Every sin is impactful. Every sin leaves a lasting mark.
Have you ever thought, “This is a small sin; God is not concerned about it,” but then you wrestle with guilt? Every sin wounds the soul and weakens one's moral power. This is why, after committing sin, we feel unworthy of speaking for God. The moral injury makes our hands feeble.
This is why Christianity is so weak in the land. Christians practice sin with impunity and have become so morally compromised that standing for the right would simply expose us as hypocrites. And so, we stay silent.
King David experienced a similar situation. After his sin with Bathsheba, his transgression left a moral wound that made it difficult for him to address the evils in his home—the evils in his children's lives.
How could he reprove the behavior of his sons and say, “Son, this is a sin,” while he himself was a murderer and an adulterer? But you say, “David had repented.” He did, but the moral stain remained, and it most likely led to the chaos in his home. His sin, done in secret, led to public disaster. His inability to reprove his sons led to them becoming lawless, and the floodgates of wickedness flowed into his home. The sword he had unsheathed against Uriah struck his own household.
Another way we deal with the moral injury caused by sin is by becoming harsh and legalistic. When we realize we are not living up to the standard that we should—realizing that we are hypocrites—we try to cover our nakedness with external performances to make others believe we are more righteous than we are. We may become very strict, without mercy. We are quick to condemn others who are found guilty of the same sin we struggle with privately. No one is harsher toward a caught thief than another thief.
A Christian, or even a church struggling with sin's devastating wounds, will react in one of two extremes: either tolerating sin, compromising with it, and seeing it as no big deal because moral power has greatly diminished; or becoming harsh, judgmental, and unmerciful to cloak the inner ulcer of sin's ravaging impact.
Many of us think we can commit sin, repent afterward, and all will be well. While it is true that God does forgive us immediately as we seek forgiveness, those moral stains and wounds take longer to heal. Not only do they take longer, but the enemy—the accuser of the brethren—will bring them back to our consciences again and again, accusing us of being vile, of being a stain on the cause of God, of being a hypocrite, and of being unworthy of the name Christian. The enemy will even suggest that God cannot save us, that we are too compromised, and thus the best thing to do is to forsake the Lord altogether in order to be free from a life of duplicity.
During those times of fierce temptation as a result of our sins, we must draw near to Jesus, trusting that despite our filthiness and unworthiness, He has promised to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will slowly but surely restore our moral strength if we stay in His love.
So friends, let us get away from the belief that because no one sees our sinful actions, they have no impact. That's a lie! No matter how secret the sin is, our moral and spiritual structures are still exposed to its piercing arrows; the soul is still wounded, and our spiritual strength diminishes.
The further we are from God, the less we feel sin’s impact because our senses have become dull and our moral nature so compromised that it has become insensible—dead in trespasses and sin. When we are dead, we no longer feel. To be dead in sin is to no longer feel its shame, guilt, and piercing arrows.
But as a person draws closer to God, every transgression is felt. You accidentally say something that hurts someone, and you feel crushed by it. You do something you know is not right, and you feel heavy-laden and burdened. The closer you draw to God, the more heinous your own sin appears. The slightest sin becomes a burden too great to be borne. Sin has weight! Sin weighs us down and crushes our spirit. But we only recognize its gravity as we draw closer to the Lord.
Let us walk in the light of God's countenance and expose all our sinful thoughts and actions to Him, so that He may cleanse us and make us stand upright and strong. He will then give us moral power to withstand Satan's accusations and temptations, and to be a witness of the gospel—a witness of the power to transform.
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