August 28
August 28
Because of sin’s deceitfulness, sin doesn’t always look sinful to us.
We are deceived by sin more often than we like to think. Sin often doesn’t look sinful to us. The angry man convinces himself that he’s not angry; he’s just standing strongly for the truth. The envious mom eases her conscience by saying that she just wants what is best for her family. The person addicted to food doesn’t think another piece of cake is such a big deal. The man lusting after a woman at the gym tells himself it’s not lust; he just appreciates beauty. We are all able to erect self-atoning arguments that make our sin seem not so sinful after all. When we do this, we are fighting against the grace of conviction that God uses to protect us and draw us back to him. It is impossible to minimize your sin without denying God’s grace. It is also impossible to deny, ignore, or minimize your sin without giving it more room to grow in your heart and life. Where are you tempted to name your sin as being less than sinful?
Because God loves us, because he knows the destructiveness of sin, and because he is aware that we often don’t see sin as sinful, he has filled his word with passages that alert us to the ugliness of sin. Ezekiel 16 is one of those passages:
When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. (Ezek. 16:8)
God says, “When you were unlovable, I loved you, covered your nakedness, made a covenant with you, and took you as my bride.” Then God says, “But this is how you responded to my love”:
But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. . . . And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. (Ezek. 16:15, 22)
The language is strong, but important. Sin is much more than the breaking of an abstract set of moral laws. Sin is spiritual adultery. Because of the magnitude of his love and grace, God took us, unworthy as we were, as his bride. Sin is offering the love that belongs to God to any passerby that attracts us. Sin is more than breaking a rule; it is a betrayal of a relationship that is ours by grace. How serious is sin? It is an act of spiritual adultery against a God of grace.
Even with all of the outrage of Israel’s spiritual adultery, at the end of Ezekiel 16 God promises to atone for the sins of his people. That promise is fulfilled by Jesus on Calvary. We, too, have committed spiritual adultery. So, like God’s children of old, our only hope is found in his atoning grace. That grace is ours in Jesus.