Sin Is Truly Destructive

“I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.” (Ps 41:4 AV)

We seldom stop and meditate upon how damaging sin can be.   We divorce a spouse and see only the emotional scars that hinder our ability to trust.  We take up some vice and only see the disease that follows.  What we do not see is the deep harm sin does to the soul.  It changes not only our emotional health.  Sin not only changes our physical health.  Sin is so destructive that is changes our very person.  It changes us deep down inside.  The very person whom we are.

I read just the other day that suicide is becoming increasingly common.  The rate has jumped precipitously in the last few years.  According to the column, the rate has increased 48% just in the last few years.  If God, or Christianity is the problem, one would think that the rate would drop.  If hindrance of moral liberty was keeping us miserable, the plethora of laws that now legalize immorality should mean we are less depressed, not more.  If the laws against vices are overturned and our citizenry has more liberty of self-indulgence, surely, we should be happier, not less.  Then why the sudden increase in depression and suicide?  According to some research, there is an epidemic of depression.  It is so bad that our medications are finding their way through our water treatment systems and into the ecological edges of our world.  Fish, in the Great Lakes, have a measurable amount of anti-depressants within their bodies.  Our medications to overcome our anxieties is so high, that fish in our lakes are not medicated against it.  Why?

Sin effects not just what we are, but who we are.  We have gotten to the point where we can cope with the physical and even the emotional effects of sin.  What was once abnormal is now the new normal.  Broken homes, addiction, out of wedlock births, co-habitation, etc, are all seen as normal and without consequences.  Mankind has forgotten we are designed by a Creator that did not make allowances for sin.  Even if we can tolerate and live above the physical consequences of sin, the toll it takes on the inward man is uncontrollable.  It will change not just what you are, but who you are.  And not for the better.  The only hope is salvation in Jesus Christ.  That is the only hope mankind has against the insurmountable damage sin does to the soul.