The Seriousness of Sin

Do you truly understand our God?  Do you understand His character?  If you've grown up in church, you've probably heard that God is love (1 John 4:8), God is good (Psalm 136:1), God is gracious and merciful (Psalm 145:8-9), and faithful (Lamentations 3:22-23).  But do you also know that God is righteous (Psalm 71:19), just (Deuteronomy 32:3-4), perfect (Matthew 5:48), and holy (1 Peter 1:16)?  Do you understand that he HATES sin?!  I know hate is a strong word, but this same God who is love and who is madly in love with all of us HATES sin.

Psalm 5:4-6 – For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Psalm 11:5-7 – The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked. And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.

Psalm 45:7 – You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of you above Your fellows.

I absolutely cannot stress this enough!!  Sin is such a HUGE deal with God!  If nobody has ever told you this before, please hear me well and really take to heart the words that I am writing in this blog.  Do you realize that because of the sin of Adam and Eve (which was disobedience by eating fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3), all of humanity became sinners?  One act of disobedience caused ALL of humanity to become fallen creatures living in a fallen world?!  That’s how holy and perfect God is...He absolutely cannot tolerate sin and Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden because of it, forced to leave the very presence of God Himself.

Sin leads to death (Romans 6:23).  This is how the serpent tricked Eve, leading her to believe that her disobedience surely wouldn't lead to death.  But God meant exactly what He said by “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  Although Adam and Eve did not physically die the day that they disobeyed God, they did die spiritually, meaning that their spirits were no longer in perfect communion with God.  Also, physical death entered the world (Genesis 3:19). 

We inherited this sinful nature from Adam and Eve, and because of this we are born spiritually dead.  Yes your body is alive and well when you were born, but your spirit was separated from God’s Spirit because sin has separated us. 

Isaiah 59:1-2 – Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.  But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

If you’re a visual person, picture a field (even if you’re not a visual person, just go with me).  Standing on this field are Adam, Eve, and God.  They are able to spend time with one another, commune, and fellowship with one another.  I mean, it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL because nothing is hindering this perfect flow of communion between the Creator and His creation.  But then one day there is this massive earthquake, and the ground splits.  I don’t mean a little 6 inch split either...I’m talking a humongous divide...like 1 billion miles.  (This is just imagery to explain how sin separates us from God...I do realize that sin is so serious that a numerical value does no justice in explaining the seriousness of the matter).  Now Adam and Eve are on one side of the split, and God is on the other side of the split.  Do you see how that perfect communion has been broken?  The great divide that has separated man from his Creator is sin.

Now go with me a little further in this visual imagery.  Let’s make it personal....place yourself on that field.  You’re standing there trapped because of sin and its death grip on you...I mean you can’t move because you are in chains.  That is what sin does to you.  It appears enticing at first without consequences, but then once you get in, you realize that you are trapped.  You’re helpless.  You are absolutely HELPLESS.  Nothing you can do can bridge the gap between you and God.  Even in the midst of your chains, you try to be a good person and live a moral life, attend every church service possible, do community service, etc.  But do you realize that none of these things can save you?  

When you stand before the Holy and Righteous Judge on Judgment Day, none of those things have to power to save you from His wrath against sin?  How can anyone be saved from the wrath of God?  Do you remember how I just said you can’t save yourself?  But I know someone who can....and His name is Jesus Christ.  Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus, who is 100% God and equal with God, stepped out of heaven and became 100% man.

John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He humbled Himself all the way to the form of an infant, weak and vulnerable.  He walked among sinful men, yet in His lifetime on this earth He did not commit sin.  He lived a perfect life...the perfect life that we ourselves were not capable of living, and came to the earth with the purpose of dying for the sins of the world.  He was mocked, persecuted, slapped, spit at, and beaten, forced to carry the heavy cross, and then hung upon it with nails that were driven in His hands and feet.  He died upon that cross to pay the penalty for sins. 

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God sees sin just that serious that Jesus had to endure the cross.  It wasn’t enough for Jesus to just live a perfect life and then die a regular death....like pass away in His sleep or from illness.  He had to suffer the wrath of God in order to make the payment for sin...for my sins, for your sins, for the sins of the world.  He was CRUSHED when He drank the full cup of God’s wrath against sin....CRUSHED!!  Does that not bring you to a deeper level of fear and reverence for our Holy God?! 

Isaiah 53:5 – But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Now let’s go back to that field that you are standing on in which you are in chains and shackles because of sin and separated from the presence of God.  Because of what Jesus Christ has done, you can be reconciled back to God.  You can be freed from the chains and grips of sin and reconciled with the Father.  That great divide in the field between God and You...well He filled that divide through Jesus Christ so that you have access to the Father.  Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and He is the only way to be reconciled to God.

John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

But you have a choice to make.  The payment for your sins has already been made.  You can choose to accept Jesus Christ and accept what He has done on the cross for you, or you can reject Him.  I won’t sugar coat this:  the penalty for rejecting Christ is eternal damnation, meaning you will spend eternity in the lake of fire.  Either we can choose to accept the work that Jesus did on the cross by accepting God’s full wrath against sin, which is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sins, or we can choose to face the wrath of God against sin by suffering eternally away from His presence in the lake of fire.  If you truly believe in the saving power of the Gospel and the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross to defeat sin, then you will repent from sin.  There is no salvation without repentance.  To repent means to turn away from, meaning you must turn away from your sins and turn to Christ.  You can cry, holler, shout, and whatever else in church, but unless you repent before God for your sins and turn away from sin, you are not saved.

Matthew 3:2 – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (John the Baptist speaking)

Matthew 4:17 – From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 10:9-10 - that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

When you accept Christ, your life changes.  He gets into your heart and starts changing you...starts taking out the things that are not like Him and the more time you spend with Him, the more His character begins to shine through You, You hear His voice, and He leads you through life.  The sins that you used to love and indulge in, you flee from it now because you realize that sin is so serious to God and you cannot practice sin and call yourself a Christian, a child of God.  You realize that if you continue in your sin, knowing that it is wrong, then you are of your father the devil (1 John 3:4-10).  You can’t still engage in pre-marital sex, lying, adultery, drunkenness, homosexuality, masturbation, pornography, or whatever else sin that you once loved.  You spend time with God daily, communing with Him through prayer and studying the Bible.  Your entire life begins to change and you’re renewing your mind with the Word.  The fruit in your life is the evidence of your salvation. 

Matthew 3:8 – Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

Now if there is no fruit in your life, or nothing I have just said sounds familiar at all, please examine your heart to see if you have truly accepted Christ as your Savior and repented from your sins.

2 Corinthians 13:5 – Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you –unless indeed you fail the test?

Once you come to realize the seriousness of sin, you will flee from it.  Saying yes to Christ, means saying no to everything else.  You say no to that sin that once held you in bondage because Jesus defeated the power of sin, which is death, and out of your love for Him, you don’t want to grieve Him and sin against Him.  Living for Christ means obedience to His will, living a life of righteousness, purity, holiness, exhibiting His character.  You can’t do any of this in your own ability.  It is only because of Christ that I can continue pursuing Him.  It is only because of His power that the sins that once had me in chains, I am now free from!  I realize that without Christ, I am damned!

It is my earnest prayer that you read this blog and realize the seriousness of your sins and that you fall on your face in repentance to God, and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.  I pray that you develop an intimate relationship with God and spend time with Him daily, and also continue in the faith and endure until the end!  Time is running out, so please seek God while there is still time left!