Be sure of this .... If you allow a sin, any sin, to remain in your life, without dealing with it, like a single cancer cell, it will reproduce itself, compounded into a multitude of other cells or sins ... and eventually destroy your life. That is why God's word declares flatly ... "The wages of sin is death...." Rom.6:23.
Sin, unrepented to God, destroys our closeness to Him, if not his love for us. The word "death" literally means "separation". Physical death is separation of the spirit (life) from the body. Spiritual death is separation of life and body from God for eternity and is called the "second death" in Rev.21:8. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
Sin has become the substance and punch line of most comedians. It is the cause of most divorces and the reason for wars, crime, drug addiction, prostitution and all manner of corruption and dishonesty. As bad as all that is, it does not even begin to reveal the full measure of it's awfulness, in the mind of God. Heb.1:9 says, "God hates iniquity...."
There are only three ways to measure how much God hates sin. One is by the enormous consequences He assigns to it. "Death ... the lake of fire ... for eternity. Eternal damnation upon all sin unrepentant of and unforgiven of God. That is sin which has not been washed away under the blood of Christ's crucifixion which only happens to those who have not repented and accepted Him as their Savior. That is what the entire Bible and Christs first coming is all about.
That brings us to the second means of measuring the awfulness of sin, in God's mind. And that is by the price He was willing to pay to redeem us from our sin's equally awful consequences .... the hellish pain and horrific death of His only begotten Son on that Roman Cross, in our place, for our sins, to save us sinners.
Finally, the third way to measure the awfulness of sin .... the amazing grace and the amount of agape love God had to have for us sinners that would cause Him to be willing to pay "the wages of sin" for us with the awful agony and death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
All of that being considered, within our limited ability to even comprehend it, it makes no sense and deserves no mercy upon sinners who neglect or reject God's only remedy.... Christ's death... "...So that they are without excuse." Rom.120.
An Intellectual once asked me, "Blair, doesn't it bother you that sophisticated people might think you ignorant for believing that stuff?" My answer, as best I remember, was ... "There are several tribes of fire ants in my back yard, all of whom believe only in the circle of their territory, what they can see, eat and defend ... within the bounds of their senses and brain power. In their brains, my yard is all there is and the rest of the world, the sky, the Bible, God and eternity do not exist." RB
