Sin is Loss

What a statement!  I heard John Piper say this in a sermon this week and it stunned me.  If we really believed this how much easier it would be to say no to sin!  The really great thing about this is that IT IS TRUE!!!

The more I study the realities of Sin and Righteousness the more I believe with ALL my heart that the HEIGHT of righteousness is a life lived form a place of total and complete delight in God and in God alone.  My definition of Holiness is endless exclusive delight in God.  My definition of Sin then is delighting in anything but God!  That is a pretty radical statement I know.  We all delight in many good things that are not directly God.  My contention there is that we delight in God THROUGH the things He gives, in a way that increases our delight in Him and thereby glorifies Him.  I love my family because Jesus gave them to me and I love Jesus more because of the delight I find in my family.  That is delight that draws me closer to Jesus and Glorifies Jesus all at the same time.  However when we choose something else IN THE PLACE of God we are sinning.  When we choose the fruit of the knowledge of Good and evil over fellowship with God we sin.  When we choose the broken cisterns that cannot hold water over the ever-flowing fountain we are sinning and in both cases we are loosing that which is of INFINATE worth to gain something fleeting and worthless.

Everything that we choose in the place of God STEALS from us, but when we choose God He gives TO US endlessly.

When we see sin and righteousness in this way sin looks really foolish!  Sin IS loss.

The problem of course is that Satan is REALLY good at making Sin look like gain.  They ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil because they thought they could be like God.  We choose sin because we want pleasure, security, power whatever it is and for a time we may actually get what we are after, but eventually we will lose.  Pleasure goes away, security falls apart, and power fails every single time.

 

Oh GOD Make this real in my heart – Sin IS Loss.  Only YOU are gain!!!