The Nature of Sin, Part 5: Separation

Matthew 27:45-46                 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

In Roman society, the cross was an instrument of torture; men screamed curse words in agony at the pain.  Yet Jesus was quiet to nearly the very end when he cried out these words from Matthew 27.  These words reveal the true depth of God’s love for his children and they also reveal the true devastation of sin.  When Jesus went to the Cross, the full weight of the collective sin of humankind was placed on his shoulders and at that point God the Father turned away from the Son.  It was the point of complete and utter loneliness for Jesus; from eternity past, the Son had never known separation from the Father.

God is the perfection of holiness and righteousness and he can have no association with sin.  Yet he created human beings because he wanted fellowship with them.  When Satan created sin through pride and rebellion, he was kicked out of the heavenlies.  When Adam and Eve accepted sin into their hearts by believing Satan’s lies, they too were ejected from God’s presence, this time from the Garden of Eden.  Prior to Adam’s sin, God walked with him in the cool of the evening.  The implication there is that God and man had a relaxed fellowship.  This is what Gad had intended.

Leviticus 12:11-12                 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

John 14:6-7                            Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 17:3                               Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Romans 5:1-2                        Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

The consequence of sin then is separation from God.  And one might assume the universality of our sin would forever separate us.  But that assumption would be wrong.  True, sin does separate us from God, but he so desires to have fellowship with us that he set about to correct that problem.  Don’t misunderstand:  God was not surprised by Adam’s sin.  His omniscience means he knew the sin would happen and his plan for fellowship with humanity all along had an escape clause.  It is clear from these verses that God wants fellowship with us, that he sent his Son Jesus to provide the way to manifest that fellowship, and that his plan was all along to spend eternity with us.

So if sin creates a gap between us and God, there must be a way to bridge that gap.  That bridge is the High Priest.  In the old sacrificial system, the priests in a rotational weekly structure offered sacrifices of the animals the people brought for the remission of their sins.  Then once a year the High Priest would offer a sacrifice which would cleanse the temple and the people and nation as a whole.  This was an inadequate system as we know as the pure and sinless Jesus is the ultimate High Priest.  Because of his sacrifice, the gap between men and God is bridged.  The sins committed by every human being had to be forgiven; that is, the sinner had to be made pure.  Therefore Jesus, who is blameless, voluntarily offered himself to be the sacrifice which would heal the division between mankind and God.

There are nine ways (plus probably many more) that sin separates us from God.

1.     Sin is never the right path.

Proverbs 14:12          There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.

Belief systems in themselves can never bring about salvation or reconciliation with God.  The only way is firm belief in the God of the Bible and acceptance of Jesus’ sacrificial death.

2.     Our sin keeps God from hearing our cries of need.

Isaiah 59:2                 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

The open arms of God are always ready to receive us if we completely repent of our sins.  But we cannot expect God to continue to bless us if we continually turn away.

3.     Turning away from God will result in him turning away from us.

Micah 3:4                   Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done.

Many of us have sinful habits that have taken root in our heart.  We must eagerly seek after Him and forcefully remove those habits from out heart.

4.     We ignore the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

Hebrews 10:26           If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.

Continuing to sin after turning to Jesus is a denial of the sacrifice He made for us by His death on the cross. It is like saying, “I recognize what You did for me, but I don’t care because I want what I want instead of what You want for me.”

5.     Sin leads to death.

James 1:14-15            But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Temptation is not the problem, sin is.  If we yield to temptation and thus sin, it will become habitual and grow leading to eternal separation from God.

6.     Disobeying the leading of the Holy Spirit is sinful.

James 4:17                 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

We often hear we should let our conscience be our guide, but such decisions should always be weighed against Scripture and wise biblical counsel.  Once we acknowledge that a course of action is part of God’s will for our lives, ignoring it and doing something else is considered sinful.

7.     We can delude ourselves into thinking we are fine on our own.

1John 1:8                   If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

We can remove ourselves so completely from God’s will that we can convince ourselves that we are sinless.  We can come to a place of believing that our sins are not so bad and that we don’t need the atoning sacrifice of Jesus to justify us before a holy God. This is a lie from Satan and can never resonate with the message of the Gospel.

8.     Unrepentant sin has lasting consequences.

Revelation 2:4-5        Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

No one is perfect, and no one can go their entire lives without sinning. However, if a believer returns to the pattern of living they had before they met Christ, God warns them that it can lead to eternal destruction.

9.     Sin will ultimately result in eternal separation from God.

Revelation 20:15       Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

In the new heaven and new earth when God perfects His creation, those who do not accept His sacrifice and instead cling to their sinful nature will be cast out into Hell. This is a very real reality and is eternal separation from God with no hope of restoration.