Why is Sin So Weighty? |The Whole Counsel

The Logic of Blame and the Weight of Obligation

He says there's this unavoidable logic we could say, and that is, you don't feel that you yourself are blameworthy for your behavior if you're not aware of the obligations that you're failing to meet.

That makes sense. If you don't see a no trespass sign, you don't know that you crossed a barrier. If you don't know there's a rule in God's Word about a certain aspect of life, like marriage, kids, money, you know, free time, leisure thoughts, then you're not aware, perhaps, that you're actually breaking the law.

You don't know the obligation that God has laid out clearly. You don't know your guilt. But then another thing he says, but you won't feel the weight of that blame if you don't see that that obligation, that law, that no trespass sign, is right, is just, is fair, is perfect.

And so that really is very helpful because I think what we see is if men don't see the obligations that the lawgiver has placed in his Word, then they only feel what you mentioned, a vague sense of sinfulness.

Okay, none of us is perfect. But if they don't see how wonderfully perfect that law is, then the weight of their shame and guilt in ignoring that law is never felt. And sin is only viewed as something that is keeping you from reaching your potential.

Sin as Offense Against God Rather Than Mere Self-Improvement

So yes, once we see this, what you called, unvoidable logic, this obligation that is ours, and we begin to see how terrible sin is, then we do begin to see why it's so offensive to God. Bellamy states on page 68 how different a thing sin is from what an apostate rebellious world naturally imagines.

And you don't have to look very hard to see that in the world around us, or as you mentioned, even in our own selves at times. How do we tend to think about sin? I think generally we tend to think about sin as how it affects me more than anything else, more than how it affects my neighbor, though we might think about that sometimes.

And certainly more than how it affects God, but how does it affect me? Whether it be my reputation or my pleasure or whatever else. And if you only see sin that way, then David's statement in Psalm 51 has to sound really strange.

Against thee, or against you, and you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. How does that even make sense to a person who doesn't see things as God sees them? You think about David's sin, what he did.

He sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah, he sinned against the nation, his wives. How does that make sense? 2 Samuel 12 is a big help here. Nathan the prophet confronts David and he charges him with three things.

In verse 9 he asks, why have you despised the word of the Lord? And David had despised God's word. He knew God's commands. And in previous times he's loved God's commands, but now he willingly and gladly breaks God's commands.

In verses 10 and 11, Nathan tells him that he has despised God. God speaking through Nathan, you have despised me. Not just God's word, but God himself. And again, we can think of times where David obviously has walked with the Lord and enjoyed the communion with God, sweet fellowship with God.

But now he has gladly chosen sin over God and his own pleasure over God's righteousness. And then thirdly, in verses 13 and 14, Nathan points out that David has given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme God.

You can think about times in David's past when he has been zealous for God's reputation. When the nation of Israel was lined up against the Philistines and Goliath kept coming out. He was very zealous for God's reputation in front of this giant, Goliath.

But now he's forgotten all about God's reputation and is protecting his own reputation as he kills Uriah and tries to cover up his sin. And so in all of that he is declaring in a sense that he cares more for his gratification and his reputation than he does for God or for God's law or for God's honor or God's authority.

And whether we see our obligation to God or not, this is in fact what every sin amounts to. It is an offense against God. And what we're saying now is that when we learn to see that, we feel it and then we're in a position to actually repent.