Hi Mjh29,
I was looking at these Psalms, also thinking about like Malachi, Esau I have hated, there are other places you can name also. Before Jesus died, this was very different world in this respect, I believe.
I know that people would offer their sacrifices, trusting in God, and were saved, but then they could turn from God, and then be lost.
Curious . . . what would happen when the wicked did righteousness? Thinking about like in Ezekiel, "but if the wicked do righteousness, their wickedness will not be remembered, something like that.
Did they then become more loved? So as to be saved?
What would happen when the righteous did wickedness? Did they become less loved? Do you see the issue I have with this?
It seems to me that love and hatred form God are shown in the OT and the NT in two different ways.
In the OT, God speaks of love and hatred as to build up and to tear down, and loves and hates variously.
In the NT, God speaks of love for the world - all men - and desires all come to Him. Ever since Jesus.
On Revelation 2:6, is it saying God hates the people, or what they do?
Much love!
Not at all. If God loved differently in the OT than in the NT;
1.) People of the OT would have a verifiable and legitimate reason to Call God unjust
2.) This would be a change in God's character, which is expressly spoken against in the Scriptures.
Man in the OT were saved the same way men in the NT are; faith and trust in the savior. Yes, the people doing the sacrifices [for the most part] knew what they were all about.
Righteousness is not something we conjure in ourselves; it is something given to the elect [Christians, believers] when they are transformed by the Spirit.
What happens when the wicked do righteousness?
~ Simply put, they cannot. There is no way for the ungodly, the unregenerate, the wicked to do righteousness. While they can do good things, these things are not motivated by a proper motivation, [ie to serve Christ.]
Isaiah 64:6 - ..... All our deeds of righteousness are like filthy rags.
What happens when the righteous do wickedness?
~ I have a feeling you know the answer to this one; the righteous [Christians] do not point to their own righteousness but to that of Jesus; He IS our righteousness; apart from Him, we have
only wickedness. So, when the righteous do wickedness [sin], which we do every day, we plead the Blood of Christ, and His love for us.
Nothing we do will ever make us any more or less loved in the sight of Christ; He has set His love upon us [the elect] when we were yet sinners, and this love will endure forever.