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DECEMBER: The Victory of Faith

December 28

WHO DO WE SIN AGAINST?

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.
Psalm 51:4

Step number three when a man comes under conviction is that he realizes and confesses that all this is done against God and before God. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.”

“Surely,” says someone, “that must be wrong. David ought to have said, ‘Against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against men who were killed in that battle, against Israel and my people have I sinned.’ But he says, ‘Against thee, thee only….’” Ah, David is quite right! He does not deny that he has sinned against the others, but here he is going a step further. He realizes that his actions are not simply actions in and of themselves. He sees that they not only affect and involve other people, but their real essence is that he has sinned against God.

Now that is the essential difference between remorse and repentance. A man who suffers remorse is one who realizes he has done wrong, but he has not repented until he realizes that he has sinned against God.

Why should he feel that? Let me try to answer the question in the following manner. Sin, you see, means a violation of what God has made and of what God intended man to be. Let me put it, in a preliminary fashion, in this form: When a man sins, he is not only doing certain things himself that he should not do; he is sinning against human nature, he is letting it down. He is sinning, therefore, against humanity, and because of that he is sinning against God who made man. God made man perfect, and God intended man to live that perfect life. He gave him the possibility of doing so, and when a man sins he lets God down. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” I have violated what God intended man to be. I am twisting and perverting God’s creation. Every time I sin, I violate God’s holy law.

A Thought to Ponder
I have violated what God intended man to be.

From Out of the Depths, pp. 28-29.




Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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