Does God Deal With Us According to Our Sins?

A question that comes up from time to time has to do with whether or not God relates to us based upon our sins.  Do our actions cause God to judge us, think less of us, or even punish us?  Does God measure out a portion of wrath or punishment on us when our behavior doesn't hold up to a certain standard?

The good news is that while there was a sin problem in the world, from the time of Adam, God dealt with the sin problem once and for all.  And He didn't just "cover" our sins for a year at a time, as was the case with the Old Covenant animal sacrifices.  God did much more than that, and the fullness of what God did should not be taken lightly!

Far greater than merely covering our sins, God took them away!  "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."  Also not to be taken lightly is that "(God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  Jesus became sin and we became the righteousness of God!  The problem of sin between us and God has been taken care of forever.

Our heavenly Father is not dealing with us or relating to us based upon our sins.  Think again about how God, in His great wisdom and grace, dealt with our sins in the first place.  Did He deal directly with us and punish us for our sins?  No, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, and He made us righteous!  There is no way we would ever have been able to bear the weight and burden of our sins, so Christ Himself bore the weight and burden of our sins.  And He did it once and for all... not multiple times.  Once was completely sufficient for all our sins.

If God was dealing with us and relating to us based upon our individual sins today, again I must say that there is no way we would ever be able to bear the weight and burden of it all.  If our individual sins still needed to be dealt with by God today, Christ would have to come as a man and go upon the cross time and time again!

But He did it once, and it was sufficient for all time.  God isn't relating to you based upon your sins.  He has freed you from sin and has made you righteous - as a gift!  There is nothing you can do to earn this righteousness and there is nothing you can do to maintain it.  It's only received as a gift.

Do we mess up sometimes, and do things that are contrary to godliness and righteousness?  Sure we do.  But God isn't dealing with us as slaves of sin.  He is dealing with us as righteous sons, and He lovingly teaches and disciplines us.  This is quite different from judgment and punishment, and this is absolutely nothing compared to how He once and for all dealt with our sins through the finished work of Christ!

We can rest assured that our sins have been dealt with and that we have a loving Father who relates to us according to our sonship and not according to our sins!

Free book download through Friday night

I wanted to let everyone know that Andrew Farley's new book Heaven Is Now has been made available as a FREE download through Friday night.  It's available for the Nook and the Kindle.  If you don't have a Kindle, you can download it and read it on your computer with Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac.

The Nook (Barnes & Noble) link is here.
The Kindle (Amazon) link is here.

I recommend this book very highly!  This is Andrew's third book, following The Naked Gospel and God Without Religion.  I had a three part interview with Andrew a few years ago.  You can find it here.