The BIG Sin
Psalm 51
To him that excelleth.
A Psalm of David,
when the Prophet Nathan came unto him, after he had gone into Bath-sheba.
Psalms 51:1 GNV
SIN… when we say this word it conjours up all sorts of thoughts or even none at all just drawing a blank. The word simply meaning missing the mark is a common understanding. If anyone has any background in anything related to a knowledge of the Bible and God has an idea that God doesn't like sin or sinning or something like that. So what is sin and how does it affect us, affect our relationship with God?
Missing the mark, what mark, what does it mean? An often quoted verse is
For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and are deprived of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23 GNV
All have missed the mark and are deprived of God's glory. It's not just missing the mark, but having missed the mark (of God's holiness) we are deprived of the glory of the Creator who knows what makes us happiest, to be with Him, to be like Him.
Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law.
1 John 3:4 GNV
The basic level of understanding I tell my grandchildren, sin is transgressing God's law, going over, under, around God's law. Breaking it down for adults, sin is practicing lawlessness against the laws of God which laws reflect His holiness. Some may go immediately right to the Ten Commandments, yet when asked what is the greatest commandment Jesus didn't say, Thou shalt have no other God before me. No, what He answered was (not listed in the Ten Commandments at all),
Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and the great commandment. And the second is like unto this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. On these two commandements hangeth the whole Law, and the Prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40 GNV
This brings up the need to understand why sin, missing the mark of God's holiness is so offensive. Even as a believer with the Holy Spirit of God within me I have known since first coming to the Lord as a youth the struggle to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and mind is a constant battle I feel like I loose more than it is accomplished. This is seen in the life of Isaiah.
In the year of the death of King Uzziah, I saw also the Lord sitting upon an high throne, and lifted up, and the lower parts thereof filled the Temple. The Seraphims stood upon it: every one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole world is full of his glory. And the lintels of the door posts moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me: for I am undone, because I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lips: for mine eyes have seen the King and Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 6:1 - 5 GNV
Isaiah saw the Lord in all of His great holiness. We may not always see this or grasp this very real truth of what and how Isaiah saw the Lord in His holiness, but the fact is:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death went over all men: in who all men have sinned.
Romans 5:12 GNV
That the Lord God is holy changes not. That all men are sinners changes not whether or not we see as Isaiah did the unchanging holy God. As to Psalm 51 Jesus would not have prayed that for Himself, but His heart would be that every sinner, every man would pray it for theirselves.
You might say wait a minute. Your title for this meditation is "The BIG Sin". So which sin is it? After all this Psalm was written by a king who had a subject, a woman, another man's wife brought to him and made her have sex with him. Is that the BIG sin. We are told:
For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet faileth in one point, he is guilty of all.
James 2:10 GNV
Adam was given many things to do and he did them. There was one thing he was given not to do... and at some point in time he did that too. And as we read earlier that because he did that that death went over all men, in who (in Adam) all have sinned. Adam had one point. The Law has many points. But even if we look only at what Jesus said, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and second to love our neighbor as ourself, if we only have those two as our law, if we miss the mark in either of those we miss the mark, we offend in one point, so any of what we see as God's laws reflecting who He is in all His holiness, we are just as guilty of breaking everyone of the laws, which one matters not. And so what Jesus desires that every word of Psalm 51 reflects the heart of each man repenting of their sin for offending Gods great holiness.