Our Offences are Against the Infinite Creator

© 2021 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

An offence involves hostile behavior toward another.  Offences occur at many levels.  A spider may commit an offence against a bug caught in its web.  We don’t usually pay much attention to that.  However, if that same spider bites a pet dog, causing its death, we become more concerned.  When that virulent spider bites me, I’m likely to kill it on the spot!  We typically ascribe more importance to a dog than to a bug, and more importance to ourselves than a dog.  The significance of the offence increases as the importance of the one offended increases.

God, the creator, is the most important being of all!  Since He is infinitely Holy, an offence against Him is infinitely serious.  Because of this, God has assigned an infinite penalty to any offence against Him.

We’re all born into this world with a sinful will.  This has been true since our father, Adam, disobeyed God, and ate the fruit God told him not to eat.  The penalty for just one sin against the infinitely Holy God is infinite.  Since we are finite, we cannot experience infinite punishment in a finite period of time.  Thus, in order to bear our own punishment, that punishment would have to last forever.  God describes this punishment for those who must pay the punishment for their own sins.  When the great judgment day arrives, God shall separate His saved, called “sheep,” from the unsaved, called “goats.”  To the goats He says:

“…Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matthew 25:41)

You might ask, “How do the ‘sheep’ escape this same eternal punishment?”  God the Son, Jesus Christ, paid their infinite penalty Himself.  He bore that penalty when He died His brutal, sacrificial, death of substitution on the cross of Calvary.  He was buried and rose again the third day according to prophecy.  His resurrection proved the sufficiency of His payment.  During that crucifixion, God the Father vented His own infinite punishment upon His perfect and pure, beloved Son.  Speaking of Christ’s sacrifice for His “sheep”, Isaiah the prophet declares:

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

Jesus Christ is the only one who could pay that infinite punishment in a finite period of time!  Imagine the excruciating intensity of that awful punishment!

Have you confessed your sins to Him and asked Him to save and deliver you from them?

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