Avoid the Flight of the Wicked

It starts small, but it sure grows fast.  It’s unbridled and vigorous.  It doesn’t play favorites, and it’s like cancer that metastasizes everywhere.  Unchecked, unrepentant sin will always destroy a human soul.

Have you ever tried living a lie before God?  I doubt you were at peace.  It’s stressful to live a lie.  You’re always looking over your shoulder, and never looking to serve others.  You might be able to fool some humans.  It might even seem that you’ve escaped for awhile.  But you know what?  Eventually, you know you’re going to get caught.  So you spend a ton of time in panic and paranoia, trying to hide the truth.

Before quietly clinging to unrepentant sin, and thinking that’s the secret to a happy life, consider this wisdom from the book of Proverbs:  “The wicked man flees though no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1).”  

Ironically, you fall into unrepentant sin because you believe the lie that you do not have to fear God…only to end up being afraid of other people, withdrawing and even fleeing from them!  Why go through all that turmoil of living a lie?  Why keep running, even though nobody is chasing?  Why keep worrying about what might happen if someone found out your sinful secrets?  God.  Already.  Knows.

Stop hiding your sin!  Start hiding in God’s Word!  There alone, you’ll find the peace of transparency.  You can’t help but come to Jesus, just as you are…but that is ok when you approach a God as forgiving as Christ.  You admit your sin before his holy throne, both the sins you know you’ve done, and also the sins you aren’t even aware of having done.  Upon his cross, the entire sins of the world have been transferred.  That includes all of yours.  And just before he died, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”  There is no such thing as a sin that God doesn’t know about.  There is no such thing as a sin that God hasn’t paid for in full.      

Do you see what that means?  You can go through life as bold as a lion!  You can have confidence that you will stand in God’s holy presence, and not cower.  You can be sure that right now, this very minute, God does not condemn you for any of your sins.  Instead, you are declared righteous, which means PERFECT.  Confident in Christ’s forgiveness, you can be brave enough to admit your mistakes, to repent of your sins, to be thankful for God’s help.  You can have a powerful purpose in life, to live for Jesus, who has lived and died for you.

Don’t waste your remaining years sweating to hide your sin from God.  Isn’t that like spitting into the wind?  Instead, live in transparent Christian boldness that only forgiveness in Christ could offer.
 

Prayer:  Gracious Savior, in my sinfulness, my thinking gets warped and I sometimes try to hide from you.  I know that I deserve nothing but wrath from your hand, and that makes me desire to hide my sin, even though I know that it’s impossible to hide from you.  Yet, your obedient Son Jesus Christ covers me with his perfect life of love.  He has restored me to live under your care.  He has given me peace that lasts forever.  He has assured me that Judgment Day will be a wonderful day, something I can really look forward to, as the day when you take me home to heaven!  Until I get there, keep me from sinful paranoia.  Prevent me from struggling to repent.  Give me a peaceful, forgiven heart that is bold as a lion, that I might serve you with all my heart.   Amen.