I was recently continuing to work through my Bible Study devotional book about Revival and this week’s topic was over repentance. There were many questions about how we feel over sin. What do we think about sin? How do we view sin? One question was about whether we are fearful or regretful over sin? And if we are fearful or regretful over sin, are we just concerned about the consequences of our sin, or are we sad and upset because we hurt God? Or are we more focused on ourselves and how the sin will impact us?
This really struck me. I think if I am going to be completely honest, it is a little bit of both. I do hate hurting God. I do hate when I am not acting the new way of Christ, and I am not being the person God has renewed in me. However, I am also very focused on not getting any consequences or not having consequences. I am fearful of how I will be punished. I am fearful if I will see the consequences of my actions in the near future.
In many ways, this reminds me of teaching. I remember being frustrated when a student of mine was only concerned about the punishment they will receive for doing something wrong, as opposed to actually caring about doing something wrong. Granted, I understood that they were still developing and learning, but I would still get a bit hurt if they didn’t care about hurting me or hurting someone else, they were just more concerned about their punishment. In many ways, I am sure God feels just the same way. He is probably just waiting for us to care more about him and to care more about hurting him.
I think this is where we as Christians need to realize the reason God hates sin. He hates sin because this sin separates us from Him. Isaiah 59:2 says, “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.” This is not great. The Lord created us so we could have a relationship with him. This is why he created people. He had decided he wanted man, and then after he made man, he said this is good.
So when we sinned, God needed to create a solution. This is why He sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, so we could be forgiven and have a way to get our relationship with God back. When we accept Jesus into our heart, it is like a bridge has been created to lead us to God and to heaven for eternity. So he does all of these acts of love, and then we keep sinning. It is going to happen, we are people after all. We are fallen, imperfect creatures. However, to not put much of God’s thought into after all He has done is insensitive to say the least.
Have you ever done a lot for an individual and then they don’t respond the way you expected or would have desired? Maybe they didn’t love the gift you spent a lot of time and energy to get for them. Maybe they didn’t notice the cleaning you helped them with while you were staying at their house. Maybe they didn’t care about the times you go and support them in all of their activities. Point is, have you ever felt slighted by a situation? It can be hard for anyone. Usually, we as people can have a conversation with this person and share with them our feelings. A good friend or person in your life will care that they hurting you. They will not care about the time you are taking out of their day to have this conversation and about whether this will impact their relationship in the future. Wouldn’t that be more harmful? Wouldn’t you as a person care more about being cared about and being appreciated, being apologized to? It would be a lot better than being pushed to the side as a dealer of consequences.
My challenge for you this week is to first think about whether you view sins with consequences or you view sin as a hurt to God. Do you care about whether or not you hurt God or disappoint him? Do you believe in sin as a harm or do you just fear the consequences or the punishment that could potentially harm you? If it is about consequences, then maybe this is something you have to be reflective or willing to change over.
Then the second challenge for you this week is to spend some time with God and spending time in appreciation over all that God has done for you and what he has forgiven you from. This could be time spent through reflection such as journaling, extended prayer or through spending time with Jesus. It is important to remember to think of God and you as a relationship and not just as someone who is trying to get in good standing. He really does want a relationship with you, even when sins do happen.
Colossians 3:23 Blog 