Excerpt from The Doctrine of Repentance, By Thomas Watson. (Chapter 3, Ingredient 5)
The fifth ingredient in repentance is hatred of sin. The Schoolmen distinguished two objects of holy hatred: hatred of abominations, and hatred of enmity.
Firstly, there is a hatred or loathing of abominations: “You shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities” (Eze 36.31). A true penitent is a sinloather. If a man loathes what makes him sick to his stomach, then he will much more loathe what makes his conscience sick. It is more to loathe sin than to leave it. One may leave sin out of fear, as when the plate and jewels are thrown overboard in a storm; but the nauseating and loathing of sin argues for detesting it. Christ is never loved till sin is loathed. Heaven is never longed for till sin is loathed. When a soul sees an issue of blood flowing, he cries out, “Lord, when will I be freed from this body of death? When will I put off these filthy garments of sin and have the fair crown of glory set upon my head? Let all my self-love be turned into selfloathing” (Zec 3.45). We are never more precious in God’s eyes than when we are lepers in our own.
Secondly, there is a hatred of enmity. There is no better way to discover life than by motion. The eye moves, the pulse beats. So to discover repentance, there is no better sign than by a holy antipathy against sin. Hatred, said Cicero, is anger boiled up to inveteracy. Sound repentance begins in the love of God, and it ends in the hatred of sin.
HOW MAY TRUE HATRED OF SIN BE KNOWN?
1. When a man’s spirit is set against sin.
The tongue not only complains bitterly against sin, but the heart abhors it; so that however curiously painted sin may appear, it is odious to us. It is like abhorring the picture of someone we mortally hate, even though it may be well-drawn. “I do not love you, Sabidius.” Suppose a dish is finely cooked and the sauce is good; if a man detests the meat, he still will not taste it. So even if the devil were to cook and dress sin with pleasure and profit to make it attractive, a true penitent who inwardly abhors it, will be disgusted by it, and will not meddle with it.
2. True hatred of sin is universal.
True hatred of sin is universal in two ways: in respect to the faculties, and to the object.
(1) Hatred is universal in respect to the faculties; that is, there is a dislike of sin not only in the judgment, but in the will and affections. Many a person is convinced that sin is a vile thing, and in his judgment he is averse to it; yet he tastes its sweetness and he has a secret complacency in it. This is disliking sin in the judgment and embracing it in the affections. In true repentance, the hatred of sin is in all the faculties, and not just in the intellectual part; but mainly it is in the will: “what I hate, that I do” (Rom 7.15). Paul was not free from sin, yet his will was against it.
(2) Hatred is universal in respect to the object. He hates not just one sin, but all sin. Aristotle said, hatred is against the whole kind. The one who hates a serpent hates all serpents: “I hate every false way” (Psa 119.104). Hypocrites will hate some sins which mar their credit, but a true convert hates all sins, gainful sins, surface sins, even the very stirrings of corruption. Paul hated the motions of sin (Rom 7.23).
3. True hatred against sin is against sin in all forms.
A holy heart detests sin for its intrinsic pollution. Sin leaves a stain upon the soul. A regenerate person abhors sin not only for the curse but for the contagion. He hates this serpent not only for its sting but for its poison. He hates sin not only for hell, but as hell.
4. True hatred is implacable.
It will never be reconciled to sin any more. Anger may be reconciled, but hatred cannot. Sin is like Amalek, which is never to be taken into favor again. The war between a child of God and sin is like the war between those two princes: “there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days” (1Kng 14.30).
5. Where there is a real hatred, we not only oppose sin in ourselves but in others too.
The church at Ephesus could not bear with those who were evil (Rev 2.2). Paul sharply censured Peter for his dissimulation even though he was an apostle. Christ in a holy displeasure whipped the money-changers out of the temple (Joh 2.15). He would not allow the temple to be made into an exchange. Nehemiah rebuked the nobles for their usury (Neh. 5.7) and their Sabbath profanity (Neh. 13.17). A sin-hater will not endure wickedness in his family: “The one who works deceit shall not dwell within my house” (Psa 101.7). What a shame it is when magistrates can show the height of spirit in their passions, but no heroic spirit in suppressing vice. Those who have no antipathy against sin are strangers to repentance. Sin in them is like poison in a serpent, which being natural to it, affords delight.
Those who love sin instead of hating it, are far from repentance! To the godly, sin is a thorn in the eye; to the wicked, it is a crown on the head: “When you do evil, then you rejoice” (Jer 11.15). Loving sin is worse than committing it. A good man may run into a sinful action unaware; but to love sin is desperate. What is it that makes a swine but loving to tumble in the mire? What is it that makes a devil but loving what opposes God? To love sin shows that the will is in sin; and the more of the will there is in a sin, the greater the sin. Willfulness makes it a sin that is not purged by sacrifice (Heb 10.26).
“To the godly, sin is a thorn in the eye; to the wicked, it is a crown on the head”
O how many there are that love the forbidden fruit! They love their oaths and adulteries; they love the sin and hate the reproof. Solomon speaks of a generation of men: “madness is in their heart while they live” (Eccles. 9.3). So for men to love sin, to hug what will be their death, to sport with damnation, “madness is in their heart.”
Repentance persuades us to show it by our bitter hatred of sin. There is a deadly antipathy between the scorpion and the crocodile; there should be such antipathy between the heart and sin.
Question: What is there in sin that may make a penitent hate it?
Answer: Sin is the cursed thing, the most misshapen monster. The apostle Paul uses a very emphatic word to express it: “that sin might become exceedingly sinful” (Rom 7. 13), or as it is in the Greek, “hyperbolically sinful.” That sin is a hyperbolical mischief and deserves hatred will appear if we look at sin as a fourfold conceit:
(1) Look at the origin of sin, where it comes from. It fetches its pedigree from hell: “The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning” (1Joh 3.8). Sin is the devil’s proper work. God has a hand in ordering sin, it is true; but Satan has a hand in acting it out. How hateful is it to be doing the special work of the devil, indeed, what makes men devils?
(2) Look upon sin in its nature, and it will appear very hateful. See how Scripture has penciled it out: it dishonors God (Rom 2.23); despises God (1Sam 2.30); enrages God (Eze 16.43); wearies God (Isa 7.13); breaks the heart of God, just as a loving husband is broken-hearted with the unchaste conduct of his wife “I am broken with their whorish heart” (Eze 6.9). Sin, when acted to its height, crucifies Christ afresh and puts him to open shame (Heb 6.6); that is, impudent sinners pierce Christ in his saints, and if he were now upon the earth, they would crucify him again. Behold the odious nature of sin.
(3) Look upon sin in its comparison, and it appears ghastly. Compare sin with affliction and hell, and it is worse than both. It is worse than affliction, sickness, poverty, or death. There is more malignity in a drop of sin than in a sea of affliction, for sin is the cause of affliction, and the cause is more than the effect. The sword of God’s justice lies quiet in the scabbard till sin draws it out. Affliction is good for us: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted” (Psa 119.71). Affliction causes repentance (2Chr 33.12). The viper, having stricken, throws up its poison. So God’s rod striking us, causes us to spit away the poison of sin. Affliction betters our grace. Gold is purest and juniper is sweetest in the fire. Affliction prevents damnation (1Cor 11.32). Therefore, Maurice the emperor prayed to God to punish him in this life so that he might not be punished hereafter. Thus, affliction is in many ways for our good. But there is no good in sin. Manasseh’s affliction brought him to humiliation, but Judas’ sin brought him to desperation.
Affliction only reaches the body, but sin goes further: it poisons the imagination, and disorders the affections. Affliction is only corrective; sin is destructive. Affliction can only take away the life; sin takes away the soul (Luk 12.20). A man that is afflicted may have his conscience at peace. When the ark was tossed on the waves, Noah could sing in the ark. When the body is afflicted and tossed, a Christian can “make melody in his heart to the Lord” (Eph 5.19). But when a man commits sin, his conscience is terrified. Witness Spira who, upon abjuring the faith, said that he thought the damned spirits did not feel those torments which he inwardly endured. In affliction, one may have the love of God (Rev 3.19). If a man were to throw a bag of money at another man, and hurt the other man a little with it and raised the skin, that other man would not take it unkindly; he would look at it as a fruit of love. So it is when God bruises us with affliction; it is to enrich us with the golden graces and comforts of his Spirit. All is done in love. But when we commit sin, God withdraws his love. When David sinned, he felt nothing but displeasure from God: “Clouds and darkness are round about him” (Psa 97.2). David found it so. He could see no rainbow, no sunbeam, nothing but clouds and darkness around God’s face.
“When God bruises us with affliction; it is to enrich us with the golden graces and comforts of his Spirit.”
It is evident that sin is worse than affliction because the greatest judgment God lays upon a man in this life is to let him sin without control. When the Lord’s displeasure is most severely kindled against a person, he does not say, ‘I will bring the sword and the plague on this man,’ but, ‘I will let him sin on.’ – “So I gave them up to their own hearts’ rust” (Psa 81.12). Now, if giving a man up to his sins (in God’s own account) is the most dreadful evil, then sin is far worse than affliction. And if it is so, then how it should be hated by us! Compare sin with hell, and you will see that sin is worse. Torment has its emphasis in hell, yet there is nothing as bad as sin. Hell is God’s making, but sin is none of his making. Sin is the devil’s creature. The torments of hell are a burden only to the sinner, but sin is a burden to God: “I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves” (Amos. 2.13). In the torments of hell, there is something that is good, namely, the execution of divine justice. There is justice to be found in hell, but sin is a piece of the highest injustice. It would rob God of his glory, rob Christ of his purchase, and rob the soul of its happiness. Judge then if sin is not the most hateful thing, even worse than affliction or hell.
(4) Look at sin in the issue and consequence of it, and it will appear hateful. Sin reaches the body. It has exposed it to a variety of miseries. We come into the world with a cry and go out with a groan. As Herodotus tells us, it made the Thracians weep on their children’s birthday, to consider the calamities they were to undergo in the world. Sin is the Trojan horse out of which comes a whole army of troubles. I do not need to name them because almost everyone feels them. While we suck the honey we are pricked by the briar. Sin gives a dash of poison in the wine of our comforts; it digs our grave (Rom 5.12).
“By sin we have lost the image of God”
Sin reaches the soul. By sin we have lost the image of God, which consisted of both our sanctity and our majesty. Adam in his pristine glory was like a herald who wears the coat of arms. Everyone reverences him because he carries the king’s coat of arms. But pull this coat off, and no man regards him. Sin has done this disgrace to us. It has plucked off our coat of innocence. But that is not all. This barbed arrow of sin would strike yet deeper. It would forever separate us from the beautiful vision of God, in whose presence is fullness of joy. If sin is so hyperbolically sinful, it should swell our spleen and stir up our implacable indignation against it. Just as Ammon’s hatred of Tamar was greater than his love for her (2Sam 13.15), so we should hate sin infinitely more than we ever loved it.
