The Holiness of God: Does our sin really offend Him?

Has one of your children ever said to you (or have you ever thought to yourself), “I didn’t lie, I was only kidding!” or “I told the truth, just maybe not the WHOLE truth”. One of the pillars of theology that we must understand and teach correctly in our Biblically-minded families is concerning the holiness of God. We must all realize that God is a holy God while we are sinners. Our sin separates us from Him. Sometimes, our teaching waters down this truth or doesn’t truly explain the severity of our sin debt. We think that our little sins aren’t an offense to the holiness of God. Use the following illustration to help teach this important concept in your home, church, or small group.

My Goal of These Object Lessons:

I designed these lessons to give you quick material to teach when you are in need of something but don’t have time for a lot of planning. Leadership has asked me at times on Saturday night to teach Sunday School the next morning. Having these simple object lessons will help you be more prepared when you need to teach on the spur of the moment — whether in your own home, church, or ministry.

Materials:

1. A pan of brownies
2. Some of the ingredients to make the brownies or the recipe cards
3. A teaspoon

The Main Idea:

The holiness of God means that He is perfect and without sin. He cannot even be in the presence of a little sin. Our sin separates us from our holy God.

The Lesson Introduction:

Good morning, class.  How are you? As you can see, I have made a special treat for you today… BROWNIES.  Now these are not just any brownies.  They are my famous double chocolate fudge brownies.  And I underbaked them so they will be extra gooey and fudgy.  Doesn’t that sound amazing?!  I wanna tell you about them, though, because they are just extra special today.

First, I started off with getting fresh eggs from my chickens, then I got organic butter, imported cocoa powder from Ecuador, wheat berries that I ground into flour today, pure vanilla from Mexico, pure cane sugar, and baking powder.  I mixed all of these until they were blended perfectly.  Sounds good, right?  Does your mom let you get a little taste of the brownie batter?  I let my kids, too, but don’t tell anyone since we aren’t supposed to eat raw (uncooked) eggs.  Then I spread them into a buttered baking dish. Lastly, I sprinkled on the top a generous layer of chocolate chips… and sometimes I add nuts, but I didn’t today.  And before I put them into the oven… are your mouths watering yet?…  I add one little ingredient… are you ready for it.  It is kind of unusual.  Chicken poop/chicken manure.  Yup.. just a teaspoon, though.  Finally, I baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes.

What’s the matter?  You say you aren’t gonna eat them?  But you haven’t even tried them… how do you know that they are gonna taste bad if you haven’t even given them a try.

(Discuss why they are having such a negative reaction when it is only just a teaspoon.  Show them how small a teaspoon really is.  Compare the whole pan to that tiny teaspoon.  How would that spoil the whole pan?)

The Main Lesson:

This reminds me of God.. Doesn’t it?  God is holy or perfect.  He is like the pan of brownies… a real pan, a perfect pan.  We used all of the purest and best ingredients. In Him there is no fault at all.  God has never sinned, and He is not able to sin. He is so perfect that He can’t even be around sin.   In Leviticus 11 God told the people about the Laws that He had for them. Here is what He said, “I am the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” The holiness of God is explained by God Himself here.

We aren’t like that.  Our sin makes us dirty before our holy God.  That’s why that verse calls us to consecrate or clean ourselves. We say and do and think things every day that are against what God wants us to do.  When we sin, the Bible tells us that even one of our sins is like we broke all of God’s Laws. James 2:10,”Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one part, is guilty of breaking all of it.”

Have you ever sinned? Have you ever lied? hit your brother? complained? disobeyed your parents? screamed at your sister? looked at something you shouldn’t have?   Our sin keeps us from God and ruins all of us.  Even if we think it is a small sin… it ruins us just like the small bit of chicken poop ruined the whole pan of brownies.  That sin keeps us from being with God and having a relationship with Him. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The Main Point:

Just like you and I don’t want to eat or be around a brownie that has chicken manure in it, God can’t be around our sin. He is such a pure God that He can’t stand near sin. That’s a problem for us because we want to be close to God. But Romans 5:8 tells us the good news, “God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” John 3:16 also tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

God loves us so much that He made a way for us to be with Him forever. He sent Jesus to die a terrible death on a cross so we could be forgiven of our sin. If we ask Jesus to forgive our sin and repent of it, and then make God the Lord of our lives (choosing to obey Him), He will forgive our sin so we can be forgiven and saved. Our sin will be washed away, and we will be with God forever.

Ask the class if there are some who have already made that decision.

If you would like to talk to me more about how the holiness of God and our sin are like the pan of brownies, I would love to talk to you during snack time.

Let’s pray.

Snack time:

Distribute the brownies to everyone in your group. Make sure you are clear that you didn’t actually make brownies with poop in them. That was only an illustration… and an illustration that they will not soon forget!

If you would like more ideas for leading your Biblically-minded family, check out the rest of my blog here! Are you looking for ways to increase the Bible verses your family knows by heart? Look here or here for ideas!