Sin Separates Us from God

The person who believes in God wants always to enjoy his fellowship, yet the consequences of sin is separation from God. Listen to Isaiah: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). The consequences of sin is that it causes us to be separated from God. A person is lost because of his sin. Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Death means separation, so the sinner is separated from God. This is true whether or not you have once become a Christian.

There are some human creeds that tell us that you or I cannot fall from grace once we have become a Christian. This can’t be so because Paul says in Galatians 5:4: “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” The apostle Peter writes: “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:20-21). Paul also states in Romans 11:22: “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” We can learn from these and many other scriptures that even the Christian may be cut off from the fellowship of God by not continuing to live in obedience to Him. Revelation 2:10 says we must be “faithful until death.” The terrible consequences of sin is that it causes God to withdraw himself from His children. God does not desire it, but justice demands it, and God cannot deny Himself. If one does not repent of their sin, and live faithfully, then separation from God will be the consequence of that.

Sin Causes an Eternal Separation from God

Hell is eternal separation. Sin separated a man from God here on this earth, but it will also cause him to be eternally separated in the next life. Can you fathom eternity? I cannot. To be in Hell for even a short time would be bad; to be in hell eternally, forever separated from God, is much worse. But that’s what sin will do. After the death in this life a man in Hades, in the place of torment, begged Abraham to have Lazarus to cool his tongue with some water, for he was in torment in the flames. But it was impossible, for the Bible says: “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us” (Luke 16:26). To avoid hell, man must take advantage of the death of Christ in obeying the gospel. The Roman brethren did this, and Paul said they were baptized into Jesus’ death (Romans 6:4). As long as one remains in sin, then there is no hope of gaining an eternal home with Jesus in heaven when we take our last breath on this earth. We must live for Jesus daily now, so that we can live with Him eternally.