Sermon Central
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Does God Punish Us When We Sin? Series
Contributed by Brian Atwood on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: The misinformation about God unnecessarily makes many people far too afraid of Him when they should be seeking Him as their dearest friend.
Circle that word “all.” ALL my sins are forgiven – past, present, and FUTURE. My faith in Christ secures the forgiveness of ALL my sins. They are “washed…away.”
When I come to Christ by trusting in what He did for me in shedding His sinless blood for my sins - ALL my sins are washed away.
Yes, God punishes our sin. But if we’ll place our confidence in Christ then the punishment Jesus took becomes our punishment instead. That’s Good News!
In the movie “Amazing Grace”, the part of the dialogue that stood out more than all the rest to me was near the end of the film when John Newton, hymn writer of the song “Amazing Grace”, said, “I am a very old man and my memory has gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Jesus is a great savior."
None of us deserves what God has done for us! Not one of us deserves what Jesus did in shedding His sinless blood for us! Does God punish us when we sin? Yes! But Jesus willingly took our punishment so we could be forgiven!
But what about the sins I commit AFTER I come to Christ?
Since God doesn’t have a dark side and I do, He never messes up. He’s never the one in our friendship that has to apologize. He never does anything wrong to me. But I do wrong things to Him even as I am trying to live in the light. What about the punishment for these sins? Once again, ALL my sins are forgiven – even the ones I commit AFTER I make a faith commitment to Christ.
But - It is proper for those who know Christ and continue in their faith in Him to acknowledge and apologize for taking steps in the dark that are against God’s nature of total light. That’s why the Bible says this:
"But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away." 1 John 1:9 (CEV)
Making a faith commitment to Christ based on what He did in shedding His blood for me cancels my sin debt. But since I’m not in the perfect environment of heaven yet and don’t have my perfect spiritual body yet I’m going to sin sometimes, hate it though I may. Those sins are going to be just as offensive to God as the sins I committed before I came to God through Christ.
But don’t forget. The Bible says that ALL my sins are washed away. I’m not confessing these sins to be re-forgiven. I’m confessing them because my friendship with God matters.
It’s like in marriage. Sometimes I have to apologize to Deb for saying or doing something that is wrong. She wouldn’t divorce me for forgetting to put my dirty socks in the hamper but I need to apologize because it was thoughtless of me. This helps our relationship stay pleasant. It tells her that I don’t want to take our relationship for granted.
In your relationship with God you need to confess the things you’ve done wrong as the Word of God and the Spirit of God show you these things.
It’s important to know that “confess” means “to say the same thing.” When I confess to gossip or envy or prayerlessness or any other sin, I need “to say the same thing” that God says about my sin. It’s dirty, its dark, it hinders my friendship with God and others. God is still my friend when I do these things but He’s not able to bless me like He wants; He’s not able to have that close friendship that He wants to have with me so I need to confess, I need “to say the same thing” God says about my sin to clear the air.
