Taking Sin Seriously

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”. (Luke 5:8)  These were the words of Simon Peter after Jesus caused the disciples’ net to fill with fish.

What caused Peter to beg Jesus to leave? Was he out of his mind? Not at all – he was simply doing what we all would do if we realized His holiness and our sin.

It seems to me that people are taking the redeeming work of Christ for granted, sometimes even to the point of using it as a cover for their sin.  Using our liberty as an occasion to sin is antithetical to the whole purpose and import to the gospel which brings us that liberty in the first place.

We are too soft on sin.  We live in a generation which abhors the idea of moral authority, and sadly, Christians have compromised when it comes to sin.  And no, I am not talking about being gay (although that too is an issue). I am talking about sin in the believer’s life, which is often taken way too lightly.  We mumble a prayer of half-hearted repentance, console ourselves by saying something fuzzy about ‘grace’, and do it all over again.

Sin is a direct affront to God almighty, who gave His son for your redemption.  It is no small matter – if we truly loved the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, every sin we commit would make us weep.

So then, what shall we do? Let us go to the scriptures.

  “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1-2

Let us take our sin – or rather the mortification of it – very seriously, that we may look to Jesus and draw nearer to him unhindered.

We must also realize that we are now in Christ.  Satan is no longer our lord.  We have been delivered from the power of Satan to the power of God (Acts 28:16).

Finally, we must truly love the Lord.  The more we love Him, the more we hate sin.  The more we love him, the more seriously we take our pursuit of Him.