Does Sin Break Fellowship With God?

Many times when you fall into sin as a believer, it’s not unusual for God to feel distant.

You may even feel like He’s turned His back on you, put His fingers in His ears and is making the lalala sound until you beg for His forgiveness and get back on His good graces.

It doesn’t help that for most of your life, the only grace you’ve been acquainted with is a tainted form of grace birthed out of your own experiences with other people.

A grace that asks..

'How many times will I forgive you for making the same mistake??'

A grace that complains..

'But you said last time was the last time!!'

A grace that warns..

'This is your last chance!!'

A grace that says..

'I forgive you but I won’t forget!!'

A grace that basically runs out.

It’s only natural to think God’s grace must be no different.

'Surely, He must be tired of my foolishness. Surely, at this point, He must want nothing to do with me anymore. This must be why He’s so cold and distant.'

Sadly, there are a ton of believers today who believe their sins break fellowship with God and their confession, if genuine and accepted, restores the fellowship.

But this is not true.

Infact, the distance from God you tend to feel when we fall into sin is just that, a feeling.

It only exists in your mind.

Paul says in 1 Colossians 1:21, speaking of the believer before they came to Christ:

“At one time you were separated from God. You were His enemies IN YOUR MINDS, because the evil you did was against Him.” (ERV; Emphasis mine)

You see, when Adam sinned, even though his sin separated Him from God, it was not a physical separation such that God stopped associating and speaking with him.

You'll notice God didn’t stop having fellowship with him.

God didn't say, 'Adam, I will never speak to you again until you say I’m sorry!'

If God was waiting for Adam to apologize so they could get back on speaking terms, they would never have spoken to each other again because he never did!

But we can see from Scripture that God still kept speaking to him.

In truth, it was not a physical separation but a mental separation.

According to the Bible, Adam was separated from God in his mind after he sinned which is the same case with you.

In other words, God only feels distant to you in your mind but in truth, He is not.

So, it’s not that God distances Himself from you as a believer when you sin, but rather you distance yourself from Him, atleast in your heart/mind.

This actually agrees with something Paul says to the church at Corinth that, Christ reconciled us back to God. (see 2 Corinthians 5:18)

One important thing to note about this verse is it does not say Christ reconciled God back to us (as if God was the one with the problem) but that He reconciled us back to God (we were the problem!).

Like the prodigal son, we are the ones that left the Father and the ones that needed to be brought back and reconciled back to Him.

The Father was still right where we left Him, eagerly waiting for us to come back.

We often think that Christ came to soften God's heart towards us and convince Him to take us back but in reality, He came to soften our hearts towards God so we can run back into His loving wide open arms.

God's heart has never changed.

His love for us has never changed.

His good thoughts towards us have never changed.

It's not to rekindle His love for us that He sent His Son but because His love for us was never quenched to begin with. He has always loved us. (see Romans 5:8)

Infact, we are the ones who changed after the fall.

We grew cold and distant.

Our thoughts towards God changed.

We now thought evil of Him and treated Him with a lot of fear and suspicion.

We reduced Him to a strict, uptight, short tempered and blood thirsty Judge who’s always out to get us.

To us He become this cold, distant and unapproachable Being that demands love and obedience and doesn’t tolerate our foolishness.

But Christ came to change our view of Him.

He came to show us that's not who He is.

That what is not true of Him (Jesus) is also not true of God.

He came to reveal Him as Father.

A Father that has always loved you.

A Father that is for you and not out to get you.

A Father that is not mad at you but is mad about you.

A Father that does not condemn you but approves of you.

A Father that wants the best for you and did not spare His only Son for you.

A Father who says I will never leave you nor forsake you.

A father who says nothing can separate you from His love.

'But James, the Bible says in John 9:31 that God does not listen to sinners!'

Well, first off, are you a sinner or a saint?

A saint, right?

Secondly, we must be careful when we quote certain texts from the Bible because even though they might be in God’s word, it does not necessary mean they're God’s truth.

You see, the Bible gives an honest record of what people said or thought and how people wrestled with wisdom and wrestled with wrong ideas until they got the right ideas.

It gives you an honest picture of people's theology, even if their theology is off, but goes ahead to correct these wrong theologies in the same Bible.

People are often quick to quote text from the Bible to prove or make their point but just because you're quoting from the Bible does not mean what you're quoting is right or true even though you may succeed in providing your point and look thoroughly Biblical while you're at it.

The best example of this is the book of Job.

You’ve got to be careful about quoting any text from the book of Job because, and this may surprise you, you may be quoting a lie.

Right at the end of the book of Job, God says that Job’s friends were wrong in saying what they said.

So you cannot just take a verse of the Bible and quote it as God’s truth.

You've got to read the verse in its context and ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of discernment.

Solomon for example in Ecclesiastes 7:28 says:

“Though I have searched repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman!” (NLT)

Now this statement paints women in a bad light.

I'm quite sure a big chunk of women (even men) would vehemently disagree with this statement, but it's in God's word.

However, even though it is in God's word, it cannot be preached as God's truth.

It might have been true for the man who wrote it, a man who changed women like he changed clothes, but it's not true for God.

If you’ve been with a thousand plus women and none of them seemed good in your eyes, it wouldn't be surprising if you didn't think very highly of women.

It wouldn't bat an eye if this is the kind of foul attitude you have towards them.

But this should not be interpreted as God’s attitude towards women just because it’s in the Bible.

Likewise, John 9:31 cannot be taken as God’s truth because all through the Bible we have example after example of God listening to sinners.

Infact when Jesus contrasts the prayer of a Pharisee and a tax collector in Luke 18:9-14, we can clearly see that God heard the prayer of the latter, who Jesus calls a sinner, and he went home justified before God, Jesus says.

The bottom line is this, sin does not break fellowship with God as a believer.

It cannot!

As a child of God, nothing (even sin) can separate you from the Love of God.

The Bible says God hears the prayers of the righteous. (see Proverbs 15:29)

And if you are born again, then you are righteous. (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)

His ears are attentive to your softest sigh.

Plus think about it, if God should leave or forsake you when you mess up, then surely who can help you out of your mess?

God forbid!

Our help comes from the Lord.

He promises to never leave you nor forsake you. (see Hebrews 13:5)

I believe God rather gets closer to you when you sin because He wants you out.

So when you fail, don’t distance yourself from Him, rather draw closer to Him.

He’s the only one who can get you out of any mess you may have gotten yourself into.

Don’t be led by your feelings but be led by the Spirit and the truth of God’s word.

God is with you always even to the very end of the world. (see Matthew 28:20)

The Holy Spirit in you is a testament of that.

He is your seal until our Lord Jesus returns. (see Ephesians 4:30)

God bless you.