Does God Practice Spiritual Distancing?

In our current world of social distancing people keep their distance from others to protect themselves from being infected with a virus.

In a spiritual sense, does God practice spiritual distancing to keep himself from being “infected” by our sin?

The simple answer is no.

God became human and dwelt among us.

As Jesus, he broke all the social distancing rules by interacting with the “sinners” of his day.

I put “sinners” in quotes because the writers of the life of Christ put “sinners” in quotes.

They put sinners in quotes because they were quoting the Pharisees.

The Pharisees did not believe they were sinners in need of grace.

They thought that since they had “obeyed” the law, they were sinless.

So to keep themselves from being infected by the sins of the “sinners,” they practiced social distancing.

They kept their distance from the sinners.

However, Jesus did not practice social distancing to keep himself from being infected by sin.

He welcomed sinners.

He spent time with sinners.

He ate with sinners.

Then, in an amazing act of grace, he reconciled sinners to God.

He took the sins of sinners upon himself at the cross.

He became infected with sin.

He now offers us his righteousness.

Through faith in Jesus, we are given righteousness and reconciled to God in a love relationship.

Does God practice spiritual distancing from us when we sin?

The simple answer is no.

We have been brought close to God…near to God…through the blood of Jesus.

No sin can create distance between us and God.

Our sins were nailed to the cross.

God has come close to us.

He lives in us.

We can’t get any closer to God than God in us.

We are eternally close to him.

He is eternally in us through the Spirit of Christ.

There is legalistic teaching that would have us believe that God distances himself from us when we sin.

Those teaching this and who believe this call it “being out of fellowship with God.”

But the truth is that no sin causes God to spiritually distance himself from us.

Our sins were nailed to the cross.

We have been reconciled to God in a close, loving relationship.

In this relationship, we are assured of his love, kindness, forgiveness, acceptance, and presence.

In this relationship, we are honest and open with him about our sins and struggles, hopes and hurts, and dreams and difficulties.

In this relationship, God will never socially distance himself from us.

Our sins have been fully forgiven forever.

Our hearts have been completely cleansed forever.

He is forever close to us…near to us…in us.

No, God doesn’t practice spiritual distancing.