Contemplating Sin and Our Relationship with God

Lately I have been thinking much about my relationship with God. In seeking Him, I have been challenged to think much about another issue: sin.

I realize that in our postmodern society, clearcut right and wrong can be hard to find. When we choose to submit ourselves to Christ, however, this becomes a well defined issue with which we must reckon.

King David offers the following prayer in Psalm 51:1-5.

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and blameless when You pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me."

David, who is elsewhere in Scripture acknowledged by God as "a man after My own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22), recognized the reality of this issue of sin. He himself wrestled with it, and was honest about his struggles. When David sinned against God, he sought restored relationship with God through repentance.

After quite some time contemplating this issue, I found myself at this thought: we wrestle with sin in direct proportion to our relationship with God. When I do not care to pursue God as a disciple of Jesus Christ, sin is not so bothersome. In fact, it's mostly enjoyable. But when I am drawing near to God under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, sin becomes a major problem. Instead of feeling nothing, I am able to acknowledge that a part of myself is dying in darkness because of sin. And I can only know this because of the light of truth which Jesus Christ provides.

"For once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, 'Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" (Ephesians 5:8-14)

Bibliography

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.