hate sin, if I have seen Christ agonizing for mine upon the cross!

“I hate every false way.” This is the result of the daily renewing of our minds by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit uses the Word of God to form our thoughts and to give us a completely new set of values. This leads us to hate the very things we loved when unconverted.

The Holy Spirit teaches me what are true priorities, what are true values and what is really important and of value to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, to hate what is false is characteristic of the new life we have received as Christians, though that is not the sum total. There is also the positive side: to delight in that which is good. Paul says, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man … ” (Rom. 7:22). The ultimate secret is of course that it is not even sufficient to “delight in the law of God … ” Paul found that in him, as regenerate and a believer in the gospel, he had sin dwelling in him. He struggled hard to make his flesh do the will of God but failed. He so much wanted to please the Lord but he found he had no strength of his own. But then he discovered the secret: there was power not in his own strength but only “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul thus capitulated and surrendered himself totally to the Lord.

The evil is of such a glaring character, so unspeakably atrocious, that the nation itself is shocked, shocked out of measure, and forgets that it had its lessons to learn in connection with it. I am sure the lesson would be lost upon us, too, if, like Israel, we simply have our minds occupied by a horrible form of wickedness, and fail to remember the capabilities of the same wickedness in our own hearts. When we think of a holy God, who measures things by the germ, by their possibilities, not by their actual accomplishment; when we remember our blessed. Lord, who said, for instance, that he that looketh committeth the same sin that the Pharisees were ready to stone one for; when we remember that God looks at the heart as much as He does at the outward life, dear brethren, the possibility of thinking evil, the possibility of having evil thoughts chase themselves through our minds, is it as unendurable to us as it ought to be? The soul that is in the presence of God hates the thought of sin as much as it hates the deed of sin. Beloved, ye that fear the Lord, hate evil, His word says, and when there is a true judgment of sin it always looks at the root of it in the heart, just as much as it does at the fruit in the life.

N*. It always does when grace has wrought in the soul. You do quite right to judge it, and yourself for it. Sin becomes hateful to us if we are really born of God, and we are ashamed of ourselves for it. Nor can we ever excuse ourselves, and especially the true Christian, because the grace of Christ is sufficient for him to make him walk aright. But you will find, James, that power against sin will come when you know what it is to be cleansed from it. Not that it will not always require vigilance and prayer for grace; but, when your soul is in communion with the Lord through the peace He gives, you will find there the strength for victory, and for holding your evil nature in subjection. That communion gives happiness and strength. Hitherto you have been more learning your need of cleansing than the efficacy of Christ's blood for it: and that is all right, because, as we were seeing already, God will have realities, and have inward purification and judgment of sin along with peace with Himself, and so shews us the sin we have to be cleansed from. But now remember what we were referring to in Hebrews 9 and 10, how the blood of Christ purges the conscience.