No Winking at Sin

Read

Acts 5:5-6 "When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him."

Think

This is one of the most jarring moments in the entire New Testament. Ananias hears Peter’s words and falls down dead. Right there. In front of everyone. No trial. No second chance. No "go home and think about what you have done." He fell down and died. Two sentences. Luke does not soften it. He does not explain it away. He just tells you what happened and moves on.

If we are honest, most of us read that and feel uncomfortable. It seems extreme. Disproportionate. We want to say, "Come on, God. He just kept a little money back. People do worse things every day." And that reaction tells us something important about ourselves. We have gotten comfortable with a version of God who winks at sin. A God who shrugs. A God who grades on a curve and says, "Well, at least you are not as bad as that guy." But the God of Acts 5 is the same God from Genesis to Revelation. Holy. Set apart. Serious about truth.

I have a friend who has this little ranch outside of Waco. Beautiful property, several lakes absolutely full of bass. EJ and I drove out there one morning, dark thirty, to do some fishing. To get onto the property, I had to punch a code into this gate out in the middle of nowhere. And my buddy had texted me very specific instructions. "Make sure to close the gate really, really fast because the deer can get out." So I punch the code, the gate opens, we drive through, I punch the code again, and the gate closes behind us. Now we are inside a bass fishing paradise.

That gate was not there to keep me out. It was there to protect something valuable on the other side. The code was the way in, and the gate would not open without it. God’s holiness works the same way. His holiness is not a wall designed to keep you at a distance. It is the gate that opens us up to the character and the nature and the glory of God. But the gate has a code. And the code is honesty. Truth. Transparency. Ananias tried to get through the gate with a fake code. He tried to approach a holy God with a lie in his hands. And in this moment, God made it unmistakably clear: holiness and dishonesty cannot coexist.

Here is what you need to understand about the character of God. He is not moody. He is not erratic. He does not punish some sins and overlook others based on how he is feeling that day. Every time Scripture shows God responding to sin with swift and serious consequences, it is because his character is unchangingly holy. Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire before the Lord in Leviticus 10 and died on the spot. Achan hid stolen plunder under his tent and his entire household paid the price. And Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and fell dead where he stood. The pattern is consistent because God's character is consistent. He cannot wink at sin or say, "Boys will be boys. Girls will be girls." Sin has to have a payment.

Think about that. God is so holy that he judged the sin of his own Son on the cross. Jesus, the sinless one, voluntarily took the weight of our rebellion, and God judged it. Fully. Completely. That is how serious holiness is. If God would not spare his own Son from the consequences of sin, why would we think he would shrug at ours? That is not cruelty. That is the very thing that makes our forgiveness possible. Because the payment was made, the gate can open.

We have campuses at Fellowship Church that are inside prisons. I think about those men often. And here is what I have noticed about our culture. We love to rank sin. We have this internal hierarchy where our private dishonesty sits in a completely different category than what put someone behind bars. "At least I am not that bad." We tell ourselves that all the time. But in God’s economy, sin is sin. A lie told in a church foyer carries the same weight as one told in a courtroom. We commit one sin and we deserve judgment. All of us. That is not popular to say, but it is true. And understanding it is the first step toward understanding why grace is so astonishing.

That gate outside of Waco opens to a bass fishing paradise when you use the right code. God’s holiness opens to something even better: grace, forgiveness, freedom, the full weight of his love poured out for you and me. But we cannot approach him with a counterfeit offering and expect the gate to swing open. He is too holy for that. And honestly? He loves us too much to pretend otherwise.

Apply

Respect his holiness – Today, spend five minutes reading Isaiah 6:1-8. Let the weight of God’s holiness settle over you. Then ask yourself: Am I approaching God with honesty, or am I trying to get through the gate with a fake code?

Pray

Father, forgive me for treating your holiness casually. I confess that I have sometimes approached you with less than the full truth. You are holy. You are set apart. You do not wink at sin, and I do not want you to. I want the real thing. Purify my heart, God, and help me come before you with nothing hidden. In Jesus’ name. Amen.