Consequences

I remember from my growing up days a television game show called "Truth or Consequences."  As I recall, if you got the question right, there were no consequences to pay, but if wrong, then the game show player had to do the consequence part of the game.  The truth is that even the truth has its consequences.  Even doing something right results in some consequences.  No action taken stands absolutely alone.  If a stone is thrown in a lake, the water will ripple in every direction. 

So it is in life.  Nothing we do, good or bad, is empty of some other resulting action.  Certainly, this is true of the things we do which the sacred Word would label as sins.   Every sin has some specific consequence.  There are no exceptions.   If we speak a harsh or unkind word, we can never predict the harm it might cause another person and once that word is thrown out there for ears to hear, it cannot be called back not to be heard.  The Word tells us that when we choose disobedience to God, the result is separation from God.  The inevitable consequence of sin is separation from the holy God who loves us. 

 

It is not a consequence which brings pleasure to God.  Instead, He has through the person of Jesus Christ set in motion a way of delivering us from the consequences of our sin.  It is impossible for us to deliver ourselves once we choose to separate ourselves from God through sin.  However, when Jesus died on the cross, He mysteriously took upon Himself the consequences we should be paying for our sin.  God has a plan for handling our sin in a way that is just and right.  He does not take sin lightly.  He does not pretend it has not happened.  But, neither does He leave us without any hope of deliverance.  His plan and our hope is Jesus.