Sin

Reading in verse 2 that God has hidden His face because of the sins we first of all should dwell on an important question: what is the deepest meaning of the word “sin”?
God’s law demanded in Dt 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.
Already at the Fall mankind has loved other things more. This is what sin is: dishonouring God by preferring other things over Him, and acting on those preferences. We glorified what we enjoyed most. And it was not God. We missed the target for which we were created.
Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small God. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love Him is treason.
Therefore Rm 6:23 says that “The wages of sin is death” and Ez 18:4: “The soul who sins shall die”. It means that God cannot do anything else then applying His wrath to punish us.
Despite the fact that we did not love God, out of love for us He sent His Son to bear the punishment for all of us who trust Him. Jesus Christ did not cancel the wrath; He absorbed it and diverted it from us to Himself.
Rm 10:10 says: “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Believing with our heart and confessing with our mouth that Jesus Christ is our Saviour saves us!
But we will not understand the full meaning of being loved by God if we don’t understand the seriousness of our sin and the justice of His wrath against us.

After our conversion we rest in His love and are assured that no wrath will be applied on us.
With this we can compare ourselves with the people of Israel who were called the people of God. Once liberated from the slavery in Egypt they were continuously in God’s focus, care and love. But the Israelites went astray and disappointed their God in various ways. Likewise despite our liberation from sin we can still get separated through sin!

This Sunday I want to reflect about the question: what about sinning when being a believer?

As we learned in the previous chapter: if we once have become righteous in Christ, nothing can change this anymore. If we have converted with a contrite heart, we will be in God’s hand forever because we have crucified the old life with Christ on the cross and have received new life. If somebody is redeemed by the blood of Christ nothing can cancel this person’s salvation as Rm 8:38,39 states.
But as believers we can still stumble, meaning fall into sin. Because we still have the sinful flesh inside us that we, if we permit it, can activate. We remain fallible until our perishable body will be renewed at the return of the Lord Jesus into an imperishable body like His’ (1 Cr 15:50-58).

Verse 2 of Is 59 says that sin separates us from God.
In what way does sin separate us? Sin does not necessarily separate us from the presence of God, because God is present everywhere (Ps 139:7) and even Satan can have an audience with God (Jb 1:6). Sin does not separate us from the love of God, because God loves sinners (Rm 5:8). But sin still does separate:

1. Sin separates us from fellowship with God, because at the point of our sin, we no longer think alike with God.
2. Sin separates us from the blessing of God, because at the point of our sin, we are not trusting God and relying on Him.
3. Sin separates us from some of the benefits of God’s love, even as the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32) was still loved by the father, but didn’t enjoy the benefits of his love when he was in sin.
4. Sin separates us, in some way, from the protection of God, because He will allow trials to come our way to correct us, as we also see in the story of the Israelites.

If we sin, we grieve the Lord, but we will not be rejected. Sinning as a believer has not anything to do with the eternal salvation, but with the relationship with God.

I hope it is clear that in our converted state we do not talk about general sin that is separating from God. As said, our old nature that had sinful properties is crucified on the cross. We have got a new nature that is without sin.
No, when we sin then it is a specific sin! It is a particular wrong-doing that disturbs our relationship with God.
First step to the restoration of the relation is to recognize and to identify the particular sin. And second step is to admit that it was wrong what we did and understand that this special deed separates us from the Lord.

It is important to remark that we should not pray in the end of the day if the Lord wants to forgive all our wrong-doings of that day. The starting point is that we live by our new nature that stands right before the Lord and there might be only specific wrong-doings that should need forgiveness!

How do we identify that something is separating us from the Lord?
First of all because of the new nature we have the Holy Spirit Who stirs our conscience. We need to be sensitively listening to that soft inner-voice that points at the wrong deed. Then 1Jh1:9 is enough that says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

But it is unfortunately also possible that we harden our heart and don’t want to hear that soft voice that condemns the sin. Then we keep-on persisting in committing this particular sin. After a while we become deaf for the voice of the Holy Spirit!
The Lord however will never tolerate that we continue denying our new nature! He will use different ways to make Himself clear to the believer that persists in sinning.
The book of James contains some remarkable verses in chapter 5. James says in 5: 14-16 that if one has become sick he should ask himself the question: is this because there is an obstacle between me and the Lord? So sickness is a remedy of the Lord to direct our thought on our purification. By the way: of course this does not mean that all sicknesses originate from unforgiven sins!
Furthermore Paul warns the Corinthians in 1Co11 that they have to be careful when taking the Lord’s Supper. He calls them to examine themselves if there is anything unclean in their lives. He tells them that lack of self-examination has already led to weakness, sickness and even death in their church! When we don’t judge ourselves, the Lord will come to judgment with us…

These are severe words and we need to apply the warning of James and Paul in our lives.

Confession
After recognizing the sin we have to go to the next step: confession.
What are characteristics of true confession?
Let’s read first Lk 15:11-24.

1. Turn to the Lord, not to anybody else
   After realizing that we have been acting unworthy it might be hard to face Him.
   It is like being a small child who, after doing something bad, has to come out to his parents. He knows that his parents will be grieved and it makes him sad too. Think of the Prodigal Son who says in Lk 15:18: I will set out and go back to my father.
   The son originally lived in the presence of his father. Then he decided to live a separated life. After some time he concluded that the life he was living was a worthless life without the blessings and benefits of the father’s house. Therefore the boy decided to return to his father’s presence. The father in this story is not grieved or sad when he sees his son coming from far; in the contrary he was filled with compassion!
   When Jesus told this parable He did not describe the Father’s attitude making a romantic story with a good end! In the parable He wanted to transmit the message that the Father is really waiting for the sinner to return to Him and that the Father’s heart is indeed full of compassion. God’s love is always present, despite our iniquities.

2. Humble yourself to the Lord
   In verse 19 of Lk 15 the lost son desires to be back in his father’s house in order to at least benefit from the blessings in the position of a servant. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one of your hired men'.
   Also we can feel unworthy to continue being Gods child. And indeed when the Lord would just comply with His holy righteousness He would condemn us immediately after sinning. There would be no room for us in the Father-house at all! But in Jesus Christ we have boldness to come to the Lord.
   Not considering this disables us to thank our Lord Jesus for taking the wrath of God in our place.
   We don’t deserve anything and it is correct to humble ourselves as the Prodigal Son, contemplating and appreciating the value of the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.

3. Mention the wrong-doing specifically
   In verse 21 of Lk 15 the son says: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
   As summarized earlier: when living the new life in the new nature we are not considered to sin continuously. It would be unjust to tell the Lord every evening that we are poor sinners as if we cannot help sinning and that He should just forgive us. With such a statement we deny our new nature, we wrong the work of the Lord Jesus and we wrong the existence of the Holy Spirit! The Lord Jesus did not die for general sins. No, each and every sin contributed to His suffering and each and every sin needs therefore to be confessed separately! The Lord wants us to tell Him the wrong-doing specifically.

4. Ask for forgiveness, based on the blood of Jesus Christ
   Another difficult part in the process of confession is the following. When we have confessed our wrong-doings to the Lord we tend to stop and to promise not to do it anymore. Then after we indeed do our utmost to avoid sinning again. Until we fail another time and then it is even harder to face the Lord again…
   Why is this so terribly difficult for us? Because we forget the most important part of confession: sin can only be taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ. Not by our own performance.
   Not by our efforts to show off in the eyes of the Lord.
   Not by our attempts to bear our sins ourselves.
   Not by compensating the wrong by doing something good to please the Lord.
   We have to accept the gift of His life and we have to appreciate it! The Prodigal Son does not do anything when he meets his father; he just receives a robe, a ring, sandals and a feast!

Again it comes to take the humble position and just accept that only, and only, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ will remove our sin. Only by kneeling down at the foot of the cross we can receive forgiveness. Only then our heart will be lifted-up because the sin does not exist anymore for the Lord as we read in Jr 31:34 and Ez 33:16.
And also we should accept that the sin does not exist anymore!
Repeatedly committed sins do not exist in the eyes of the Lord. Every time is as committing the sin for the very first time. Mc 7:19 says that our iniquities are thrown in the depth of the sea. And it is forbidden to fish!

Redemption
Finally I want to highlight the redemptive work of Christ in order to make us realizing the value of His deed.

In Is 59:15-17 we see that because the Lord was displeased that there was no justice, He Himself arranged the divine plan to work out salvation. And the Lord Jesus went to carry out the divine plan.
His redemptive work signifies that our sins were loaded on Him (2Co5:21).
He did not just receive Gods wrath as punishment for our sins, no much more: He was made to be sin!
Are we aware of the deepest significance of this? It means that the verses 2 to 13 are not referring to the deeds of the Israelites; neither to ours, but applicable on Him when He was on the cross in the three ours of darkness, separated from God.
Do we want to have an answer on the question that Jesus cried out on the cross: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
The answer on this question we find in Is 59. God had to hide His face and to close His ears for Him because:

1. Verse 2: Jesus was full of iniquity
2. Verse 3: Jesus’ hands were stained with blood and His fingers with guilt. His lips spoke lies and His tongue muttered wicked things
3. Verse 4: Jesus conceived trouble and evil
4. Verse 6: Jesus’ deeds were evil and His acts violent
5. Verse 7: Jesus’ foot rushed swiftly to shed innocent blood. His thoughts were evil and His ways full of ruin and destruction
6. Verse 8: Jesus’ path was without peace and justice
7. Verse 12: Jesus’ offences were many
8. Verse 13: Jesus was rebellious and treacherous against the Lord. He provoked oppression and revolt and uttered lies.
   This is the way God observed Jesus when hanging on the cross!

Our Redeemer has repaid all according to what we have done. He was accounted for each and every sin that we committed, and for sins still to come.

Therefore I want to conclude by repeating that we have to be serious in:

1. Recognizing our sins
2. Specifying our sins
3. Asking forgiveness for our sins
4. Trusting in Christ’ redemption for our sins

This phrase of a song that we all know represents what we should never forget:

“I’ll never know, how much it costs
To see my sin, upon that cross”