Does God Love the Sinner but Hate the Sin?

Christians so often use the phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin” that you would think it comes straight from Scripture. But is it true of God? Should it be true of us?

My guest on this podcast is Don Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and president of The Gospel Coalition. He joins me to examine this familiar statement and whether or not it is true and helpful. We talked about what we should make of Bible passages like Psalm 5:5 that speak of God hating the wicked.

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Is God’s love for us unconditional? Does God love both the elect and the unelect in the same way? Listen as Carson sheds biblical light on these tough questions. Thank you to Betsy Childs Howard for her assistance in preparing this podcast.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.

But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.

To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Download your copy today »

Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, most recently Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.

Don Carson (BS, McGill University, MDiv, Central Baptist Seminary, Toronto, PhD, University of Cambridge) is emeritus professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and cofounder and theologian-at-large of The Gospel Coalition. He has edited and authored numerous books. He and his wife, Joy, have two children.