Sin separates us from God. People who look into Christianity often times are turned off by the thought of having to follow a laundry list of rules. Many Christians feel the same way and, as a result, pick and choose the commandments of God they wish to follow. Not surprisingly, the commands they chose to follow fit in nicely with the desires of their lives.

Because of this view of Christianity as simply a set of rules one must live by, people often believe that, like other religions, Christianity promises an eternal reward for living a good life. This is not only an inaccurate view but for those professing to be Christians, it is an incorrect basis for their faith.

The Bible says that no one can earn their salvation. In Ephesians 2:8-9, the Bible says:

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

So, why then, is there such a focus on following God’s commands? There are certainly many reasons: First and foremost, because God commands us to. It is also something we should want to do in appreciation for God sending his son Jesus to pay the price for our sins.

Jesus also tells us in Matthew 5:6:

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Another very important reason we should always strive to follow God’s commands is because our sins separate us from God. What does this mean? God loves us and will always love us but he does not love our sins. Just like a good parent, God our Father will never reward us for our bad behavior. Tolerating or excusing our sins would not change our behavior. We would have no motivation to stop doing sinful things.

So, does this mean that God is out to spoil our fun? That he wants us to live an unpleasant life? Well, it depends on what we consider fun. Just as a parent warns their child not to touch a hot stove, God also knows that the temptations of this world are bad for us and will result in our harm. A good parent warns their child not to touch the hot stove; not because the parent is trying to spoil the child’s fun, but because the parent wants to prevent the child from being harmed.

If we examine the sinful things we do (because we believe they are pleasurable or because the world tells us we should be enjoying these things) we find that the results, in the end, are not good for us at all. Many of the things we do for ‘fun’ can lead to destructive behavior: addictions, greed, materialism, anger, jealousy, disease, physical harm, and destroyed relationships with those we care about.

The Bible tells us in I John 2:16:

For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.

The desires of the world are in direct opposition to the things of God. When we indulge in these things we are indulging in the things that put us and God in conflict. If Hell is the complete separation of people from God, then indulging in the sins of this world (and by doing so, separating ourselves from God) while not as bad as Hell, produces many of the same results. We feel lost, abandoned, alone in a world and in a life that seem too much to bear. But because of our refusal to abandon our sins, we perpetuate this horrible condition; sometimes for our entire life.

And this is exactly the way the Devil would have it. He wants us separated from God. He wants us to be so attached to our sin that we could never imagine being without it, even if that means eternal separation from God after we die. This is why the temptations of the world are so strong. This is why it is dangerous to even venture down the path of sin. We sometimes commit, what we believe to be, small sins because they don’t seem so bad. But as we get comfortable with sin, we find ourselves piling one sin on top of another.

We justify our bad behavior by claiming that ‘everyone does it’. We convince ourselves that we are tolerant or sophisticated because we embrace the things of this world. We compare ourselves to others we deem worse sinners than ourselves. We surround ourselves with friends who commit the same sins. This allows us to avoid judgement. If everyone we know is committing the same sins that we are; who is there to judge us? Our friends would be hypocrites.

Jesus explains this to us in John 3:19-20:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, unless his deeds should be exposed.

This is why we react the way we do when people point out our sins. We are offended. We get defensive. We accuse others of committing these same sins If everyone we knew was a thief, would that make stealing acceptable? To hear us defend ourselves, you’d think we thought that way.

Is this to say that Christians do not sin? Of course not. The big difference is that Christians, if they are truly following God’s will, do not try to justify their sins or explain them away. A true Christian admits their sins and asks God for forgiveness. Our sins cannot be forgiven if we are not truly sorry for them. If we are truly sorry for our sins we will ask God for his help to keep us from sinning; to turn away from temptation and avoid tempting situations in general.

When we turn away from sin, something amazing happens. All the good things that God wants for us start to fill our lives. The desires of our hearts change. The things we used to want and the things we once thought were important, fall by the wayside. The dangers that God wants to keep us from, get easier to avoid. The personal failings and weaknesses become part of a life we find hard to remember. We feel a deep closeness to God. We feel God drawing us closer. The envy, the greed, the anger, the resentment, the addictions, the strife, the anxiety all start to dissipate. And while the trials of life do not completely vanish, the bad situations we used to put ourselves in are avoided. And when we do face trials, we turn to God more readily and with more confidence that he will guide us through. We can feel God near us. We can feel his peace and his joy in our hearts.

We can look back at the life of sin that we so strongly defended and wonder how we could have ever desired such a thing. Rather than seeing God’s commands as a set of oppressive rules that weigh us down, we can see God’s will as a comfort and a guide for us. Something that we desire. The things of the world become foreign to us. Their attraction disappears and we see them as loathsome things that deeply contradict what we feel in our new hearts.

2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.