I often hear Christians urging one another to be easy in their sin because God always forgives, His grace is greater than all their sin and, besides, no one's perfect. Believing these things, many Christians have settled into a pattern of sin>confess>sin>confess, 'round and 'round, nothing really changing, year after year living in unrelieved bondage to the World, the Flesh and the devil. They think that freedom from sin is only a future, heavenly reality experienced once one is dead and gone to glory.
This is not the Christian life laid out in the Bible, the life to which God calls all of His children. And a life crowded with sin is terribly, painfully costly. Yes, the one who is truly born-again is forever safe from the damning effects of sin; yes, where sin abounded God's grace did much more abound; yes, sinless perfection is attainable only on the far side of the grave. But, while all of these things are true, the following is also true:
1.) Sin always produces death:
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death...
James 1:15
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption...
Romans 8:6-8
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death...
Romans 8:13
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die...
There is, of course, first of all eternal death in hell in view in these verses, but, secondarily, there are other sorts of "death" that will inevitably afflict the sinner, too. For the Christian who has escaped the danger of eternal "second death" in hell but sins, the first casualty of their sin is their fellowship with God (But NOT their relationship to Him). Sin cuts the believer off from joyful, intimate communion with their Heavenly Father; their fellowship with Him "dies" when they sin.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;
Isaiah 59:2
2 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.
1 Peter 3:12
12 "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Hebrews 12:14
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
God is the Christian's "exceeding great reward." There is nothing in all of Creation that exceeds in wonder, power and excellency God Almighty. When He offers to us Himself, then, He is offering to us the very greatest, the very best thing, in the entire universe. It's all downhill from Him; all else is necessarily lesser, duller, and weaker than He. It is from this incredible divine Gift, it is from joyful, contented, peaceful fellowship with God our Lord and King, Maker of Heaven and Earth, that we remove ourselves when we sin. This is the first and great cost of sin in the believer's life.
A biblical example of this is illustrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32) While the son never lost his relationship to his father - he never ceased at any point in the story to be his father's son - his communion with his father was totally prevented by his profligate waywardness. Father and son could not fellowship together so long as the son was off in a far country, living wild. The Father points this out when, upon his son's return, he says that his son who was "dead" and "lost" is "alive again" and "found." The son was never actually, physically dead, and he knew always where he was, and at no point was he not his father's son, but their fellowship together had "died," it had been "lost," while the son was off being prodigal. The same holds true for the "prodigal" believer who yields to a life of sin and wanders from God.
Of course, if God is small in one's eyes, distant and mysterious, just a religious accessory to living, if one is still chasing the garish, noisy, sensually-stimulating things of the flesh, the World and the devil, if one has not yet tired of the unending and damaging pursuit of such things, the loss of fellowship with God will seem insignificant. But, when one has "tasted and seen that the Lord is good," when one has found holy rest, peace, joy and love in fellowship with God, the "death" of that intimate communion with Him is the very worst of the penalties that sin places upon the believer.
There are other sorts of "death" that sin produces in the life of the Christian believer. When fellowship with God is halted by the believer's sin, the joy, peace, satisfaction, and rest found in Him "die," too. One, or course, cannot enjoy these things that emanate from God when one has stifled one's communion with Him. In their absence, fear, bitterness, lust, anger and such like take root, bearing more deadly, sinful "fruit" in the believer's life.
The believer's fellowship with other holy, Christ-centered people also erodes - and often halts entirely, too - when the believer sins. Rather than taking joy in the holy fellowship of the saints, the sinning believer will find the holiness of the saints's living a painful provocation, convicting and indicting their sin. Isolation of this sort, "death" of communion among believers, is always the result of sin.
2.) Sin hardens, blinds and deafens.
Jeremiah 13:22-23
22 And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Romans 2:5
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Hebrews 3:13
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
2 Peter 2:20-22
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
1 Timothy 4:2
2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
Ephesians 4:18-19
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
There isn't a sort of neutral ground on which one stands as a believer while engaging in sin. All believers are, every day, moving toward God or away from Him. But it isn't mere relational distance from God that results from sin. Those believers who, engaging in sin, are moving away from Him, move into an ever-hardening habit of sin, into self-deception, becoming seared in their conscience, darkened in their understanding, and overtaken by sensuality and impurity. Such believers "return to the vomit of sin," they wallow in the filth of the pigpen of sin. How, then, can believers urge each other to be easy about their sin? This is an utterly rotten thing to encourage in fellow believers! It is, in fact, downright evil.
Paul had it exactly right:
2 Timothy 2:20-22
20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Romans 13:12-14
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
FLEE from sin. Don't give it an inch! Don't make the slightest provision for it in your life!
Ephesians 5:8-12
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
This is not the Christian life laid out in the Bible, the life to which God calls all of His children. And a life crowded with sin is terribly, painfully costly. Yes, the one who is truly born-again is forever safe from the damning effects of sin; yes, where sin abounded God's grace did much more abound; yes, sinless perfection is attainable only on the far side of the grave. But, while all of these things are true, the following is also true:
1.) Sin always produces death:
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death...
James 1:15
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption...
Romans 8:6-8
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death...
Romans 8:13
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die...
There is, of course, first of all eternal death in hell in view in these verses, but, secondarily, there are other sorts of "death" that will inevitably afflict the sinner, too. For the Christian who has escaped the danger of eternal "second death" in hell but sins, the first casualty of their sin is their fellowship with God (But NOT their relationship to Him). Sin cuts the believer off from joyful, intimate communion with their Heavenly Father; their fellowship with Him "dies" when they sin.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;
Isaiah 59:2
2 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.
1 Peter 3:12
12 "For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Hebrews 12:14
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
God is the Christian's "exceeding great reward." There is nothing in all of Creation that exceeds in wonder, power and excellency God Almighty. When He offers to us Himself, then, He is offering to us the very greatest, the very best thing, in the entire universe. It's all downhill from Him; all else is necessarily lesser, duller, and weaker than He. It is from this incredible divine Gift, it is from joyful, contented, peaceful fellowship with God our Lord and King, Maker of Heaven and Earth, that we remove ourselves when we sin. This is the first and great cost of sin in the believer's life.
A biblical example of this is illustrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32) While the son never lost his relationship to his father - he never ceased at any point in the story to be his father's son - his communion with his father was totally prevented by his profligate waywardness. Father and son could not fellowship together so long as the son was off in a far country, living wild. The Father points this out when, upon his son's return, he says that his son who was "dead" and "lost" is "alive again" and "found." The son was never actually, physically dead, and he knew always where he was, and at no point was he not his father's son, but their fellowship together had "died," it had been "lost," while the son was off being prodigal. The same holds true for the "prodigal" believer who yields to a life of sin and wanders from God.
Of course, if God is small in one's eyes, distant and mysterious, just a religious accessory to living, if one is still chasing the garish, noisy, sensually-stimulating things of the flesh, the World and the devil, if one has not yet tired of the unending and damaging pursuit of such things, the loss of fellowship with God will seem insignificant. But, when one has "tasted and seen that the Lord is good," when one has found holy rest, peace, joy and love in fellowship with God, the "death" of that intimate communion with Him is the very worst of the penalties that sin places upon the believer.
There are other sorts of "death" that sin produces in the life of the Christian believer. When fellowship with God is halted by the believer's sin, the joy, peace, satisfaction, and rest found in Him "die," too. One, or course, cannot enjoy these things that emanate from God when one has stifled one's communion with Him. In their absence, fear, bitterness, lust, anger and such like take root, bearing more deadly, sinful "fruit" in the believer's life.
The believer's fellowship with other holy, Christ-centered people also erodes - and often halts entirely, too - when the believer sins. Rather than taking joy in the holy fellowship of the saints, the sinning believer will find the holiness of the saints's living a painful provocation, convicting and indicting their sin. Isolation of this sort, "death" of communion among believers, is always the result of sin.
2.) Sin hardens, blinds and deafens.
Jeremiah 13:22-23
22 And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Romans 2:5
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Hebrews 3:13
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
2 Peter 2:20-22
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
1 Timothy 4:2
2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
Ephesians 4:18-19
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
There isn't a sort of neutral ground on which one stands as a believer while engaging in sin. All believers are, every day, moving toward God or away from Him. But it isn't mere relational distance from God that results from sin. Those believers who, engaging in sin, are moving away from Him, move into an ever-hardening habit of sin, into self-deception, becoming seared in their conscience, darkened in their understanding, and overtaken by sensuality and impurity. Such believers "return to the vomit of sin," they wallow in the filth of the pigpen of sin. How, then, can believers urge each other to be easy about their sin? This is an utterly rotten thing to encourage in fellow believers! It is, in fact, downright evil.
Paul had it exactly right:
2 Timothy 2:20-22
20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Romans 13:12-14
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
FLEE from sin. Don't give it an inch! Don't make the slightest provision for it in your life!
Ephesians 5:8-12
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
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