Lies We Believe #11: No One Will Ever Know
“For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” —Ecclesiastes 12:14
In our world today, it is almost impossible to escape detection. If we go to the grocery store, we are being videotaped. The same is true at the gas station, or the video store, or the drug store, or almost anywhere else we go. And if we somehow manage to escape the Big Brother-like gaze of cameras at the stores we frequent, we usually do not escape the detection of the cell phone. We are a media saturated culture that is connected 24/7, seeing others and being seen on a daily and, sometimes, hourly basis. It is no small wonder then that there are still some who believe that their sin will never be found out. One need simply look at the news of athletes and businessmen who started off believing that no one would ever know what they were doing, until the time comes when their acts of fraud, adultery, and outright lies were quickly revealed. Despite all of the technology that we encounter and use on a daily basis, some still believe that they will be able to sin and somehow escape detection. But that, like so many other beliefs, is a grand lie. God knows. He knows the secrets of our heart. We can’t hide from Him; our motives, thoughts, and sins are exposed in His presence. God will make all our sins known—either in this life or they will be exposed at His awesome and, for many, terrifying throne of judgment. All of it will be exposed; there is not one act that will escape His detection.
Do not believe that no one will know about the act you do. Someone knows. And even then, God is not silent and He will not allow sin to go undetected. For the believer this means that He will make His Holy Spirit bring such conviction of soul that strength will be lost and life itself will lose its joy. As David wrote when undergoing conviction for sin, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”—Psalm 32:3-4.
Conviction precedes confession and confession precedes restoration. Conviction, if left unheeded, leads to alienation, whereby the believer who has sinned removes himself or herself from hearing the Word of God preached, the people of God in fellowship, and the work of God going on all around. God will judge each and every sin, but we, as believers in Christ, have already, by faith, entered into the finished work of Christ. When we experience conviction, we thank God for it, because we are experiencing the loving hand of God prompting us to confess so that we might be restored to fellowship and experience the joy of God once more. Whenever we rebel against the hand of our maker, we are failing to live our life in the light of His sacrifice and His finished work. To live as a beneficiary of the finished work of Christ, we must do so by faith, and must come to the Savior when under conviction to ask for forgiveness. Failure to do so brings into question the reality of one’s salvation. Either we have our sins judged in Christ by faith in His finished work on the cross, or we hold onto our sins to have them judged at the end of time. If our sins were judged in Christ and we are participants in His crucifixion by faith, then we are to welcome conviction, because that leads to confession, and freedom in life. If we do not, we run the risk of hardening our heart to the Spirit of God, revealing our true nature as being unredeemed, and us as being still under God’s condemnation.
May we never forget that God will judge each and every sin, but for those who are in Christ, our sins have already been judged, and we must live our life in the knowledge of that fact—by welcoming conviction and practicing confession and then embracing God’s restoration. Amen.
In our world today, it is almost impossible to escape detection. If we go to the grocery store, we are being videotaped. The same is true at the gas station, or the video store, or the drug store, or almost anywhere else we go. And if we somehow manage to escape the Big Brother-like gaze of cameras at the stores we frequent, we usually do not escape the detection of the cell phone. We are a media saturated culture that is connected 24/7, seeing others and being seen on a daily and, sometimes, hourly basis. It is no small wonder then that there are still some who believe that their sin will never be found out. One need simply look at the news of athletes and businessmen who started off believing that no one would ever know what they were doing, until the time comes when their acts of fraud, adultery, and outright lies were quickly revealed. Despite all of the technology that we encounter and use on a daily basis, some still believe that they will be able to sin and somehow escape detection. But that, like so many other beliefs, is a grand lie. God knows. He knows the secrets of our heart. We can’t hide from Him; our motives, thoughts, and sins are exposed in His presence. God will make all our sins known—either in this life or they will be exposed at His awesome and, for many, terrifying throne of judgment. All of it will be exposed; there is not one act that will escape His detection.
Do not believe that no one will know about the act you do. Someone knows. And even then, God is not silent and He will not allow sin to go undetected. For the believer this means that He will make His Holy Spirit bring such conviction of soul that strength will be lost and life itself will lose its joy. As David wrote when undergoing conviction for sin, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”—Psalm 32:3-4.
Conviction precedes confession and confession precedes restoration. Conviction, if left unheeded, leads to alienation, whereby the believer who has sinned removes himself or herself from hearing the Word of God preached, the people of God in fellowship, and the work of God going on all around. God will judge each and every sin, but we, as believers in Christ, have already, by faith, entered into the finished work of Christ. When we experience conviction, we thank God for it, because we are experiencing the loving hand of God prompting us to confess so that we might be restored to fellowship and experience the joy of God once more. Whenever we rebel against the hand of our maker, we are failing to live our life in the light of His sacrifice and His finished work. To live as a beneficiary of the finished work of Christ, we must do so by faith, and must come to the Savior when under conviction to ask for forgiveness. Failure to do so brings into question the reality of one’s salvation. Either we have our sins judged in Christ by faith in His finished work on the cross, or we hold onto our sins to have them judged at the end of time. If our sins were judged in Christ and we are participants in His crucifixion by faith, then we are to welcome conviction, because that leads to confession, and freedom in life. If we do not, we run the risk of hardening our heart to the Spirit of God, revealing our true nature as being unredeemed, and us as being still under God’s condemnation.
May we never forget that God will judge each and every sin, but for those who are in Christ, our sins have already been judged, and we must live our life in the knowledge of that fact—by welcoming conviction and practicing confession and then embracing God’s restoration. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment