What Does It Mean to Sin Against God?

What does it mean to sin against God?

Imagine a little boy in his back yard, sitting on the ground before a large, flat rock, and holding a hammer extended above his head. Imagine that this boy brings down the hammer as forcefully as he is able upon a leaf that is laying upon the rock. While a leaf is a living organism, or at least was before it was untimely ripped from its mother-plant, this is not a huge problem.

Now, imagine a caterpillar in the place of the leaf. Now, a puppy dog. And finally, a baby human. The image of the boy bringing down the wrath and fury of his hammer becomes more evil as the worth and value of his victim increases (thanks to my bro, Dr. Sucka, Jim Hamilton, Jr. himself for the analogy!).

Similarly, sinning against the God who created, sustains, and will judge us, is as infinitely greater than sinning against a mere man as the heavens are higher than the earth. God owns us as our Creator, our Sustainer, and our Judge; and He knows our every thought, our every word, and our every action.

Surely our standing before God is the most extreme embodiment of the word “hopeless.”

Moreover, as the Bible often compares our relationship with God to a marriage, let us see if using the analogy of a marriage helps us to understand the significance of sinning against a just and righteous and holy God.

Imagine a husband who communicates to his wife with his every thought, his every word, and his every action that he does not love her, that he does not want her, that he does not need her, and that he wishes that he did not have a wife. Just as such a husband communicates to his wife that she is worthless and greatly offends her, so we communicate that God is worthless to us and we greatly offend Him when we communicate with our every thought, word, and action that we do not love Him, want Him, or need Him, and that we wish that there were no God. And we do this every time we sin-in thought, word, and action.

This is what it means to sin against God.