Does Sin Separate us from God?

Sin-separates-us-from-godDoes sin separate us from God? How could one be separated from an omnipresent God? If you try to think of a scripture that states “sin separates you from God” (or something like it), you will have a hard time.

If sin separated us from God, wouldn’t that mean that there isn’t much hope? We would have been stuck in our sins forever. Plus, if I was really separated from God, then I suppose I could keep on sinning anyhow (God isn’t around to see it happen, right?).

There may be some theological reasons for thinking that sin separates us from God. For example, God is holy. The word holy does (to some extent) connote “separated.” However, God is not holy in the sense that God is separated from sinners. God is holy as one who confronts us (separate), but primarily as one who blesses, restores, and helps. As the Holy One, God reaches out (not separate!) and overcomes sin through the reconciling work of the Son as well as the sanctifying work of the Spirit. God is holy in relation to his people—the Redeemer is “the Holy One of Israel” (e.g., Isa 47:4).

I say all this simply to highlight that we have to significantly qualify what we mean when (or if!) we ever say that sin separates us from God.

There is a sense in which sin does separate us from God. In fact, Isaiah 59:2 says, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” (similarly, Eph 2:12 and 4:18). However, when we look at the context of this verse in Isaiah, we know it is not literal: verse 1 speaks of God’s hands and ears and verse 2 speaks of God’s face. This indicates that the biblical author is using metaphorical language in these verses.

Therefore, “separation” between God and humanity is metaphorical. We are only separated from God relationally. Most of us understand what this means. I can even be sitting right beside someone with whom my relationship has (in a sense) been cut off! Similarly, Isaiah 59:2 explains how this “separation” from God means that God is not responding positively to the Israelite’s prayers; metaphorically speaking, God “does not hear” them (v. 2). It certainly does not, however, mean that God does not love them (John 3:16!), as a human relationship “separation” might imply.

So, sin separates us relationally from God. But if we don’t make clear what this “separation” means (and doesn’t mean!), people might end up with unfortunate misunderstandings regarding their relationship with God.

You might also be interested in my post, “Is God For You…Not Against You?

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46 thoughts on “Does Sin Separate us from God?

    • The first man Adam seperated us from God because of his disobedience but the second Adam restored us to God because of His obedience 1 Corinthians 15:45

      • By faith alone with out charity ? Paul tells us that faith withoutcharity is nothing( 1 Cor. 13:2). That theology contradict Scripture

  1. Thanks for this. I have been disturbed by teaching that (becaue God is Holy and Just) our sin separates us from Him – so your points are very welcome.
    I think that a stronger rebuttal is to consider the Incarnation. If Sin truly separates us from God, either Jesus was not Devine or he met no sinners in Galilee.
    Cheers!

    • God is spirit and you can only worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) The seperation that the scripture was talking about is the the 2 kinds of death, the spiritual death and the physical death.. (Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. Man is composed of body, soul and spirit. The first death was when God said to Adam not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil ot they will surely die. Gen. 2:17. They did not died physicall but spiritually. (1Tim.5:6 But the widow who lives only for pleasure is spiritually dead even while she lives.”) That is why in John 3:5 says. “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. (water is the word.Ephesians 5:26 and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, John 20:22) The second death is in Revelation 20:14.
      That is the reason why Jesus was sent on earth.

      • Is the word water? Eph 5:26: “He died to make the church holy. He used the telling of the Good News to make the church clean by washing it with water”. Does “water” mean “word” in Scripture? How about “seed”?

  2. God has promised that He will never leave or forsake us. However, God is a holy God, and sin creates a division-like a rift in the relationship. When you live your life completely in sin, without trying to follow Him, you are turning your back on God, and you are basically walking away from God. He’s still there, He hasn’t left, even when you’re going through the darkest times, even when it might be your own fault. But He’s waiting for you to turn back, wanting you to turn back to Him.

  3. Your explanation is yet another contemporary application that misses the mark. If we teach and preach a watered-down gospel, an everybody is good despite the wrong that they do word, it only causes some to remain in their sin and trespasses. Isaiah’s prophecy was largely to the remaining nation of Judah (as the superscription in chapter 1:1 shows the Kings of JUDAH (the Southern Kingdom) The Northern Kingdom was destroyed in 722 BC because of their sin–conduct that separated them from God. Isaiah and Jeremiah spoke to the nation of Judah indicating they would see a similar fate–which did occur in 586 BC–a result of the separation. Yes, we can state God is omnipresent and is always around us but there is a need to interject the way of repentance as the means of avoiding separation from God. Yes, Paul argued that the remnant of Jews still had the opportunity to come to God (Romans 11:29) but let’s be sure to give the word that change or transformation is necessary for this ideal.

      • The gospel is that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. We are born again when we receive Christ and are forgiven which removes the barrier between us and God. Personally I never knew God until I came to Christ and was forgiven.

  4. true that,even the bible says;nothing can separate us from the love of God (romans8:35).when it Say ‘nothing’,it means nothing and that’s a fact,Jesus even says that whatever sheep is in his hand cannot be snatched by anyone(john10:29).Sin was defeated on the cross,so yet it’s powerless

    • It says the LOVE of God. That’s so true. That’s why it hurts him so to have to send us to hell for our sins. In reality the question-is salvation garenteed? It’s a yes no answer that is why there is two sides of the debate. People try and decipher the meaning behind the meaning of the verses. Study on what sends a person to Sheol or hell. You will find there are no exclusions like well if you have Jesus or this is only for those who wear red- no it said those who do —- will not inherit the kingdom of God. We can take His word for it can’t we? I mean it is His word right? Not ours? May God turn His face towards you and may His glory shine upon you andHe bless you with His knowledge His wisdom and His understanding of His word amen..

    • Not disagreeing with you, just that in the Scripture Romans 8:38-39, it mentions nothing shall separate us from the love of God, the long list of things that will not separate us from the love of God, strangely does not mention sin. It does not say nor sin. I actually probably believe in once saved always saved, yet I know we cant continue in sin, and why isn`t sin mentioned as one of the things that wont separate us from the love of God, everything else but is mentioned

      BTW I am not arguing the other side at all, just saying.

      • It’s true that ultimately if we have been saved sin doesn’t seperate us from God, but if we don’t repent of it surely it is not under the blood? If one is frightened that they will lose their salvation then they believe and cannot lose their salvation. If one is blase about it and have stopped believing as in Hebrews 6 (even though they have tasted salvation) then one is rejecting Jesus and counted the blood as nothing.

    • Yes God never leaves nor forsakes. In the context he is speaking to Spirit filled regenerated believers who repented and placed their trust in Christ. Only then can we hang onto this promise.

      He uses this as a call to those outside the faith to come to to Christ

    • When Paul said nothing can separate us from God he then gave a list which did not include sin. No one can snatch us from Jesus Hand nevertheless, we are free to leave at our request. “The prodigal son”
      He freely left and was Lost and Spiritually Dead. He had to choose to come back, the Father did not snatch him back.

    • Faith without love is nothing ( 1 Cor. 13:2) . “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,…”

  5. Until we return to the thought pattern as scripture states God is not a man,nor is god the son of a man that God should lie.mother is the giver of all life,therefore honor the life she give.

  6. What about a Person that truly becomes a Christian, asks Jesus into their heart, say at the time they were an alcoholic, the person after a number of years falls back into the drinking, is so filled with guilt, confessing his sin weekly promising to not do it again, but is back in the cycle again, keeps reading The Word between binges, thought of condemnation…just an example

    Does this person separated from the love of God because of their back sliding? Ok maybe not drinking but lust, do backsliding Christians lose their salvation? The Scripture mentions everything speaking of Romans 8: 38-39, but never uses the word sin… if sin does not separate us from God, why is this scripture not specifically mentioning sin as one of the things that does not separate us? Seems it would have been so easy to say

    Can a person fall away and be removed from the Book of life they were once in?

    • God demonstrates His love through giving mercy. John 3:16 demonstrates “God so loved the world He gave”. If you are abiding in Christ, you will not have the desire to sin and practice it. 1 John 3:6 “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.” God’s grace isn’t a license to sin, but empowers us to live holy lives of righteousness through HIs grace of the Holy Spirit, to where our desires are completely changed. This comes through complete surrender and dying to self, for the sake of living through Him. The more of ourselves we empty, the more of Him we get.

      Once saved always saved is a lie, as 2 Peter 2:20-21 states “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” Jesus also states in Matthew 7 how many will say Lord Lord, and He will say “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness (sin).

      He is a loving God that is quick to forgive us, no matter the situation (unless we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit which you see in Act Chp. 5), but The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. There are many Christians bound by the devil because we get too comfortable with God and our sin.

      The Lord changed my life 3 years ago when I gave my life fully to Him, and completely changed my desires where I loved sin now I hate it. When sin has occurred, it grieves my heart and true repentance would be birthed through it. He’ll never leave nor forsake us and disappear into the wind, but we can leave and forsake Him by our actions of disobedience. We must know who we are in Him, and when we fully believe the work Jesus completed here on earth and how much God really loves us, with our eyes locked on Him: the love of this world dies and the love of God lives.

      • For starters I did not say if I was speaking for myself, someone else, or simply hypothetically , but let me just make this observation to your apparent self righteousness … PRIDE COMETH BEFORE THE FALL, none of us are above falling.

  7. Thank you for this, it helped me with some of my fears. I was, and still a little am scared that God doesn’t love me. That he would stop listening to me.

  8. Lack of love, you know when you are seperated , it is horrible nothing compares with it, life without love is hell, I know I am there, not being able to repent with a sincere heart, feel like I am already dead, never learnt anything

  9. It is while we were dead in trespasses (Eph) God granted us life, eternal life. He granted us forgiveness of sin, complete forgiveness of our sin nature, and every sin that comes from it. He then seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms…seated on the throne room platform itself.

    While it is true, sin separated us from God – the promise of the OT is that God said, that he himself would bear the brunt, the punishment, the curse of our sin, and died the death of sin that we all face. He reconciled us to himself, while we were dead in our sins.

    There is nothing we can do to keep us in God’s good books. Christ, has done it all. The only unforgivable sin is the sin of not believing the Holy Spirit when he convicts us of the righteousness of Christ, and turn to him for mercy.

    If God reconciled us to him while we were dead in trespasses… there is no sin that can separate a believer from God.

  10. Clearly no one in here knows Jesus or what he taught and lived because had you really known him you’d know that it’s us through our sin consciousness who believe God is apart and away from us or that our relationship with him is strained. That is the lie of the evil one. God has never changed, we have. We are the ones who think God is mad at us or distant from us in ANY WAY.

  11. We may choose to go our own way. We may choose to separate ourselves from Him. This is the freedom of choice we have been given. Once we have chosen to do things in our own strength and stood therefore in the place of GOD, He steps back and allows us to remain on our own. Connection to Him is dependent on our willingness to trust Him completely, even if it looks unreasonable to do so. To choose to mistrust Him, and thereby trust in ourselves, is to believe the lies of Satan. This is sin. While GOD in Christ reconciled us to Himself by death on the cross, we are not required to accept this. We may still choose not to trust Him, despite all the evidence He has presented that He is trustworthy. He will not force us to live in eternity with Him if we do not wish to be there.

    Sin does separate us from Him because we, in effect, are saying “I don’t want to live without this power that I believe will meet my needs more effectively then You will. I want to be in control of my life. I don’t want You to be in control of my life.” Whether it is alcohol, sex, food, work, fear, pride, self-pity, opinion, reason, or theology, if we will not submit to a clear “Thus saith the Lord,” if we choose not to obey, we have chosen to separate from Him and He must honor our free will. If we are on our own, then He will let us be in control. In order to answer our prayers, it is required that we trust that He will. There is a submission to Him and obedience is included in that submission. Obedience is a response to that trust. “Lord, I will do what You ask because I believe that You truly do love me and have my best interest at heart. You would never ask me to do anything that wasn’t in my best interest. I trust You completely.”

    Does sin separate us from Him? Absolutely, because when we sin, we have chosen to send Him away. He will not intervene where He is not wanted.

  12. My understanding is that Jesus made a way for us to come to God, through His death and sacrifice He paid the price for our sins. Through acceptance of this, we can stand clothed in His righteousness. When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two, showing we can now approach the Holy of Holies. Hebrews 4 v 16 says, “Let us come BOLDLY to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. So wonderful and exciting!!

  13. By serious sin, freely chosen a Christian separates himself from the love of God. As Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but the passage doesn’t say that one cannot separate himself from him. Paul’s letter to the Romans is full of conditional ‘ifs’. Paul warns these Christian Romans that *if* they live according to the flesh they will die – Romans 8:13. Paul tells the Romans that if they put to death the deeds of the body by the help of the Holy Spirit, then they will live – Romans 8:13. Paul warns these Christians that if they yield themselves to sin, they will become slaves of sin, which leads to death – Romans 6:16. Romans 8:2 says I have been set free from the law of sin and death, but it doesn’t say I can’t choose to return to the law of sin and death. Jesus said those members of him (the vine) who don’t abide in him are cast forth as a branch, thrown in the fire and burned – John 15:6 Paul warns Christians to continue in God’s kindness, lest they be cut off – Romans 11:22. Romans 2:5-9 says that God, the righteous judge, will render to evey man according to his works: to those who obey wickedness there will be God’s wrath and fury, not eternal life. Clearly, a Christian can separate himself from the love of God. But the good news is that God is the prodigal’s best friend. If you have separated yourself from God by freely chosen sin that leads to death (1 John 5:16), repent and turn back to God. He’s waiting for you.

  14. My concern here is that we misinterpret what the Bible is saying. My best take on the Christian difference from the sinner is this. Sinners enjoy sin and desire a sinful lifestyle. While we as Christians have been converted by and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We will never be separated from Christ.But if and when we sin it hurts our hearts and we are very repentant . We hate sin and strive to be as close to God as possible, and He is our advocate. (1 john 2:1) However. If we do not accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. We will spend eternity separated from God. (Forever).

  15. Well said. I agree, and thanks for sharing this! As I’ve always seen it, sin causes shame, and shame separates us from God’s direction because we can’t be all he designed to be when we’re living in a self-degrading mindset. We are not aligned with him or connected with him in spirit if we feel like dirt. Correct me if I’m wrong. I am still learning.

  16. If there were no separation between God and man because of sin then the incarnation and substitutionary death and subsequent resurrection of Christ were unnecessary. It is precisely because of this separation that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I agree that in the overarching sense of God’s deep care and concern for all of humanity we, in our sinful state, were not separated but I would venture to say that in terms of our ability to apply and experience the fullness of that love we were indeed separated and without out hope in the world.

  17. We belong to God and sin is no longer the issue so as long as we believe sincerely, we will continue to respond faithfully so therefore sin has lost its power and has no authority to make us—true believers renounce our heavenly lord God almighty and because of our permanent inseparable love for our Sovereign God that was placed in our hearts the moment we first believed the power of the love that the only true wise and living God has given us, it can and will never lose its power eternally leading us by his wholly Holy Spirit that will never accept that sinful way to live but remain faithful to our God, forgiven ; and continue to work the will of Christ until we have been completely cleansed from all!!! Unrighteousness amen — Randolph Sims, a believer in the lord Christ Jesus.

  18. Just to note, Isaiah 59 starts out badly under the old covenant, but ends (16-21) beautifully as God promises to bring the new covenant in Christ, where those who accept Christ will never be separated from God, ever. I believe it is a false and works mindset teaching to say that if we who are in Christ, sin, that it separates us from Him. If that were true, then Christ’s sacrifice was not sufficient, He is not able to keep us and we could not be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Because we know the opposite is true and that He is all sufficient, we must believe when He says that all our sin has been forgiven, we stand in perfect righteousness before Him and our sins are cast as far as the east is from the west; lie on the ocean floor and; He remembers them no more. In fact, to ask God to forgive you for the same sin over and over is acting in unbelief. God said, God did and we need to believe by faith. But I do find it sad that the truth of the Gospel and the benefits/inheritance we receive at salvation and who we are in Christ is rarely talked about and that Christ’s true character is so twisted at times. God, have mercy.

  19. sepaaration is like the distraction he said focus on me sin sperating you from god is just that its taking your mind off him and like any parent who gives a F he knows and understands that and doesnt wave his hand and say bye bye my son and ship you off into infernal paradice for it for if that were the case he would nt be labeled as the all father or the god of love ty for explaining this on website people should hear n read truth for wtf it really is and not what hesebible thumpers say like stop sinning or go to hell HUGS YOU TIGHTLY N THANKS YOU

  20. I’m sure you mean well, but this is terrible theology. God is love, but He is also wrath to those who reject him. There is no reason to think He continues to love those in hell.