A WORSE Thing...

"Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well…Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him,

 "See, you have been made well. 

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." " John 5:8-9a, 14

     I imagine those words lingering in this man's head, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you". A worse thing? He probably thought to himself, "Worse than having spent the last thirty-eight years unable to walk? laying by a pool aimlessly hoping for healing, all in vain, until I met Jesus? A worse thing?" That Christ would relate his sin in such a context to "a worse thing" must of alarmed this man of the detriment of sin in a life, and so it should warn every reader this day.

     In our day, sin has been dressed up, made up, advertised, socialized, disguised, in all of it's fame I think we have lost fear of its tragic consequences. However, despite our false view of sin, it remains the cancer to our soul, the death of our lives, the destroyer of our fellowship with God. The end of any sin, although pleasurable in the moment, is death. Yes, the results of sin are worse than being crippled in feet, it is being crippled in heart and unable to be near to Jesus. It is not just broken legs, or a broken heart, but broken fellowship with God. "A worse thing". 

     Some would argue that this verse shows that God allows awful things to happen to those who have sinned. As if, a warning, do not sin or else something worse than being crippled will be your punishment. But this is only the thought of one who does not understand the heart of God. If this was God's heart, why would He of sent His only Son, to pay the punishment for sin? If He could punish with diseases and difficulties the consequences of sin, He would of, but there was only one way for sin to be removed, by the blood of a spotless Lamb, by one perfect, holy, sinless, by Christ. Yes, sin still has consequences, but they are not brought in repay, Jesus already took the repay, He took the sin for you and I, because the heart of God desires nearness to us. He knows the grave result of sin, and so He sent His own to the grave to keep us from such worse consequences.

     Do i understand how "worse" sin is in life? Do i understand how it grieves the heart of God? Do i understand what it cost Christ to redeem us from such a thing?

The cross is not just a pretty sight, but it is " a worse" thing than we will ever have to bear, because Agape, Eternal Love bore it, and all its "worse" for us, to end sins dominion over us, to heal our disease, to call out from the tree, "Rise, take up your bed and walk"! 

Do you hear it? The echo still rings…WALK!

"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh…If we live in the Spirit, 

let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:16,25

As those words must of resonated within the heart of this man, may they resonate within us today, and may that phrase "a worse thing" keep us from sin this day, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, beckoning us to walk on, to walk in healing, to walk in truth, to walk in fellowship with Him.