Consequences

Job 31-32; Galatians 5-6

“’I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl…If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit – let God weigh me in honest scales…if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.’”

Job 31:1, 5-8

In Job’s final words, we read of his understanding that sin has consequences. We reap what we sow. Lust, deceit, injustice, greed, idolatry, unforgiveness, and concealing sin all have consequences.

Job understood that; do we?

We misunderstand grace when we believe there are no consequences for confessed sin. The harvest of sin often has to be faced. It is that pain that produces good fruit in our lives as we humble ourselves before God and others. The eternal consequence of sin is death which has been defeated by the sacrifice of Christ. We can be free from the penalty of sin through repentance and forgiveness in Christ, even as we ‘walk out’ sin’s temporal consequences.

“Lord Jesus, thank you for freedom from the bondage of sin, for your glory.”