What makes sin sinful?
This may seem to be an odd question but, in truth, it is one of the most important questions that we could and should ever seek to answer. Too often we seek to gauge whether something is sinful based on our perception of right and wrong but, as we have seen with David, he naturally leaned towards a favorable assessment of himself. If we are honest, we tend to view our actions in the same way. The continual experience of the love of God for us is His design and purpose. Yet, the distance we often feel from this love is nearly always rooted in a wrong assessment of our sin. David would come to know what the prophet Isaiah meant when he wrote,
"Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear (Isaiah 59:1–2 ESV).
What makes sin sinful?
Sin Is An Offense to and Against the Glory of God
When David was exposed by Nathan he came to realize that he stood in direct opposition, not to Uriah or Bathsheba, but to the Lord Himself. What David did was indeed against man, but what made David tremble was the new found realization that the Lord he claimed to love and serve he had now offended. Yes, his actions were wrong but what David came to realize was that his heart had departed from the Lord such that he could engage in activities that were deserving of the wrath of God. What makes sin sinful is not merely the actions or even the thinking of man but, first and primarily, the reality of God.
Repentance is born out of the recognition that sin is the actual opposite of the Lord and that it stands opposed to His glory. If the assessment of my sin is whether or not it is or more evil than other's I will always reason my way to a false positive: it looked bad at first, but when measured up against the actions of others, it turned out to be not as bad. The sinfulness of sin is only truly seen when measured up against the holiness of God which will expose the best of individuals as the most wretched outside of Christ.
One need only remember Isaiah's experience when he saw the Lord: "... 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts' ”(Isaiah 6:5 ESV). When Isaiah, no doubt one of the godliest men of his day, saw the Lord he saw himself and did not like what he saw. He could not cover what he saw nor could he explain away what he saw. He came to see that he was just like the others whose lifestyles were radically ungodly which led to his words above - his repentance - which led to the purifying cleansing in Isaiah 6:6-7.
The sinfulness of sin is that is challenges the holiness of God for supremacy. All of our sin is not only our desire to play God but our insanity to think that we can contend with the Lord for what is honorable and acceptable. David's sin, ours too, is cosmic treason; rebellion at the highest level and rebellion against the Creator of all things. The victory is and will always be decisively the Lord's which we see in the death of Christ is conquering sin - its power and penalty. Thus, when we sin we are doing something that Jesus has crushed and, therefore, living in and choosing death.
Sin Is An Offense Before the Lord
What did you do last night? What did you do this morning? What did you just finish doing? God saw it all. Alone or with others, the Lord sees the whole of our actions and each action is played out before the Lord as motion picture. David thought that the scene on the roof with Bathsheba was between he and Bathsheba. He thought that his conspiracy against Uriah was between he and the hit men. Nathan's words to David in 2 Samuel 11 proved that there is always one more set of eyes on our lives: the Lord's. That David came to know this is understood by his words in the second part of verse 4:
"Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,... (Psalm 51:4 ESV).
Everything that David did played out before the eyes of the Lord. His sexual immorality - every sexualized words, sensual movement, every drop of sweat, caress of the body, kiss of passion, etc, - the Lord saw it all! In the moment David only saw Bathsheba but now, replaying the event in his mind, He sees the Lord in the corner watching his son, the man He made king of His people, act like a common man untouched and unloved by the Lord.
We are never alone and, therefore, we never "get away: with anything. We only feel this way if we think the eyes of man are the most important eyes. We can hide from those behind closed doors and through actions of deception but the eyes of the Lord - those are penetratingly present from the One who is Omnipresent. It is a joy to know that He sees us when others reject us, but we cannot divide God and think He does not see us when we are rejecting Him. David thought this and, when we see in similar ways, we think the same. But He sees and He sees deeply:
Proverbs 15:3 - "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the
good."
Hebrews 4:13 - "And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the
eyes of him to whom we must give account."
Yet, seeing it all, the Lord graciously grants us the gift of repentance. David, knowing what he now knows, runs with all of his might of soul to the throne of the living God for pardon. So should we. When we sin and act as if this life is ours to govern, live and determine its destiny we are giving God the proverbial hand, as if we can block His move and cover His eyes. Like David we should know that the Lord has made a provision for our sin in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who trust Christ as such are those who can come before a different throne a throne of grace, not wrath. Let these words of the Hebrew writer both remind and compel you of the beauty of gospel repentance:
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16 ESV).