The Seriousness of Sin

The Seriousness of Sin

This last week my wife and I have had quite the Journey.  Last Sunday night, around 3 am I was woken up by the sound of my wife in agony.  Stephanie, in a delirious state, was crumpled over from what she described as extreme back pain.  The next day, Stephanie’s temperature spiked to 105 degrees which gave us a direct pass to the hospital.  The cause of all this was none other than a kidney infection. 

As I sat in the hospital with my wife, I felt for the first time an unknown fear.  After days in the hospital with the antibiotics not working and her fever not going away, her mortality and the fear of losing here were begging to creep into my mind.  Praise God, however, after they changed the antibiotics (and after much prayer, thank you!) her temperature subsided, and we were released to go home.  This experience, however, reminded me of the temporal nature of our lives, and the unstoppable decay of our bodies which is a result of the fall.

Yesterday, I got another reminder of our mortality which has its beginning in the original sin of Adam and Eve.  As my family and I were enjoying the holiday weekend out in our back yard I heard the sobering sound of my neighbor crying for help from across the fence.  “Help, Help, Help!”  He was yelling.  I ran over to see him lying on the ground in a contorted position.  After talking with him, we both came to realize that his hip was not the way it was supposed to be.  I called 911, the medics came and took him to the hospital.  His family also arrived, and seemed grieved by the pain that their father, grandfather, dad or husband was going through.  Later I found out that he had broken his hip and needed surgery.

After the incident, and for the rest of the day, I wrestled internally with the pain that my neighbor had gone through.  I guess, seeing a man in such pain and helplessness caused me to ponder the fate that we all share, namely our decay and eventual death.

These two stories are a physical, visible, consequence of our unseen spiritual disease of sin.  Adam was told by God that he could eat fruit from any tree in the garden except from one, the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Adam was also told, if he ate of the forbidden fruit thereby disobeying God’s command and desire, then he would surely die (Gen. 2:16; Gen. 3).  Most of us know the story, and have possibly known it from Sunday school class as a kid. Adam and his wife Eve ate from the forbidden fruit, disobeying God’s word, and from there we see sin, death and destruction enter the world because of their choice.  Adam and Eve, nonetheless, weren’t the only ones to sin.  As a result of their initial action, we see that all humanity has sinned and the created world has been subjected to futility (Ps. 14:1, Ps. 14:3; Jer. 2:27; Rom. 1:21, Rom. 7:15, Rom. 8:20)

This week, I was struck by the utter destructiveness of sin on the physical front.  However, it seems so often that we forget about the horrible effects of our own sin.  We get tired of fighting against personal and corporate sin and begin to make excuses for it.  Sometimes we make excuses through our theology, sometimes through our view of our fallenness, and sometimes we just don't think that sin is important enough to worry about.  Contrary to these thoughts, biblically and realistically sin is utterly destructive.

 God, throughout His Word, shows us His disgust for sin.   Alvin Plantinga in his book called, Engaging God’s World, states it well saying, "God hates sin....  Sin grieves God, offends God, betrays God, and not because God is touchy.... [but] because sin breaks the peace” (51).

We can see the effects of sin all around us, broken relationships, a broken created order, and the decay and death that sin causes throughout creation.  We may be calloused to it, but its ugly face is glaring at us at almost every turn.  

Relationally, sins’ destructiveness can be seen in this; sin doesn't keep shalom it destroys it.  Sin tears apart families, breaks friendships, and ultimately separates a person from God.  We must see sin for what it is, no matter how small it may look.  The closer we grow to Christ the more sin and its effects should grieve the lover of Christ. 

Father please give us the strength and motivation to submit to you and to resist the devil, and with the example of godly men and women who have come before us, help us throw off everything that hinders our walk with you and the sin that so easily entangles us.  Please give us the ability to run with perseverance the race you have marked out for us! (James 4:7; Heb. 12:1).

Trev~