Stop Hiding!

Photo by Jenny Venturo

One of the most important truths any of us could realize is that none of us can get to God on our own. If you’ve been meditating on the Scripture in my last few devotionals (see the full series on God's holiness here and last week's devotional here), you will recognize that God is far too holy for vile sinners like us to reach Him. His standard, as reflected in His law, is perfect righteousness, and all of us fall short of that standard.

To some degree, everyone has at least some notion of the reality that our sin separates us from God, but our pride keeps us from dealing with our guilt in the appropriate way. Instead, we try to hide from or cover up our guilt. Here are some phrases that provide clues as to how we try to deal with our sin by our own effort:

1. “I go to church, pray, and read my Bible. I’m a spiritual/religious person. I was born to Christian parents.” Affiliation with any group does not make you a Christian. There are no automatic passes to heaven. (See Ezekiel 18:19-20; Romans 5:12).

2. “I sin, but I pray to God every day and ask Him to forgive my sin.” In a human court, mere apologies do not override a just sentence for a crime. It doesn’t work with God, either. (See Matthew 3:8; II Corinthians 5:17; I John 1:7,9).

3. “I’m a terrible sinner who just can’t seem to give up this particular sin. No matter how hard I try, I can’t resist the temptation.” Instead of truly repenting of our sin, we wallow in self-pity and remorse. We stubbornly refuse to submit to God’s mercy, offered through Jesus by faith. In addition, saying “I can’t” reveals a lack of faith in an all-powerful God. (See Matthew 27:3-5; Acts 3:19; I Corinthians 10:13).

4. “I’ve broken all the Ten Commandments. I’m a terrible person. I’ll have fun in Hell.” This type of flippancy reveals a form of self-righteousness. We shrug sin off as not a big deal. (See Psalms 51; Ezekiel 24:14; Revelation 20:15).

5. “I try to never hurt anybody. I’ve never done anything that bad. I always try to make my good works outweigh my bad ones.”  This is an attempt to bribe the holy Judge of the universe. One crime against such a righteous God is enough to incur the death penalty in Hell. (See James 2:10).

6. “Morality is relative to society, culture, individuals, etc. I can decide what’s right for me. All religions lead to the same place anyway.” This is a way to escape responsibility for our sin. All of us have a God-given knowledge of objective morality—we call it the conscience. (See Micah 6:8; Romans 2:12-16).

7. “If I dress this way, abstain from that activity, and follow good moral principles, I feel holy and spiritual.” The Pharisees fell into the same trap. God is concerned with the heart, which will then reflect our outward appearance and actions—yet most of us are too prideful to grapple with our inward selves. (See I Samuel 16:7; Luke 11:39, 42).

8. “God doesn’t exist.” The Bible says everyone knows God exists. The conscience and creation are evidence that you will be wrong on the last day, and you will give account for your choices before the Judge. (See Romans 1:18-20; 2:1-2).

Are you guilty of any of the above types of thinking? Examine your heart to determine whether you have been trying to assuage your guilt through any of the above means. Will you bow today to the only one who can save you from the wrath of God against your sin? (Learn what Jesus did for guilty sinners here.)

If you are a believer, do you sometimes find yourself relying on yourself instead of Christ to deal with guilt and sin?

In your Gospel conversations with the world, expose people to these types of wrong thinking. Show them the holiness of God as reflected in His Law, and walk them through the Ten Commandments so they can see how they don’t measure up. Then, give them the Good News of Jesus.

Read the next devotional here.

Read the complete series here.