July - 5
THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM
Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you . . . . Isaiah 59:2
This verse from Isaiah clarifies for me what sin does to my relationship with God.
Many people have wondered about Adam and Eve’s sin. The incredibly heavy punishment not only sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, but also brought death into their lives. Worst of all, their sin separated them from God. They could no longer walk and talk with God the way they had.
Let’s use an analogy about blood to try to grasp what this means. If I carried a hepatitis virus, my blood would no longer be “clean.” That would not only be bad for me; it also would mean that if my blood were mixed with clean blood, that blood would become tainted as well. If my blood were used in a transfusion, it would put the recipient at risk. The tainted nature would pass from one person to another.
In the Bible, God makes a similar analogy with respect to holiness. The reality of sin taints our holiness in such a way that we can’t “mix” with a holy God anymore—not unless our “unholiness”—gets cleaned.
That’s why Isaiah’s words are so important. Sin is not just about doing bad things; it gets in the way of “mixing” with God because it taints our relationship with God. Human sin is at the heart of all of life’s problems. We need to think about that.
PRAYER
Dear God, at times I can be too accepting of my sin: I’m okay with it, and others seem okay with me. Please help me to reflect on and understand how it affects you. Amen.
以赛亚书这节经文清楚交代，罪恶如何影响我与神的关系。
很多人不明白亚当和夏娃犯罪的后果，极其严厉的惩罚不但把亚当和夏娃逐出乐园，死亡更因此临到他们的生命；而最严重的，就是他们的罪使他们与神隔绝，他们不能像以往那样再与神一起漫步和谈心了。
让我们用血液作例子来尝试明白这件事吧。假若我身上带有肝炎病毒，我的血液已不再是「清洁」的了，这些血液不但对我身体不好，假若它和清洁的血液混在一起，那些血液也会被污染了；假若我的血液被用来输血，它便会危害接受血液的人；病毒污染会从一个人传至另一个人的。
在圣经中，神也用类似的比喻来解释圣洁；罪玷污了我们的圣洁，除非我们的「污秽」被洗干净，不然我们便不能再与圣洁的神「来往」了。
以赛亚的话如此重要，就是这个原因。罪不单是做坏事，罪更妨碍我们与神「来往」，因为它玷污了我们与神的关系。世人的罪恶是生命一切问题的症结，我们需要仔细思想这件事。
祷告
亲爱的神，有时我太宽容自己的罪了，我认为没有大碍，而别人也接受我。求祢帮助我，去反省和明白我的罪如何影响祢。阿们。