Sin Splatters, Sin Sticks and Sin Stinks
How often have you heard, “if it doesn’t hurt someone else then I should be able to do whatever I want.”? It is masqueraded as independence or self-freedom. It is simplified to the idea that people should mind their own business. Everyone can just do their own thing.
We think this thinking is so progressive and so modern. But it is ancient. Judges 17:6 says of the people thousands of years ago, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
But the idea that the things I do don’t hurt other people is a lie. Sin splatters and sticks. Like someone dropping and breaking a glass full of orange juice, it splatters on to those around them. An innocent by-stander gets covered in the sticky mess. It’s splatters are almost impossible to clean up. Days later you find a sticky mess that was missed. But to make matters all the worse, sin isn’t a glass of orange juice, it is a glass of the strongest stench, most repugnant smelling, most infectious pathogen you can think of. Try carrying around a vile of Ebola and make the argument, as long as I’m not hurting anyone else I should be able to carry this vile of virus with me and juggle it. We know better.
Children are scared for generations. Marriages and lives are destroyed. Shame and poverty and abuse and excess and all the other wrongs of the world all stem from sin. It’s stench permeates not only our lives, but the very land we live on, the walls, the clothes, everything around us.
But, it does not permeate God. In God’s presence, sin and everything it has infected is burned away. It cannot be tolerated and it cannot be allowed. This is what happened to Nadab and Abihu. This is the warning God gives over and over again to Moses and Aaron in regard to how to approach the inner sanctum, the presence of God – “lest they die”.
While Jesus paid the price of our sin, sin still continues in this world. Someday, Jesus will return to cast sin and its master into a lake of fire, but until that day we still live with sin and its consequences. When He returns we will rise with Him to live forever in His presence. Christ’s covering will save us from the impact of our sin.
If you have accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation, the payment of your sin, past, present and future, has been made in full. But you still should do all you can to avoid sin. Not only for improvement of your own life and honor to the one who saves you, but even more so, for the protection of its impact on those around you and the place your live.
My Answers:
6.
1. God said to, 2. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been
7.
Sin is like a skunk – it’s stench permeates into everything it is around. But scripture locks up (cages) the stench of sin. Scripture is not about sin, it is about the good news of the promise/gift of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ
8.
a.
thoughts, words, deeds, not only by what they have done, but also by what they have left undone. They do what is right in their own eyes and ignore and reject any teaching that is contrary. They desperately want and fight for others to accept the sin they are doing as being normal and right
b.
It permeates in pictures, video, music, dress, language. It is in shifting and perverted societal norms, in the abuse of power the neglect of the poor and widows and orphans. There is no part of daily life that is left untouched
c.
bath it in prayer, repent of my sins and pray for those around me. Seek first and only God and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit every day to direct my life and my thoughts
The Notes are Good 