Bad Enough

This Sunday I returned to the teaching circuit. I was a substitute Bible study teacher for a Singles Class at my church.

During the lesson, I mentioned that I had recently dealt with a sin that God had been bringing to my attention. My response to that sin and His conviction was to remain silent and hide it. I shared that I had confessed it to God, repented, and felt free and restored. I went further and even confessed it to my wife.

Following that disclosure, I read the faces of those in the room. Looks beckoned me to share more...their looks told me they wanted to know the severity of the sin. Maybe I could delight them with some details of my failure. It appeared I had lost credibility as a teacher.

I responded flippantly, "It wasn't anything bad. But God was convicting me of it." Relief and smiles came to their faces.

Convicted of how easily I dismissed the sin, I quickly added-"But it was bad enough that Jesus had to die for it."

And there it was. A moment of lucidity. I was struck at how easily I could rationalize the severity of any sin. As if I was the Judge and could grade sin on some scale.

"Well it was a white lie. .No one died. It hurt no one. That was a 2 on the Sin-o-meter."

But clearly...that is not the truth.

Truth is-The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23. Not just a few sins...all sins lead to death and it took a perfect sacrificial lamb to pay for all those sins. That Lamb was Christ.

Good news! The apostle Paul testifies of Christ's sacrifice to those seeking repentance and absolution of sin in Romans:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 kjv.

Just a word of caution...the sin we so easily dismiss or omit carried a heavy price. Sin, no matter how small, was bad enough that Christ died for it.