Imagine you're a four year old boy. You want cookies. Mom has left the cookies sitting on the counter, but told you that you'd get "sick to your tummy" if you ate any more. You don't listen, and steal one last cookie out of the box. Mom never finds out, but you still get sick.
Ok. New scenario. You're a preteen girl with a baseball bat and a few boys taunting you. Per their suggestion, you decide to break into the abandoned barn beside your school and light it on fire. You get glass in your hands, which makes you unable to write or draw comfortably for the rest of your life. Sure, you could have the glass removed, but that would mean owning up to setting the old barn on fire all those years ago. Instead, you chose to live with the pain.
Last time: you're holding an eleven-month-old infant, playing peekaboo. After several rounds of you hiding your face, the baby decides it's his turn. He ducks his head behind the blanket and declares, "I's gone!"
In the first of these situations, the sin could not be seen. There was no evidence of the crime, but that didn't make the consequences go away. Physical pain could still be felt. Like the young child will soon understand, just because something isn't visible doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Now, consider this. Hiding a problem doesn't make it go away.
How much of what we do is in the interest of hiding a problem? We lie about the flaming barn, we dance with cactus, and we even murder innocent, unborn children simply so "no one will see" what we did wrong.
But the truth remains that even though mom can't see the cookies that make my stomach hurt doesn't mean I didn't eat them. It just means I can't get help. Like a mother might tell her son during a game of peekaboo, "Just because I can't see you doesn't mean you're not there." Just because you can't see my sin doesn't mean it isn't there.
What then? If our baby blanket is too thin to cover us, what will? How will we hide?
We don't need to hide.
"Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Is it Christ who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 833-35)
The shame is gone. The guilt is gone. God Himself is satisfied. There is no longer any reason to hide.
Last time: you're holding an eleven-month-old infant, playing peekaboo. After several rounds of you hiding your face, the baby decides it's his turn. He ducks his head behind the blanket and declares, "I's gone!"
In the first of these situations, the sin could not be seen. There was no evidence of the crime, but that didn't make the consequences go away. Physical pain could still be felt. Like the young child will soon understand, just because something isn't visible doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Now, consider this. Hiding a problem doesn't make it go away.
How much of what we do is in the interest of hiding a problem? We lie about the flaming barn, we dance with cactus, and we even murder innocent, unborn children simply so "no one will see" what we did wrong.
But the truth remains that even though mom can't see the cookies that make my stomach hurt doesn't mean I didn't eat them. It just means I can't get help. Like a mother might tell her son during a game of peekaboo, "Just because I can't see you doesn't mean you're not there." Just because you can't see my sin doesn't mean it isn't there.
What then? If our baby blanket is too thin to cover us, what will? How will we hide?
We don't need to hide.
"Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Is it Christ who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 833-35)
The shame is gone. The guilt is gone. God Himself is satisfied. There is no longer any reason to hide.
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