Consider the Offense

"'Ah! The Ring! said Boromir, his eyes lighting. 'The Ring! Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing!'" J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.

I think that we oftentimes, if ever, fail to consider how great the offense of our sin is to a holy God. Did Christ go to the cross out of disappointment? Was His blood spilt because he was sad? Rather, it was to appease the wrath of a holy God for my sin. God is not simply disappointed or saddened by my sin, he is righteously angry. On the cross, Jesus drank that cup of wrath that was set out before me.

Isaiah certainly understood the offense of his sin when he cried "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Isaiah 6:5. Geerhardus Vos writes, "Being not merely holy but majestic in holiness, Jehovah upholds and asserts his ethical glory for the punishment of sin. Isaiah has felt most keenly that God would not be God, would not respect his own divinity, did he not avenge evil. Because he is the absolutely good, because his name, the essence of his being is holy; therefore in him holiness in attended with the sovereign right to vindicate its own supremacy." A Geerhardus Vos Anthology, P&R Publishing Company, 2005, p. 138.

Once we begin to understand the greatness of our offense, we can then begin to appreciate the true sacrifice of the cross and the blessings of his mercy and grace. Once we understand this, the gospel is a much sweeter fruit.