A friend recently asked me why certain sins are judged much more severely by others. This got me thinking about the nature of sin itself and why God cares what we do, or don’t do. I think the biggest complaint a lot of people have against God is, “why does He gets to decide what’s sin and what isn’t?”
In the creation account in Genesis (the first book of the bible) God speaks creation into being. There is a beautiful poetic rhythm to the passage for each phase of creation which always concludes with “and God saw that it was good.” Six times we read:
“…and God saw that it was God”
“…and God saw that it was God”
“…and God saw that it was God”
“…and God saw that it was God”
“…and God saw that it was God”
“…and God saw that it was God”
And then the climax, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
Most of creation is created without an option of whether it will obey God or not. God says, “Let there be light” And there is light. However when God created humanity He created us with a unique capacity to choose whether we would obey Him or not. So far in the story “good” is seen from God’s perspective alone. However by creating humanity with free will God recognizes the potential for “good” to splinter into six billion different perspectives. God recognizes that something can be “good” for me and at the same time “bad” for someone else. Every war ever fought was initiated by the “good” someone decided to claim. This is why God says, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis Chapter 2, verses 16-17)
God knew that our competing perspectives of “good” would do harm to one another. Think about this: at this moment there is more than enough food on this planet to feed every man, women, and child. Yet, because of our competing perspectives of “good” thousands will starve to death today. God desires to be our ultimate judge of “good” because only He really has this ability.
What we often fail to understand in a discussion of sin is that God’s hatred of sin directly relates to His love of us. Sin rebels against His will (what He knows is good), therefore, sin separates us from His Life. We were created to dwell in His Life like a bird was created for the sky, or a fish was created for the sea. As long as we are separated from His Life we will be have a persistent unmet longing which is meant to lead us back to Him. Tragically, we often think that sin is the solution to our deepest thirst when it’s really the cause. But Jesus’ primary mission wasn’t to take away the puddles we drink from, but to offer us clean, Life-giving, water. In Jesus, we can be set free from our perspective of “good” and surrender ourselves to His liberating perspective. We can be set free to dwell within the Life of God again, know His Voice which allows us to once again experience His good, satisfying, and completing will. (Romans Chapter 12, verses 1-2)
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