The depth of the love of God.

Sin, the condition that separates us from a Holy God. Sin, the action of doing anything contrary to the commandments and will of God. Sin, the blatant disobedience to God which often looks good and quite frankly at times feels good. So much can be said about this powerful force that is in us. It all started in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed their God by believing the lie of the serpent. At that moment, there was a separation that shook the entire world, the entire creation order. Nothing was never the same again. The fellowship that God had with man was broken. For the first time, man had his “eyes opened” and felt what it was like to see the world without God, to experience the world without his Maker and yes, to fend for himself. So many new events occurred, and so many new experiences were shared but sadly far too many of them were horrible. The first murder, the first blame, pride, selfishness, and so many others. Moreover, from that separation with God came the curse to experience pain, suffering and hardships. Indeed, sin has not brought anything good into this world and the worst of it is its transferable attributes. For, from one man all have sinned. That is why you and I today are sinners. We take it from Adam, the first man through whom sin entered the world. Unfortunately, its power is still as vicious, cunning, deceiving, and evil as it was on that day in the garden of Eden. But thanks be to God who in his loving kindness provided a way for reconciliation with us. Thanks be to God who decided to restore what was broken, to bring beauty from ashes, to show forth His glory, power and might, to reveal that there is no name above His Name and that there is None like Him. Since we are so quick to either go about our day and not pay attention to sin and its effects on our lives or focus solely on its condemnation and the shame it brings, I thought it wise to provide us today with biblical examples of sin and its deceiving power to caution us and help us guard our lives better. Also, I want to remind us of the forgiveness from sin that is available to us and the depth of the love of God to sinners.

The first example of sin I would like to illustrate is none other than the sin of king David –the man after God’s own heart. My objective here is to highlight common traits of sin and really its deceptive power. Throughout 2 Samuel chapter eleven to twelve, you see attributes of sin at work in David’s actions. The way sin entered David’s life is very settle, harmless even. It all starts on a lovely evening walk on the roof of the palace but as the author of 2 Samuel points out, it was also a time when kings were not supposed to be in their kingdom, it was a time when kings were supposed to be in the war. This reminds me that there is a time and season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3), and every time and season should be used and enjoyed for the purpose it is meant for. That was not the case with David, unfortunately. He saw a beautiful woman bathing and he decided he was going to have her. He sent to inquire who the beautiful woman was, and he was told that she was a married woman, the wife of Uriah a soldier of his. Funny enough, that did not stop David from doing what he had already planned in his heart to do. So, he sent for her and basically slept with her because as a king, he could. What I would like to draw your attention to is the workings of sin. First, sin is selfish and always in a haste to act. There is never a time to think and ponder, it simply wants to do what it desires. Second, sin is unreasonable and deceptive. It is not here to show you reason or to make sense of what is happening. There is no rationale. Third, sin uses any means to accomplish what it sets its desire on and last, sin is blinding. It presents to you a reality that is false, a lie that you are quick to believe; It makes you oblivious to truth. That is exactly what happened to David; 1) he was in haste to have Uriah’s wife on his bed, 2) his actions were unreasonable especially after he was told this was not a single woman, 3) upon hearing from Uriah’s wife that she is pregnant, he decides to cover his mistake by bringing Uriah back home from war in the hopes that the latter would sleep with his wife. But, as God would have it, Uriah is a man of honour and of integrity and so refuses to have pleasure when it is a time of war. Interestingly, that is the very first thing David did not do which opened the door to sin in his life. Seeing, that Uriah would not compromise, David then sets up his murder by way of his commander in chief – Joab. David literally sends Uriah with his death sentence in hand. Think about that for a moment. 4) When David receives the news from Joab that Uriah has been killed as requested, he is probably at peace but as sin blinds you to the truth, he failed to see his mistake, the impact of his actions on others and forgot he had to reckon with God.

Another example of sin I would like to show is sadly from the same family and it is the sin of Amnon, the firstborn of king David. The effects of sin or the ways in which sin expresses itself in this story are quite intriguing and hard to read. We are told Amnon “fell in love” with his beautiful consanguineous sister, Tamar, became increasingly frustrated because she was a virgin and “it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her” (2 Samuel 13:4). This most probably means, Amnon and Tamar never saw each other or would not even have occasions to be together at least not in the way Amnon would have wanted. However, as it is with desires of the heart, when there is a will there is a way. In this story, the way came via an evil friend, Jonadab who, interestingly enough is Amnon’s cousin. One wonders what runs into that family. Jonadab, seeing his cousin so distressed instructs him on what to do to finally be with his sister. He tells him to pretend to be sick and request of the king to have his sister, Tamar come to his chambers and prepare him dinner before his eyes. The plan worked and the king granted him his request. The story does not get better unfortunately as Amnon rapes his sister after she pleads and begs him to not do such an evil act. What is even more surprising, and purely evil is the way Amnon treats his sister after having violated and humiliated her. The “love” he had for her turned to pure hatred. I hope you were able to identify the four attributes of sins drawn earlier. In Amnon’s sin we see he was in a haste to have his sister, he was unreasonable, he used any means to accomplish his desire including lying, he was purely selfish and blinded to the truth that his actions were evil and had effects on others.

After painting this truthful and vivid picture of sin and how it works, I believe it is equally important to show how deep the love of God is to extend forgiveness to sinners such as David and Amnon. God in his grace, in his beautiful character desires reconciliation. He does not want men to perish but to have life. From the first sin in the garden to the last sin on earth to be perpetrated, He has made a way for sinners to be free from the entanglement and power of sin. This has been done through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The powerful God of the universe became like his own creation, He became man, walked in the same shoes as man, experienced all that man can experience – the good, the bad, the ugly. Yet, in all this walk He did not sin in any way. Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God that was offered as sacrifice for the sins of the world. You see, a perfect God requires a perfect justice. God hates sin and will not have anything to do with it. God is also just and so punishes sin accordingly because sin has consequences and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). If God did not judge sin, He would fail to be a God of justice. But God is also love. He is compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. How then can a just God be also a loving God and have sinners reconciled to himself? The answer is in that sacrifice that Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God did on the cross. By dying on the cross, he took upon himself the punishment for sins that we deserved. Not only the punishment for our sins today but for all sins ever committed and ever to be committed and that for the entire world. As it says in Romans just as sin entered the world through one man, similarly through one man salvation is available the world (Romans 5). Not only did Jesus receive the punishment we deserved, but He also gave us his righteousness and thus ensuring we could be found holy before a perfect God. The gift of God – forgiveness – is now available to all who would believe. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was indeed, enough. It took a sinless man to endure excruciating pain and death to have us reconciled to God. Not only that, we are offered cleansing, and eternal life. Do you see how sinners like David and Amnon can be reconciled to God? Do you see how you can be reconciled to God? Do you see the depth of the love of God to sinners? I hope you do. The condition here is on receiving God’s forgiveness extended to us in Christ Jesus. In order to accept His forgiveness, one has to first repent of his sin. One must acknowledge what one has done, own up to one’s sin and humble one’s self before a Holy and Just God. God is ready to forgive your sins, He has already paid that price, your sin has already been atoned for but you must come to grip with it, you must confess it and make it plain. Psalm 32 tells us that a person that has been forgiven is blessed but to receive that forgiveness, one must not keep silent about his sin for that only brings judgment (Psalm 32:1-5). Friends, the only thing that keeps us away from the Love of God is our pride. God is ready to welcome us to Him and He has made a way for that to happen and it is beautiful. It does not matter the extent of your sin, nor its depth as demonstrated with the case of David. What matters is that you acknowledge it, own up to it and confess it to God. God was able to forgive David’s sin as horrible as it was because David repented, recognized his mistake, acknowledged his error, and confessed it to God. In the same way, God was also ready to forgive Amnon’s sin should he had repented but that did not happen, therefore only condemnation was lying on Amnon’s head.

I know it is hard to understand how God can forgive any sin no matter their severity or their evilness, but He does. He only asks that we acknowledge our fault, confess it to Him, and believe upon the sacrifice of his Son Jesus which transfers us the righteousness we do not deserve. This is a marvelous truth, one that we will probably fully grasp only in heaven but in the meantime, let us trust in it and believe it.