"If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in him, there will be blood in the water, the sharks will come." -Ivan Vanko, Iron Man 2Western culture today has been inundated with the concept that people should try to avoid the responsibility for their actions. The society we live in says, "Go for it, as long as you can get away with it." Courts are bogged down with cases where a person simply refuses to admit to his or her actions. Employees lie to their bosses about allocation of company time and resources. Husbands cheat on their wives, with little or no remorse.
And as long as the people around us never find out, we think things are all fine. If my universe is all about me, then I shouldn't worry how my actions affect those around me. We invent clever little sayings like "What they don't know won't hurt them," and "What happens there stays there." We have constructed fool-proof systems for separating ourselves from the consequences of our actions. I mean, "It's only cheating if you get caught," right?
Grow Up
How immature can we get? Honestly, the idea that my actions do not (or not necessarily) have consequences is a grand delusion, if ever I have heard of one. Our actions, whether for good or bad, almost always have consequences. It seems fairly straight-forward when you see it written down like this, but just think about how often we live as if this statement were false.
How many marriages are ruined each year due to someone's unwise actions? How much company money is lost every day from someone playing games on company time? How many families have been left devastated after someone overdoses on an illicit substance? How many people are hurt each day by someone's white lie?
I don't have statistics for any of these, but we all know that these numbers are not insignificant; in fact, they are likely quite substantial. Our actions do affect the people around us, and this is important. Maybe this simple fact does not bother you. If that is the case, this post won't mean a lot to you, but I suggest you pick up some basic ethics literature. For the rest of us, we know that we ought to act in the interest of those around us, for one reason or another. This is true even if you aren't a Christian. We all have an innate sense of right and wrong (call it a conscience), and this sense is part of what helps guide us in making our decisions. And, as stated above, our decisions have consequences.
It Is What It Is
We are touching on one of my favorite aspects of Christianity. In many modern worldviews, ethics and morality are difficult to define and even more difficult to defend. There really is no way to define morality in an atheistic mindset, except for by consensus. But consensus is fickle and arbitrary, especially if each person's opinion is not backed by something more concrete.
For the Christian, on the other hand, morality is one of the less complicated aspects to a person's life. If you believe in God, then you believe that He has a very particular Nature, and He created the universe to coincide with that Nature. To act morally is to behave in agreement with God's Nature, which also happens to be the best possible treatment of your fellow man. We don't rely on consensus or political correctness; we have the Bible and the Holy Spirit which direct us in these matters.
Christianity is also very clear about the consequences of our actions. Many other worldviews seek to stymie the aftermath of breaches of morality, or perhaps they recognize no real consequences at all. Bad things may happen, but without an external source for the morality, there is no real sense that a person should be held responsible for the choices they make. In survival of the fittest, the fittest person is the one who can manage to do better than those around him, despite how much he hurts them. The more he can get away with, the better his chances of getting out on top.
Punishments and Wages
So, what exactly does the Bible say about sin and its consequences? The first answer I see to this question is that sin's consequences are serious. One of the first commands God gives to the newly formed man in Genesis 2 frames the concept of sin in a very serious light. "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 from it you will certainly die." (Gen. 2:16b-17) God does not say "you will die if you get caught," even though Adam and Eve's reaction to their sin might indicate that they thought they could escape the death. Now, the two of them do not physically die right away, but their sin did seemingly introduce death and suffering into the world for the first time. Just look at the curses they incurred in Genesis 3:14-19. And death is then shown in a very obvious way: God uses the skin of animals (which were likely at one point alive) to provide clothes for the two humans who had only produced inadequate clothing with fig leaves. This passage is teeming with imagery and significance, but for now I will leave the discussion at that.
The second point the Bible makes is that sin's consequences are lasting. I get this idea from Deuteronomy 28, one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible. This is a chapter totally committed to the concept of consequences—in the NIV, it is separated into two distinct sections called "Blessings for Obedience" and "Curses for Disobedience." The obedience in these headings is referring to the Israelites obeying the law of the Old Covenant which they made with God. In particular, I am looking at the second of these two sections (v. 15-68). The curses themselves are serious, just like we discussed above, but what I mainly want to look at is the language of time in this passage. Many of the curses last for multiple years and growing seasons, and often they mention persistent suffering at the hands of the nation's enemies. Elsewhere, in Exodus 20, God says that the sins of His people will be punished "to the third and fourth generation." (v. 5) Clearly, from the Christian perspective, the consequences of sin can endure for quite some time.
Finally, the Bible makes it very clear that sin's consequences are deadly. In fact, it could be said that the consequence of every sin is death. This does not necessarily mean immediate physical death, but that sin produces in us what is contrary to life. In one way or another, sin reduces our capacity (and/or the capacity of those around us) to carry out the purpose for which we have been put on this earth (i.e. our capacity to live). Also, it is clear that God can have nothing to do with sin. (James 1:13, Joshua 24:19) Really, simply to say that God is "Holy" is to say that He has been set apart from sin (I hope to discuss this concept in a later post). And as Christians we know that it is impossible to obtain eternal life apart from God. So, in another sense, to sin is to receive death in the form of separation from eternal life. Therefore, Paul is more than justified in writing that "the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)
The Remedy
It is no coincidence that I am writing this post on Good Friday. Today marks a time set aside by Christians all over the world to think about the death of Christ on the cross a couple thousand years ago. For people of all walks of life, the symbolism of the cross has been somewhat muddled by its prominence in so many secular settings. Now, I'm not on any crusade to reclaim the symbol, but I do want us to take an extra moment today to ponder the cross and consider its significance to the life of a Christian.
As we have seen, sin is serious, lasting, and deadly. By all accounts, I deserve to die for the things that I have done, not just against others, but against God Himself. I am guilty of breaking more than a little of the covenant I have made with God, and therefore I am guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10) And in order for the Law to be satisfied, a life is demanded; the wages of sin is death.
Animal sacrifices cannot take my place (Hebrews 10:4, Isaiah 1:11) and I can never do enough to work my way back into heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9). The only recourse I have is that which has been given through the Providence of God: the blood of Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate contradiction: the infinite bound, the unknowable befriended, the holy stained with my sin, and finally, the eternal killed. Christ's death on that cross paid sin's wages so that by believing in Him, I might regain the life I so readily relinquished to sin. It is for this reason, among others, that I praise the name of Jesus and thank Him for the Life He has given me. And it is for this reason that I will continue to talk about the Good News of Good Friday until He returns, having overcome death, and with it, sin. The most beautiful, terrible, exhilarating, triumphant, effectual death ever known is what we commemorate today.
Our sins have consequences. They are serious, lasting, and deadly for us, unless we choose to accept the Grace of Jesus the Anointed. To Him we owe everything.
I challenge you to read through Hebrews 10 today. If you don't feel like reading the whole chapter, at least read what I have quoted below. Thank you for reading, and have a blessed Easter (Spoiler alert: Jesus doesn't stay dead).
"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
"Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, "Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God."'
"First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them'—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
"Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices,which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." -Hebrews 10:1-14
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