Many times in the Bible, God gave people a chance to turn around, and repent, before He punished them. He asked them what they were doing, or He would just let a long time go by before He punished them. This time was sometimes used by the people in question to repent, but sadly, a lot of times the people ignored it, or tried to pretend nothing was wrong.

The first example that we will look at, is that of Cain, in Genesis 4. After Cain kills Abel, God comes to Cain, and asks a simple question. “Where is your brother?” God already knew what happened to Abel, but, He was giving Cain a chance to confess. Sadly, Cain did not take that chance, and tried to play stupid. God then revealed that He knew what had happened, and Cain was punished.

The next example would be that of David, in 2 Samuel 12. In this case, God didn’t come to speak David, rather He sent a prophet. If you look at the time though, there was a period of at LEAST 9 months between his sins, and the consequences. God waited that long before punishment. David could have used that time to repent, rather, he let his guilt and anguish just build up to the point that he was almost incapacitated.

One could look at Israel’s entire history to see multiple chances. They would sin, and God would wait several generations before punishing them. Sometimes, the people would come around, and repent, but many times, they did not.

The final example, this one in the New Testament would be Jesus with his Disciples, in Mark 9. The disciples were letting Jesus walk ahead of them, and were arguing over who was more important. Once they get where they were going, Jesus asked them what they were talking about on the trip, knowing full well what they were discussing. The disciples remained silent, because they were guilty.

So, how about us? When we sin, do we immediately confess and repent, and sin no more? Or do we wait till the consequences come crashing down on us to do so? We should confess sin because sin is WRONG, not because we don’t like the consequences.

You might have noticed that none of these people took the opportunity. There were people who did take the opportunity, but far many more did not. We should learn from these people’s mistakes, and do the right thing.

We’ve all heard people saying things like “God will forgive”, “God will forgive me for this”, or the ever-popular “God will forgive you”. While such a statement is Biblically sound; God will forgive you if you ask Him to, it leaves out a critical piece of information. Yes, God will forgive you, but, God very rarely frees you from the consequences of your sin.

For example, look at Jesus on the cross with the thief. The thief believed in God, and had his sins forgiven, BUT, he still had to face the consequences of his sin.

Another example would be David and Bathsheba. David sinned, and sinned again, and then sinned some more. When confronted with his sin, David begged for forgiveness, and he was forgiven. However, his son died, Uriah was still dead, and all the other innocent people that died due to his choice were still dead. He had to live the consequences of that action for the rest of his life.

If you want more examples, just look around you today. If you break into a house, and get caught, yes, God will forgive you, but you will still end up doing jail time. If you cheat on a test, and get caught, God will forgive you, but you will still fail the test.

God forgives, yes, but there are still consequencse for our sinning. We should all keep that in mind when we are tempted to do something wrong. God’s forgiveness is NOT a carte blanche to do whatever we want to do.

When was the last time you made a list of your favorite things and you put ‘maggots’ at the top of the list? I can’t say I have ever claimed maggots to be my favorite thing.

In comparison to God, we are no more than maggots. We are slimy and gross, covered in sin and hideous to look upon in the eyes of a perfect God. How is it then that our perfect God has placed us slimy and hideous humans on the top of His list? He has even placed us just lower than the angels. Why? Because He loves us. He loves us so mucht hat He became one of us to save us from our sinful selves.

Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. The only way to save us from having to die, is for an innocent man to give himself as a sacrifice. No man is perfect, only God is. God loves us so much that h became a man and sacrificed Himself for us. It is His gift of love to us. Death is the result of sin, but God loves us so much that he wants us to live eternally with Him. Ou God is a God of love. He paid our price.

“For God so loved the world he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16