What the Bible says about Sin Separates Us from God
(From Forerunner Commentary)
The psalm begins with perhaps the most heart-rending cry in history: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Psalm 22:1). As Matthew and Mark attest, Jesus Himself spoke these words as He was about to die: "And about the ninth hour [mid-afternoon] Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46; see also Mark 15:34).
Our Savior's cry of abandonment marks His awareness that His Father had indeed turned from Him, being burdened and defiled by all human sin (Isaiah 53:6; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 2:9). As Isaiah 59:2 informs us, "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." Because He had never been sinful, Jesus had never known separation from the Father, and His feeling of desertion and rejection may have been the deepest cut of all.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
David the ProphetRelated Topics: David as Prophet | David the Prophet | Separation from God | Sin Separates | Sin Separates Us from God | Sin, Defilement of | Why Have You Forsaken Me?
How do we repent? Have we ever considered that Jesus could not show us how to do it? Though He is our perfect example in how to live, He can never Himself show us how to repent because He never had a sin to repent of. To whom do we look as an example of true repentance?
Jesus left that job to "a man after His own heart" (I Samuel 13:14), His own ancestor, David, whose attitude was one of going on to perfection (Hebrews 6:1). God loved him so much because he had a heart that always tried to do what was right, and when he slipped and fell, being humble and teachable, he repented and moved forward.
Psalm 51 is David's well-known and well-loved Psalm of Repentance. We will observe only the highlights—twelve in all—that focus on the most critical aspects of genuine repentance:
First, David simply throws himself on God's mercy when he asks for forgiveness. He does not try to justify himself or explain away his sin. He pleads, "Do to me what You think is right, but please be merciful."
Second, he confesses his sins unequivocally—he admits that he did them—and does not attempt to hide himself or his sins from God.
Third, he acknowledges that his sins are against God, as all sin is. Every sin we commit affects our relationship with Him since sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). Thus, David acknowledges that he has wronged God primarily (II Samuel 12:13). Of course, he had hurt others in the process and caused the whole nation great distress, but of all these, God is by far the most important.
Fourth, David acknowledges that his entire nature is sinful and that sin is a fact of human existence. However, he also accepts that God requires us to overcome it with His help.
Fifth, he recognizes that God and God alone can cleanse him of sin. By using the word "hyssop" (Psalm 51:7; see Exodus 12:22), He hints that only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, can remit our sins and make the passing over of our sins possible. Only by washing in the blood of the Lamb of God can we be whiter than snow.
Sixth, he asks God to change his heart and to grant him true repentance. Paul teaches in Romans 2:4, ". . . the goodness of God leads you to repentance," and in II Timothy 2:25, "God perhaps will grant them repentance." Because we have a part to play in it, repentance is a cooperative act with God to change our hearts.
Seventh, he appeals to God to renew His Holy Spirit in him. He begs, "Please, do not take it away from me! Please do not cast me away from your Presence. Help me to overcome this by Your power because by my own strength I can do nothing."
Eighth, by saying, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation," he asks God to return him to the path toward His Kingdom. He had discovered that the way of sin leading to condemnation and death was a dark, dreary, hopeless road. He needed God to set his feet on the right path again.
Ninth, he requests that God help him to become a good example to others and to teach them His way of life. He wanted not only to repent of this sin but also to pursue righteousness to the point that others could follow his example and learn from him. No half-measures for David!
Tenth, he praises God for His goodness and mercy. Showing Him our sincere gratitude for His grace and forbearance does wonders for our attitude, as it acknowledges our reliance on Him.
Eleventh, David lets God know that he understands that no physical act will ever atone for his sins. He can do nothing—no amount of sacrifice—to make up for them. What God desires is a change of heart and mind, asking for a humble spirit that will transform one's way of life. He respects the person who is submissive and willing to change.
Finally, he asks God to show favor to Zion—in our case, the church, the people of God—implying, "Please do not let my sin cause others harm or bring dishonor to You or Your people. Please intervene so that the effects of my sin do not ripple out to affect others—in fact, turn this to good." With the assurance that God has covered our sins, our sacrifices and acts of righteousness and love toward God and man can have real meaning and produce pleasing fruit.
Consider the slavery and redemption of the Israelites. Like them, we have been redeemed from Egypt, a type of the world. Also like them, the ungodly things we learned during our enslavement remain in our minds. God does not just make all those habits, attitudes, and inclinations disappear. Certainly, He has cleansed us from our sins, but we are always in need of repentance. We must still turn off the dusty, crowded highway that leads to death and walk the narrow but sunlit path to eternal life in God's Kingdom.
Doing this takes time and a great deal of hard work, but it all begins with deep, earnest repentance—a thorough conversion of mind and attitude and a change in conduct to what is right and godly. Then and only then will we truly be preparing for the Kingdom of God.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Six)
After Jacob's ten sons sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery in Egypt, they spent two decades haunted by an ever-present feeling of guilt. Whenever Egypt was mentioned, they experienced a pang of culpability for what they had done. The English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth, poignantly expresses the mood of this menacing memory: “From the body of one guilty deed a thousand ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed.”
Most people believe sin occurs only between themselves and some impersonal, arbitrary law made up in former times to keep people from enjoying themselves. The only reason today's youth seem to have been given for moral integrity is “because the church says the Bible tells us so.” For this reason, many waste their time trying to undermine the credibility of Scripture and the authority of the church. If they can overturn them, they reason, they will be free to have all the fun non-Christians supposedly have.
In this progressive culture, people believe that morality changes from age to age and culture to culture. Society decides what is right and wrong. Under this reasoning, sin depends on the circumstances of the moment. Through the media and entertainment, the world promotes quite a different level of moral acceptability than God's standards, illustrating Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
What happens to our sense of sin when God's standards seem no longer to be valid? For an answer, all we need to do is take a look at our global society—its violence, sexual immorality, greed, stealing, and lying resulting in mass deaths, horrible diseases, rampant fraud, massive distrust, and misery. Why is it like this? “Where there is no revelation [divine vision], the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18). This is why the standard of right and wrong can only come from one who is perfect—our Creator, the Almighty God.
The apostle Paul writes in Romans 7:14 that God's law is spiritual. The average person, however, considers laws as strictly physical guidelines that were invented to restrict him. But in the widest sense of the word, man's relationship to God, affected by sin, is what constitutes guilt. Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2), and guilt is the result of that separation.
Martin G. Collins
Should We Ignore Our Feelings of Guilt?Related Topics: 'Progressive' Culture | Consequences of sin | God's Standard of Morality | God's Standards | Guilt | Guilt as the Result of Separation from God | Ignoring Feelings of Guilt | Moral Decay | Separation from God | Sexual Immorality | Sin Causes Guilt | Sin Causes Separation from God | Sin Separates Us from God | Situation Ethics | Way that seems right to a man
We find it easy to limit God. While all of His attributes are in perfect, harmonious balance, we invariably emphasize one of His traits or qualities over another. Without divine intervention in the form of a calling, everyone essentially creates a god in his own image, crudely patching together anecdotes and selected scriptures that reinforce his idea of the divine.
This selective emphasis is evident in the popular concept of God on the subjects of peace and unity. Truly, God desires peace, and He wants that His children have peace. Yet, His own words bear out that, in His sovereignty, He also creates calamity (Isaiah 45:7). As strange as it may seem—even though He ultimately desires for all of mankind to live in harmony with Him and for brethren to dwell in unity—when necessary, He is also a God of division.
Our Savior's words in Matthew 10:34 are undeniable: "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." The wording in Luke's account is different, but the potent core remains: "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division" (Luke 12:51). In these contexts, Jesus elaborates that even the family—that basic building block of society that He instituted and endorses—is not immune when He requires a separation for the sake of true worship. God even allows division of a marriage for the sake of godly peace, because the fruit of righteousness is sown in an environment of peace (I Corinthians 7:15; James 3:18). While peace and unity are indeed good, they must be on God's terms.
In the parables, God separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) and the wheat from the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). Even though God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4), He will do this in His own time and in His own way. While unity within the God Family is what He is ultimately working toward, He has no compunction about using division in the process, and even permanently separating those who would not fit within His Family.
Paul's letter to the Corinthians provides an insightful study into the causes of and reasons for division. Right at the beginning, Paul "pleads" that "there be no divisions among [them]," desiring that they all have the same mind and judgment (I Corinthians 1:10-11). A couple of chapters later, he instructs that "where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you," it is a result of being "carnal and behaving like mere men" (I Corinthians 3:3). The basic cause of division among men is carnality—just as the cause of division from God is sin (Isaiah 59:2).
However, God can use this proclivity so that it ultimately serves His purpose. Later in his epistle to the Corinthians, Paul writes, "I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you" (I Corinthians 11:18-19). As troubling as it may sound, Scripture states that factions must exist within the church. As illustrated in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, those who are presently being transformed into the image of God will be disunited with those who are not. If there were not divisions like these, it would mean that the firstfruits were still in agreement with those under the sway of Satan, and thus no spiritual growth would be taking place.
Paul clarifies this principle and expands on it in other epistles. To the church at Rome, he writes:
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:17-18)
"Belly" here is a figurative reference to the heart, a person's core. Those who are causing division are doing so because they are serving their own hearts, that is, their own interests, ideals, and perspectives. Paul admonishes the brethren simply to avoid them because their words are dangerous. His language is even stronger when he writes to Titus: "Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned" (Titus 3:10-11).
In Jude's admonition to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (verse 3), he goes to great lengths in describing apostates:
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. . . . These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. . . . These are sensual persons [that is, natural, concerned with the physical senses], who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. (Jude 8, 16, 19)
Division, then, is a function of carnality, and there will always be a measure of it while we are mortal human beings. The Father and the Son are working to bring us to the place where we can live as they do—in peace and perfect unity, without any division—yet, until that time, we will experience division and separation. Some of it will be because of our own misalignment with God, and some will be a reaction—required, at times—to the division others are causing.
When God causes division, He does so for the sake of salvation. He separated Israel from Egypt in the process of saving them physically. He fractured His own church during the present age to arrest the complacency of those whom He had called. He requires us to distinguish between the holy and the profane, for in rightly dividing good from evil, we are taking on His image. Many champion peace and unity, and these are without question godly attributes. However, for there to be true peace and unity in God's Kingdom, God is clearly not disdainful of making good and right use of division.
David C. Grabbe
Unity and Division (Part One)Related Topics: Belly as god | Calamity, God Creates | Christ Brings Division | Contend Earnestly for the Faith | Contend for the Faith Once Delivered | Division, Causing | Factions | Factions as God Ordained | God Creates Calamity | God Scattered His People | God Scatters the Church | Parable of the Wheat and the Tares | Peace and Unity Must be on God's Terms | Separation of Sheep from Goats | Sin Separates | Sin Separates Us from God | Unity and Division
His attention to such detail reveals His characteristic kindness and sympathy. That He orders nourishment suggests that her body was still weak and needed to be strengthened, showing that she was resurrected to physical existence. Those who saw her did not see a spirit but a human. Her body, still dependent on natural laws, needed to be nourished.
Christ finishes by requesting that the parents "tell no one what had happened" (Mark 5:43; Luke 8:56), partly to save the little girl from rude gawkers, but most probably so that fame would not hinder her future spiritual life. The world scorns the reality of resurrection because sin separates them from God, but the day is not far off when the "dead in Christ" will respond to His simple but powerful command, "Arise!" (John 5:28-29; I Thessalonians 4:16).
Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Resurrecting Jairus' Daughter
Without a doubt, our sins separate us from God (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 59:2; Galatians 5:19-21). Graciously, our heavenly Father desires a closer relationship with us, His elect (John 17:3, 20-21). In Leviticus 26:12, our Creator promises, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.” In John 14:6, that same divine Being—in the form of Jesus Christ—testifies that He provides our ultimate path to God the Father.
In Romans 5:1-2, the apostle Paul flatly asserts that justification brings us access to His grace, the undeserved favor that He grants to His faithful, humble children through Jesus Christ (James 4:6). In Ephesians 2:18 and 3:12, Paul mentions this same access, strongly implying that such access is exclusive to our calling and not available to the world.
By declaring the repentant sinner not guilty, justification helps to remove, not only the disturbing guilt from his conscience, but also the fear of being called before God and condemned (Isaiah 57:20-21; Romans 5:9), replacing the guilt and fear with hope (Romans 5:2; Titus 3:7). Such peace enables the justified to draw even closer to God with a more confident assurance of His mercy (Hebrews 4:16; 7:19; 10:19).
Martin G. Collins
The Fruit of JustificationRelated Topics: Building a Relationship with God | Building Relationship with God | Calling | Calling and Election | Christ's Sacrifice Cleanses the Conscience | Drawing Close to God | Drawing Near to God | Elements of Motivation: Hope | Glory of God Declared in Person of Jesus Christ | God's Mercy | Jesus Christ as Revelator of God | Justification | Justification as a Gift | Pursuing a Relationship with God | Relationship with God | Removing Guilt | Sin Separates | Sin Separates Us from God
Christ did this so that we can serve God. Thus, in order for us to serve God personally, we must be close to Him. Sin separates! What does sin do to relationships, either with humans or with God? It divides. When a person steals from another, do they become closer? If a spouse commits adultery, does that bring a married couple closer? No, it drives them apart. If a person covets something belonging to another person, does their relationship blossom? Sin separates.
Above all, it separates us from God. How can we be close to Him as long as we are sinning? Something had to be done, first of all, to bridge the gap: The sins had to be forgiven. Therefore, Jesus Christ, when He qualified by being blameless, voluntarily offered Himself to be the sacrifice that would overcome the division.
Before He did this, knowing He would die, He made out a will. He said, "When I die, those who take advantage of My death will inherit what I have inherited." The inheritance is to be in His Family! With it goes all the other promises: the promises of the Holy Spirit, eternal life, all the gifts, continual forgiveness, etc.
Whatever is needed, He will supply it. He will continue to stand between God and us, for a priest is one who bridges the gap between different parties to bring them together. He is saying, "When I am resurrected, I will always stand in the gap and be there when you need Me, and I will administer the Spirit of God."
Being brought close to God not only enables us to serve Him, it also enables the Father to serve us. Because we are in His presence, He can distribute to us the gifts that enable us to continue. Christ, then, is shown to be the Sacrifice for forgiveness of sin; the Mediator of peace between God and us; the Testator who died, passing on the benefits to us. These benefits work to remove the flaw, allowing us to keep the terms of the New Covenant.
We can then have a sustained and wonderful relationship with God. We can have His laws written on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10) and so be transformed into His image, qualified to share the inheritance of the promises with Him because we are like Him.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Thirteen)Related Topics: Eternal Life | Forgiveness | God's Holy Spirit | God's Laws Written in Hearts and Minds | Jesus Christ as Mediator | New Covenant | Reconciliation | Relationship to God | Relationship with God | Sin Causes Division | Sin Causes Separation from God | Sin Produces Separation | Sin Separates | Sin Separates Us from God | Transformed into His Likeness
Jesus Christ encourages each of the churches to overcome, clearly implying that success within God's purpose is tied to it. God did not create us and call us into His purpose for failure. The Greek term for "overcome" here is nikáo (Strong's #3528), which means "to subdue, to conquer, to prevail, to get the victory."
Jesus indicates that Christian life is challenging. The Bible does not view the worship of God as a passing activity on which a person spends a few hours one day a week. Rather, it shows the worship of God to be a full-time responsibility, a work requiring dedication and discipline. God calls upon each of us to be "a worker who does not need to be ashamed" (II Timothy 2:15). Sin impedes proper worship.
The reasons for the use of such strong terms does not become directly apparent until the New Testament, where Jesus and the apostles give specific instructions to individual Christians on avoiding sin at all costs. The Bible's writers see us in a battle for our very lives! In whatever context it appears throughout Scripture, sin is viewed as failure—as succumbing, not overcoming. Each time we sin, we suffer a defeat in life's overall purpose.
Besides defeat, Isaiah 59:1-2 provides us with another reason why sin is perceived so dreadfully: "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."
This second reason is in no way secondary in importance; it is in every way equal to or greater than the sense of failure. Sin creates estrangement from God. This is extremely important because our relationship with Him is the source of our power to succeed. He created us to have an everlasting relationship with Him in peaceful and productive harmony.
God does not sin because sin destroys relationships. As sinners, we would not fit within a non-sinning relationship. Despite human reasoning to the contrary, whether the relationship is with fellow humans or with God, sin always works to produce separation. A continuing life of sin destroys any hope of oneness. It never makes matters better; it never heals. Lasting success and sound relationships are never achieved through sin.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Sin, Christians, and the Fear of GodRelated Topics: Dedication | Discipline | Nikao | Overcoming | Sin creates estrangement from God | Sin Destroys Relationships | Sin Produces Separation | Sin Separates Us from God | Subdue | Success | Worship of God