Distortions of Sin

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.
Job 2:12
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Distortions of Sin
Sin corrupts everything it comes in contact with.  Sin so thoroughly distorts and destroys its victim that they become almost unrecognizable.  This is painfully evident to anyone who has witnessed a loved one consumed by drugs or alcohol or seen them go through the ravages of cancer treatments.  They change physically and often times emotionally.  Job’s friends upon seeing him, react as we would, in disbelief.  So drastic is the change from who Job use to be in appearance to what he was now.  Grief over comes his friends.  Torn clothes and ashen heads bore witness to their distress upon seeing their friend.  In a like manner, sin has done the same to us.  It has destroyed the image of God in which we were created.  It has set us against our heavenly Father as His enemy.  And in grief He surveys the debris field left in the wake of man’s fall into sin.  So much so Jesus laments, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34b) Yet God does not abandon us.  He does not allow sin to destroy His children.  The fate slotted for us because of our sin was not to be.  Instead, it was laid upon another, and He bore the consequences of our sin, death! Upon a blood-soaked cross Jesus paid the wages of sin for us, so we might have a restored relationship with our Father.  The distortions of sin were evident in Christ’s body that day on Calvary. Something we should recognize every time we survey the cross.  And in our own form of rent garments and ash, repentance and contrition, we fall at the foot of the cross knowing sins distortions cannot overcome us, for they were defeated on a cross and an empty tomb.