Sometimes it’s easy to forget the simplest and most essential aspects of the Christian faith, so this morning, let’s remember one of them. In our reading from Ephesians this morning, as St. Paul is urging Christians to live lives of holiness, to turn away from the godless living they embraced before they knew Christ, he says, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
So does God get angry when you sin? Certainly. And should we refrain from sinning because you don’t want to anger the God whose face you have never seen, the God who has the power to rip you up like a weed in a garden? Of course. But God doesn’t view you like a weed in a garden. He views you as His own precious child, the one He bought with a price, the one He personally chose to clothe in the waters of salvation, the one He personally sealed for the day of redemption.
And so, when you sin, you are not merely refusing to obey your boss. You are grieving the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in you. You are grieving the God who feels you pulling away from Him, casting off His love and thrashing about. When you sin, your God grieves your hatred like the father grieving the distance and destitution of the prodigal son, his beloved offspring who chose death over life.
So come home and come into the arms of the Father who loves you. Rejoice to receive the mercy and grace and forgiveness and salvation of the God who hungers to give you all these things. Come receive the saving blood of Jesus Christ that has sealed you as a child of the most high God. Come receive the arms of God that tremble with sorrow when you are not in them and that tremble with joy when you are.
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