I watched a video this weekend entitled “God In America”. The video was the first in a series produced by PBS in 2010. One of the people in the video was a professor of religion at Boston University. During the video, he said, “Even contemporary Christians now, even many evangelicals, they just don’t believe in sin anymore.” And I thought hoW true is that statement!! Many people who claim to be Christians today don’t want to talk about “sin” and they don’t.
However, the Bible says in Psalm 5:4, “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.” It is sin that destroys our lives and ruins our relationship with God. In Isaiah 59:1,2 – the Bible says, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. 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.”
In the book of Jeremiah we read how God sent the prophet Jeremiah to preach to the nation of Isreal and warn them of their sin, and that if they did not repent of their sin God would punish them. But, rather than repenting – the people just tried to silence the prophet. They did not want to hear what he had to say. And I find the SAME THING true in America today! People don’t want to be told that they MUST keep God’s commandments, that they must seek Him with all of their heart, that they MUST follow HIS plan and path for their lives, and that NOT DOING so is sin! James 4:17 warns us, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Just as Isreal was on the path to destruction and they simply ignored the fact and didn’t want to hear about it, I fear many people who claim to be Christian in America today are on that same path. The Bible is VERY clear when it comes to doing right and wrong. When the Apostle John was writing 1 John, he told us, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
We can walk in the darkness all we want and say stupidly, “What darkness? There is nothing wrong with what I’m doing…” But that won’t change the fact that it is still darkness compared to the light of Jesus Christ, and we CANNOT have fellowship with Him while walking in darkness no matter what we call it.
I can still hear those words “they don’t believe in sin anymore”. Well, I can say I don’t believe in air and I don’t believe in wind. However that doensn’t change the fact that there is still air and there is still wind and if I step outside on a windy day I will feel it blowing. Sin ruins our relationship with God, entices us to continue enjoying the “pleasures” of this world, and blinds us to the truth. And just like the nation of Isreal that was taken into captivity as a punishment for their sin – God will punish us if we continue down the path to destruction that many are headed down.
God promised “I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.” Isaiah 13:11.