Against Whom Do You Sin?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!

Psalm 111:10

Christians are not immune to sinning; we still do give in to our flesh and sin, but some perpetually sin and live in lawlessness as the Apostle Paul would have put it, while others even go as far as to say that they need not repent as they have not sinned.

How is that possible? All man, and I use the term here to denote both genders, sin! Be it in thought or deed, we sin constantly. Read Matthew 5:17-48, and measure yourself against those yardsticks. In fact, you don’t need to break more than one of the laws to be guilty of sin; Christ Jesus said that whoever breaks one law is guilty of all.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19 KJV

Meditating on my sinful state, and why I constantly sin has led me to this lesson: that when I sin, I sin against God alone. Yes, when we sin, we are in essence in rebellion against God the Creator (Genesis 1:1); God the righteous Judge (Psalm 7:11); a Holy God (Revelation 4:8).

King David, a man after God’s own heart, knew this well as he cried out to God

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 only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.

Psalm 51:1-4

No doubt we do sin against our own bodies when we commit sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18) or against our brother or sister when we hurt them, but we must realize that, above all, we sin against God. And that, my brethren, is essential to understand.

Think of it this way (I’ll be using an example I once heard Ray Comfort give): say you lied to your mom and have therefore done wrong against her, don’t you cower and run into your room hoping to avoid the consequences? At most you get caned, and life goes on. Now, one day you get hauled up to court for lying in your tax returns and the consequences as you know by now are dire — you might even end up in jail!

The sin is similar in both examples — you lied. However, whom you lied against had a bearing on the severity of the punishment meted out. As we move up the ladder of accountability, God is right at the top. What do you think will be the consequences?

Eternal punishment and damnation in hell.

Some say that eternal punishment isn’t fair because their sins aren’t that devious as, say, what a murderer or rapist or pedophile commits, but a sin’s a sin and you have committed a sin, i.e. openly rebelled, against a just, Holy and eternal God. Just what do you think you deserve?

Therefore, brethren, knowing this, we shall do well to confess our sins, repent (turn away from our sins) and sin no more, for the one against whom we sin is God Himself.

Tagged as: Punishment, Sin, Wrath