Sin In the Bible: The High Price We Pay

 “The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst Deuteronomy 17: 7.

This passage is alluding to the judgment that would befall an ancient Israelite who had transgressed the covenant of God by serving other gods or anything other than the one true God. A few verses down further direction is given for the person who disregards the ruling of a priest or judge: he too shall die.

To read the entire passage for context, click here.

The Old Testament talks about purging sin from the community by killing people guilty of it. Jesus talks about purging sin by destroying parts of our own body.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” Mathew 5: 29, 30.

Jesus clearly did not condone the idea that sin doesn’t matter because we are saved by grace. He admonished us to deal with it in the strongest possible terms.

Sin Is Like a Cancer

Sin in the Bible is viewed much differently than how we view it today. It is like a cancer. If decisive action is not taken to remove it, it will spread and destroy the body, whether literal or figurative.

I think this is because in the Old Testament God dwelled among His people as a body. But in the New Testament, God dwells among us corporately, but we are also individually temples of the Holy Spirit.

We are to cleanse evil from the corporate body by putting evil people out of the church (1 Corinthians 5: 9-13). When the Old Testament talks about God being with certain people, it’s significant because generally, He was with them as a body, but not individually.

The temple of God- God’s dwelling place- must be free from sin. Since, in the Old Testament, God dwelled with the entire nation of Israel, sinful people were removed by putting them to death. There was probably no other recourse since they would have no place to go outside of the community.

The Connection Between Sin in the Bible and God’s Temple

In the New Testament, we are both corporate (1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17) and individual (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20) temples of the Holy Spirit. Evil is removed from the corporate body by expulsion of the offender from the church. This is possible since another community exists outside the church.

Evil is purged from individuals by destroying the offending body parts (See Mathew 5: 29, 30 above). This is not to be taken literal but is a metaphor.

The idea is, we must be willing to do whatever it takes, at any cost to cleanse ourselves of sin. We must adopt the attitude that there is nothing so valuable or precious-even a right hand or eye- that should be spared if it has become an instrument of sin.

God’s Temple Must be Free of Sin

As our verse plainly states: “you shall purge the evil from your midst” Deuteronomy 17: 7. The temple of God must be free of sin. Either it leaves or He does. He will not dwell with impurity and uncleanness.

Now this, of course, refers to sin we are aware and conscious of. And not to sin we have not yet become aware of.

The presence of God is the one and only source of all blessing and abundance and glory. And sin will rob us of it if we don’t deal ruthlessly with it and purge it from our midst at any cost. Either sin leaves, or the source of all blessing and life leaves. This is our choice.

The greatest blessing and good any of us can ever have is the presence of God in our midst. And the greatest hindrance to that presence in sin. This is why so much emphasis is put on purging sin and stopping at nothing to do so.

So, if we don’t have the presence of God, we have nothing. No blessing, no abundance, no life. And sin will grieve the Spirit of God and cause Him to leave (Ephesians 4: 25-30). Our number one priority must be to have and keep the presence of God in our midst.

With this in mind then, our dual priority must be to keep ourselves from sin. Just as you cannot have light and darkness in the same room, you cannot have God and sin in the same temple. There is absolutely a price to pay for the presence of God. That price is to be and remain free of sin.

Sin In the Bible and The Price of the Presence of God

This is a “price” because sin comes easily and naturally to all of us. It is represented by the broad path that is spacious (Mathew 7: 13, 14). There is no affliction, or trouble of the suffering of tribulation on this path (at first). You will know you’ve chosen the narrow path, because you will experience these.

It’s a “price” because saying no to sin involves death to self. Sin is always an effort to meet our needs independently of God. Saying no to sin then involves having unmet needs and having to trust and wait for God to meet them. First with a promise, and eventually physical provision.

If having unmet needs is death to self, you could also say it’s essentially losing our life in a figurative sense. We cannot have the presence of God and the presence of sin in our lives. And saying no to sin involves death. So, in order to have life, we must die. And in order to have to Spirit of God we must renounce all sin.

So, how do you actually overcome sin? This is one way the Lord helped me. To read another post related to Sin in the Bible: The High Price We Pay, see The Test of Your Faith that will Drive Out Your Demons.