While it is true that before we come to Christ, it’s our sin that has separated us from God, and if we don’t accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we will be eternally damned, I believe, we need to realize that first and foremost sin is an affront to our holy God. Are you more upset that when you sin you lose out on many of the blessings of God or are you more concerned that your sin grieves Jesus. Charles Spurgeon helps us understand that the proper attitude towards sin is that it grieves the Lord when he said: “This day, my God, I hate sin not because it damns me, but because it has done Thee wrong. To have grieved my God is the worst grief to me.”1
Joseph, in the Old Testament, had a similar reaction to sin when he was asked to have sex by Potiphar’s wife. (Genesis 39:8-9) tells us: “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’” As much as it may have brought Joseph pleasure to have sex with Potiphar’s wife, he knew that it would be a great reproach against His God. As a result, this desire to not want to ever do anything displeasing to his God was a far stronger motivator to not sin, than the pleasure that having sex could have given him.
To me one of the greatest reasons we should be constantly in the Scriptures, besides learning what God’s will for our life is, can be found in (Psalm 119:11) where we read: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” The more we read our Bible the more we will learn what pleases and displeases God, and how to avoid sinning.
My friends, the more time we spend in the presence of Jesus, the more we will fall in love with Him. And the more we kindle our love affair with Christ, the more we will want to do everything in our power to glorify Him and avoid bringing any reproach to His name by sinning.
Finally, if I can offer my threefold prescription to avoid sinning it would be to fall more in love with Jesus, to hold Him in reverential holy awe, as He deserves, and to hide the Word of God in our hearts. And these three actions, I believe, when combined, offer us the greatest antidote against sin.
1 Charles Spurgeon Quotes About Sin | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)