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!
