My parents usually bought unsliced bread from an Italian bakery because they preferred it to the ready-sliced supermarket variety, so we had to slice it ourselves. Sometimes I would cut it myself, but however hard I tried (even at age 12 or so) I couldn't cut it straight. On the other hand, my mother could cut what we called "fairy slices," so thin that they had to be buttered before they were cut, so as not to be torn in the process. My father would say, "Never mind, she's just young. When she gets older, she will be able to do it properly." And I can! He knew that I was still developing, and my hand-eye coordination wasn't yet completely developed. He didn't rebuke or punish me. He didn't get angry with me. How God Looks at Sin God wants us to be as perfect as He is. Sin is a very serious matter to Him; it is incompatible with His holiness. It cost His Son's life. God's anger waxes hot when people and nations willfully rebel against His way of life, because it separates us from access to His throne. He will not coexist or compromise with sin. Biblical commentator John Stott put it this way: "The kind of God that appeals to most people today would be easy-going in his tolerance of our offenses...We seem to have lost the vision of the majesty of God...We saunter up to God to claim His patronage and friendship; it does not occur to us that He might send us away...We learn to appreciate the access to God, which Christ has won for us only after we have first seen God's inaccessibility to sinners...We must hold fast to the biblical revelation of the living God who hates evil, is disgusted and angered by it, and refuses ever to come to terms with it" (The Cross of Christ, 1986, pp. 108-109). But God's anger is with sin itself. It is an antagonism to evil, not a personal hostility towards the people He created. When we turn to God and choose His way of life, we are saying that we, too, do not want to dwell with sin and that we accept the profound sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Abraham chose to live God's way, and therefore his faith was imputed as righteousness, even though he had sinned. So on those occasions when he did stumble and then subsequently repented of the sin, his transgressions were wiped off the slate. In God's eyes he literally was a righteous man (Romans 4:3; Genesis 26:5). As long as we also repent of our wrongdoing, our sins are also covered by the blood of Christ as if they hadn't existed (1 John 1:7-9). But does that mean we can sin with impunity, knowing we will be forgiven? The apostle Paul answered this question clearly: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Certainly not," was the answer (Romans 6:1-2). Why We Are Vulnerable God has a great plan for human beings. We find ourselves frail and weak and with a nature that is tempted to do things that are wrong. But why can't we stop sinning permanently? Why didn't He make us so that we could just decide to do good and keep on doing it without failure even as human beings? God knows that to become perfect we must develop character by continually making choices. If we decide to go His way (with His help) those choices will gradually become right more often than not. Perfect character cannot be created by fiat; it must be developed by the practice of making right choices over and over again. God knew that we would have to learn to trust in Him for strength and power, and not go our own way. He made us subject to vanity and futility, knowing that we would be tempted by our own nature to sin against His law. Moses forsook the "pleasures of sin" in Egypt, but this description shows its deceitfulness. It may feel good at the time, causing us to ignore the suffering it will inevitably bring to ourselves or others. Yet when a child tries to walk and falls down, do his parents get angry and punish him? Not if they are normal, caring parents. They excitedly cheer him on as he gets up and tries again, with the sure knowledge that eventual success is certain. Likewise, God's goal is for each of us to mirror His perfection. But along the road to that goal, our progress may seem imperceptibly slow. God watches our progress, and when we make a right decision, He cheers us on. If a Christian Sins What happens when we fail or succumb to weakness? God is still there cheering us on to get up and try again. He still loves us; He is still pleased with us, as long as He sees that we are going in the right direction. We may figuratively trip over a stone and graze our knees or even fall down into a canyon. But we are still on that same journey; we haven't turned around and started to go the other way. Still, God is grieved when we weaken or fail because He knows that we are hurting ourselves. Breaking His law produces harmful consequences. But He doesn't say, "That's it, I'm not bothering with that wretched person anymore." He is still our Father. He still reaches out His hand to help us. He still hears our prayers and requests for help, and He is only too willing to offer His assistance. He promises us that success is certain as long as we continue to go forward, even if it is two steps forward and one step backwards. Since it is part of God's plan that we overcome our propensity to sin, He does not condemn us for being imperfect. When we're in school, we get some answers right and some wrong. Does the school expel us for the first mistake we make? Of course not! Education is a process that takes many years; in fact, it's a lifelong process. So it is with the Christian life. God is with us all the way. As long as we are committed to Him, He sees each success as a triumph and each failure as a springboard for potential future success. Human beings are an incredible creation, wonderfully made, with minds that can grasp abstract concepts. Yet like a child, we are an incomplete creation. The human body and mind are fantastic, wonderful, amazing. After a life of growing and suffering, the result will be so much higher, so much greater. It will be beyond comparison. God wants us to love Him with all of our heart and soul and mind. If that is our aim, God is with us every step of the way, even "carrying" us when things are at their worst—even though we occasionally fall down and have difficulty focusing on our Creator. God Encourages Those Who Are Cast Down Sometimes we can't understand why things happen as they do. Even King David became discouraged and couldn't understand why the wicked prospered. And the great prophet Elijah, through whom God sent fire down from heaven to show the Israelites unequivocally that He was God, shortly afterward became so discouraged that he asked God to take his life (1 Kings 18-19). But the Creator reassured him and encouraged him to resume doing his job as a prophet to Israel. God is not like a hanging judge, looking for every infraction so that He can condemn us, wanting to terrify us into serving Him. As we learn to love God more and more, the torment of fear will be overridden. "There is no fear in love," wrote the apostle John (1 John 4:18). So when things look bleakest, remember that God is still there. He is watching and cheering us on. He wants us to win. He is incredibly patient and knows that we are still developing. And He will complete the work He has begun in us, as long as we continue to want Him to. UN