The Smidgin

When you were a child and misbehaved, how did you learn not to do it again? Because you were punished. Punishment hurts us and teaches us not to do something again. In a sense, it functions like pain does: only a fool touches a hot stove after being burned the first time.

One of the hard things about being an adult is that there is no one to punish you. Of course, in some areas of life this isn’t true. If you murder someone, the law will take over and punish you. I’m talking instead about those many areas of our lives that the law doesn’t legislate.

Specifically, I’m talking about those actions that violate our moral creeds yet go unpunished. I’m talking about sin.

In his infinite wisdom, God answered our sin with his grace and mercy at the death of Christ. And grace it undoubtedly is, because I know full well that the wages of sin are death. Yet grace so often seems to fail me because I refuse to learn from my failures.

Is it that the sin is supposed to be punishment enough? Or is the punishment the chasm between me and God created by sin? Somehow nothing seems to fit. I find myself wanting someone to simply hit me when I commit a sin, so I know that I’ve done wrong.

Grace begins to seem impractical. What good does grace do me if my behavior doesn’t change?I suppose there is a reason the apostle Paul wrote “by grace… through faith.” I realize the need for grace, even if I can’t understand the sense in it. I must never disparage God’s grace in my life, so I’ll have to depend on God for the faith.