No Evil in God

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. (Psalm 5:4)

We often hear that God cannot look upon sin. We’ve said it ourselves, we’ve written it or used it in talks. We use that phrase because it simplifies things for us. It makes it easier to explain why God’s son was sent to cleanse us with His sacrificed blood.

But this phrase makes God weak and we know that He is not. God is all powerful and can do anything, see anything and be anywhere. He can look upon sin and does so daily when He looks at the world. What we mean when we use that phrase is that God is perfect and Holy and there is no evil in Him and that evil cannot dwell with Him.

Any evil close to God would be burnt up by His glory and perfect goodness. We would be more correct if we said that sin or evil cannot look upon or be near God. We, unless our sins are forgiven, will not be allowed in God’s presence.

After our monumentally bad choice in the garden of Eden, and the destruction of our relationship with God, something had to be done to repair the damage. God wanted that same closeness, as in the garden, with us, but evil could not dwell with Him. So, He made a way for us to be cleansed.

The law that God gave to Moses required blood sacrifice for sin. God sent Jesus in bodily form to shed His blood as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world thus creating a way for us to dwell with God. Since that time, no additional blood is required to be shed. Christ’s sacrifice for us only needs to be accepted as we ask His forgiveness for our sins.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus’ blood cleanses us from our sin so that we can have a relationship with our perfect God with whom evil cannot dwell. Jesus was and is God and He not only looked on sin, He lived with sinners and took our sin upon Himself on the cross. By accepting that truth we can dwell with Him here and for eternity.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (John 1:19)

Sin separates people from God. Until a person has asked Jesus to forgive their sins, they are evil and not worthy to dwell with our Holy and perfect God. Jesus’ death and resurrection makes those who accept Him worthy. It is not something we can earn no matter how ‘good’ we, or the world, think we are.

When we believe and ask Jesus to come into our lives and forgive our sins, His blood that was shed on the cross covers us. Though blood is red, Christ’s blood washes us and God sees us as the purest white. We are worthy to be called children of God and all that we do should be for Him.

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6)

All things are from God and all things exist for God. All things exist through Christ including us. We are to live our lives for Him allowing the love of Christ to flow through us to the world.  We must make the choice to be forgiven and to live abundantly through Jesus Christ.   

Prayer: Father, your great plan to cleanse us through the blood of your son is sometimes difficult to understand. We ask You for that understanding. We know that before we accepted your Son and His forgiveness of our sins we were evil and could not dwell with You. We are so grateful that you made a way for us to be worthy of spending eternity with You. Amen.