The Handy-man, or should I say “domestic
maintenance engineer”, for our apartment complex was caught up on the jobs that
he had been assigned. He was hunting around for some work when I suggested to
Irene (who manages our apartments) that he could paint the office door. It is
looking a little worse for the wear.
As a matter of fact, I described the
condition of the door as “it looks uglier than sin.” It dawned on me as soon as
I said those words that I must rid my vocabulary of that phrase. I don’t know
of a greater misnomer and offensive statement to our Lord than, “uglier than
sin.”
Some might argue that it is just an
expression. It is nothing more than a colloquialism. In some parts of our country
is an expression that is used as frequently as “right as rain,” or “a tough nut
to crack.” Some might argue that I have “gone ‘round the bend” on this one.
Think about it for a moment. Can anything
truly be uglier than sin? In order to answer this question, we must ask
ourselves, “How ugly is sin anyways?” I think we can answer that sentence by
looking at three (3) passages of scripture.
The first passage is Genesis 6:5-7:
“The LORD saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made
man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will
blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and
creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’” (ESV)
Sin was so ugly to God that He was grieved
over creating that which He once pronounced as “good.” Sin was so ugly that God
determined to drown every living creature on the planet, save Noah and his
family. I cannot imagine being so grieved over anything that I would determine
to destroy it by drowning it by a massive and universal flood. Sin was so ugly
that God in perfect righteousness, justice, and holiness drowned every man,
woman, and child, except those seven souls whom He secured safely in the ark.
The office door was certainly not uglier than that.
The second passage is Genesis 18:20 and
19:24:
“Then the LORD said, ‘Because
the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I
will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry
that has come to me. And if not, I will know.’” (ESV)
“Then the LORD rained on
Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he
overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the
cities, and what grew on the ground.” (ESV)
Sin was so ugly in these cities and the
surround cities on the plains that God determined to destroy them with fire and
sulfur straight from heaven. We read in verse twenty nine of chapter nineteen
that God destroyed the cities of the valley. Again, men, women and children
were incinerated as a result of sin. Sin, so ugly, that God destroyed a number
of cities in the valley so as to punish sin.
The third and final passage to see the
ugliness of sin is Matthew 27:45-46:
“Now from the sixth hour
there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth
hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’
that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (ESV)
There my
friend, we truly see how ugly sin really is. Sin was so ugly and repulsive to
the nature and character of God that he was pleased to bruise and crush his own
Son who had become the sin-bearing sacrifice which appeased God’s offended
character. Not only, was sin so ugly that God slew His own Son, but Christ had
become so repulsive to God as he bore sin that God turned his back on him thus
creating darkness. Can you grasp this? For the first time in all of infinite
eternity there was a breach in the God-head. The eternal unity of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit was interrupted by ugly sin. Sin was so ugly that the Father,
until Christ died, abandoned the Son.
We can study
and meditate on the crucifixion of Jesus and get a small glimpse as to the
utter ugliness of sin. Only the perverted, drunken, or emotionally disturbed
parent (s) plots to hurt and kill their own offspring. God, who in no wise is
perverted, drunken, or disturbed plotted and accomplished the tortuous death of
his own dear Son.
Needless to
say, I am working to rid my vocabulary of this phrase. There is nothing on this
earth save sin itself that is uglier than sin. Sin is so ugly, vile, and
repulsive to God that God has judged sin in His Son. Not only has God judged
sin, but one day he will rid his creation of sin entirely.
God, keep me
from being so flippant, so casual, and so cavalier with a subject that is so
repulsive to you that it caused you drown your creation, burn your creation,
and to brutally slay your own Son.
