By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
So, the next question I’m sure you’re asking is what about sin? In the previous 2 parts of this series, I think I have made a reasonable case to be able to say that scripturally, “I am not going to hell because of my sins but because I refuse to have a relationship with God.”
John 3:17-18 reads: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Condemned because they have not accepted the free gift Christ died for on the cross. If the spiritual penalty for our sins was paid for in full by Christ on the cross, then does it really make a difference if we sin or not?
Good Question. Not original but good, nonetheless. The Romans asked a similar question when introduced to God’s grace…his mercy and forgiveness for the spiritual penalty of our sins.
Paul answered it in Romans 6:1-2: ”What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
Once we have a true relationship with God, we will longer want to sin. True, we will continue to sin but the closer we grow to Christ, the less we will desire to sin and the more we will desire to flee sin.
It’s about the relationship. When we first get married, we care about our spouse, and we strive to make him/her happy.
But, if you’ve been married, you know the “honeymoon period” eventually ends and our selfish natures begin to appear. When early on our spouses’ annoying habits were sort of cute, later over time, they became irritants.
We started putting the lid back on the toothpaste after our spouse used it and felt good about serving him/her. But, over time, we begin to grumble: “Why can’t they at least put the lid back on! I mean, how hard is that?!”
Well, the same pattern occurs as we start our walk with Christ. At first, we read our Bible every day and pray and sing spiritual songs and feel on cloud nine realizing how much we were forgiven. But, over time, we return to our old ways.
Even St. Paul experienced it. “… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Rom 7:17-18. Sound familiar?
So, to say that we no longer sin after knowing Christ as our savior, would be foolishness. The reality is that we still commit sin. Probably to the day we die we will still need to repent. Sin is not about our spiritual relationship with Christ.
It is about our human relationship with him. Sin separates us from him (not spiritually, but relationally). For instance, if I offend my wife and hurt her, we become a little distant from one another.
When I realize what I did, I need to ask her forgiveness, to repent for what I did. Then we can be restored. With God, it is the same way. Sin is like a screen door between us.
We can still see each other clearly but there is a small barrier between us. When I repent of my sin, that small barrier is removed, and we are close again.
Now think what would happen if instead of 1 screen door between us, there were 50! We would still be in relationship, but the distance and the clarity of that relationship would become cloudy and blurry.
That’s what sin does. It puts a small barrier between us and God but if we fail to see the sin and repent of the sin, that barrier remains.
And after enough time, we get so we really can’t see God clearly any longer. He, of course, can see us perfectly, but not so much the other way around. Repentance daily assures us of a good strong relationship with God.
I think of that quote I see occasionally “One week without prayer, leaves one weak”. We cannot underestimate the power of sin to weaken our relationship with God.
We need to deal with it quickly, honestly, and ruthlessly so that it does not grow a permanent barrier between us and Him. Sin cannot be ignored.
No matter how little it may seem, it is offensive to our Lover and Father and God and Savior. We cannot tolerate it.
True, we will not experience the punishment for it in the afterlife, but we will experience the effects of it in this life, in the relationship between God and us. Let us ask God for the power to limit our sin and the need to seek forgiveness for it quickly.