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It Doesn't Hurt Anyone?


He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

(I Peter 2:24-25)

One of the justifications people give for doing wrong is the combination of "It makes me happy" and "it doesn't hurt anyone." While I grant that some of the harm sins do is not immediately physically visible and we don't have to rush anyone to the hospital for life-saving treatment,  sin harms. Sin separates people from God, from other people, and from better goods. It lures, coaxes and demands more: more sin, more money, more time, more attention.
       But even if none of that were true, even if you could find one sin that actually did no harm to anyone in any way; there is still this reality: sin was the reason Jesus had to die. In some way that we cannot understand, each and every sin committed was taken on by Christ. It separated Him from His Father and resulted in His physical death. Everything He went through in taking on our punishment...those sins that we think so trivial, so meaningless, so harmless... He suffered the consequences so we could be healed and freed, and so that we could return to the One who loves us enough to pay that price.

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