Let’s Call It What It Is…Sin!

Each day during the week, when I’m able to slip out from work and go get some lunch I’ll turn on the radio and listen to whatever ministry program is on at that time.

About a week ago, a Pastor was talking about marriage and sin.  He used the powerful testimony on how God has transformed his life after he repented from sin and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 

In telling his story he told about how he and his girlfriend, who later became his wife, engaged in sex outside of marriage which resulted in her getting pregnant.  As he continue, my mouth was agape as he said, “My wife committed fornication.”  Was that true…absolutely.  Was it accurate?  He left out the little detail that he and his wife had committed fornication together.

I was annoyed and found myself talking back to the radio.  But it reminded me on how hard it is for us to call sin, sin.  It’s so easy to downplay sin.  Instead of saying I sinned, I may say I made a mistake, or I missed the mark, or I was disobedient.  When in fact the more accurate statement is, “I willfully sinned against holy God.”

That trend had made its way into the church.  We don’t want to offend unbelievers or seekers by telling them that they need to repent of their sin.  Instead we water down the gospel message and tell them that God loves them, that He has a wonderful plan for their lives and came to save them and all they have to do is say, “Jesus come into my heart.”

Whatever happened to repentance?  Whatever happened to sin?  If I don’t recognize that I’m a sinner and the ultimate consequences of my sin why would I see the need to repent?  Why would I see my need for a Savior?  Or to have my sins covered by the precious blood of the Lamb and have my sins removed as far as the east is from the west? 

In a world where sin and its ugliness are downplayed, I believe that God and His holiness and righteousness are not fully comprehended.  Is God a God of love?  Absolutely!  But He is also a God of wrath. 

Praise God that He is patient, not willing that any would perish, and that He desires that all would come to repentance.  Yet there a day coming, there is a point, when God’s patience will have run its full course, both in our personal lives and in this world.  There is a day coming in which we will have to give an account before God for our lives.  Either I can choose to stand before God in my own righteousness, which is like the emperors’ new clothes.  Or I can stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

What about you?  Whose righteousness are you clothed in? 

Just a thought…isn’t God’s intolerance for sin part of what makes heaven, heaven?  What would heaven be like with liars, gossips, adulterers and murders continuing on in their sin?  Praise God that when we are saved through Jesus Christ that we can put off the old man and put on the new man.  Praise God that He continues to sanctify us and transform us until that day in which He calls us home.