Sometimes I am desperate. God must hate me, because I am such a great sinner…

Luther:

That is a great temptation of the devil, that he says: God hates the sinner, you are a sinner, so God hates you. You just have to deny the basic thought of that reasoning: it is not true that God hates the sinner. When the devil then brings in Sodom and other examples of God’s anger, you have to tell him that God has let His Son Christ become human. If God hated sinnners, He would not send His Son to earth for them. He only hates those who do not want to be justified, that is: those, that do not want to be a sinner, but that think that they do not need Christ.