Iniquity, This Is Serious

 August 21
 Daily Reading – Psa. 86-89 / Rom. 14

GOD SAID:

Psalm 89:31-33 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD:

      How serious is iniquity. First we need to know, what is iniquity. The Strong’s Greek and Hebrew Dictionary says it’s; “perversity, i.e. (moral) evil :- fault, mischief, sin.” How serious is this? Well, what’s the penalty. For example, a parking ticket costs a few dollars. Assault gets you put in jail with a bigger fine. Sin however carries a death sentence. Rom. 6:23 says; “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The gift of eternal life is only available because someone paid the death penalty for us. Iniquity cost Jesus his life and God His Son. In our passage today God says He will visit iniquity with a rod and stripes. For the believer in Christ today, that means our death penalty has been paid, but sin is still serious. It severs fellowship with God. Psa. 66:18 says; “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” How serious is our Iniquity… Very Serious.

      This should also tell us just how great God’s lovingkindness is. So great that even though we have committed this serious crime against Him, He does not take His love utterly from us. Could you imagine a mother in a store with her child and the child misbehaves, so she abandon him there. No, she will scold and reprimand, but never abandons the child. Our loving God also chastens His own children, but He does not abandon them, nor leave them forsaken.

GETTING GOD’S WORD INTO ME:

    I’m so glad that the promises and mercy of God are not based upon my ability to be perfect. The bible says His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness, is not conditioned by my faults. Like the song says, “He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.”

How will you thank Him?

     

Living In His Word Ministries
    “Getting people into the Word of God…
                               … and the Word of God into people.”

Dr. Franklin J. Senters Th.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Hebrews 2:12