What if we have misunderstood how God relates to humanity, particularly in the presence of sin? Much of what people believe is built around the idea of distance, that sin creates separation, that failure causes God to withdraw, and that the responsibility of the individual is to somehow close that gap. This belief system is often so deeply ingrained that it feels unquestionable.
I still remember one of the skits they used to play at church when I was a kid. There were always three characters in the lesson: God, the devil, and the human. One day when I was around eleven years old, I got picked to be the human.
The setup was simple but powerful. I stood facing the person playing God while another person played the devil. I was instructed to tell a lie, and the moment I did, the person playing the devil walked over and placed a number of large black cardboard boxes between me and the person representing God. The blocks symbolized separation. Suddenly I could no longer see "God" face-to-face because something now stood between us.
The lesson was clear. Sin creates separation. And unless I apologized, unless I said sorry and made things right, the separation would remain. God would not speak to me. God would stay distant until I responded correctly.
What marked me years later was realizing the lesson was not really about forgiveness. It was about distance. It taught me that my relationship with God depended on my ability to perform reconcilliation through confession and appeasement. The burden was entirely on me to remove the barrier. And without realizing it, I began to believe that God's closeness could come and go based on my behaviour.
Yet Scripture presents something far more precise. Paul writes that we were "alienated and enemies in our minds" (Colossians 1:21). He does not describe God stepping away, but a mindset he believed he had. The separation was not initiated by God's withdrawal, but experienced through human perception.
This distinction is critical because it reframes the entire conversation. If separation exists in the mind, then the issue is not one of proximity, but perception. And if the problem is perception, then the solution is not striving to get closer, but awakening to what is already true.
When we look at the life of Jesus, this becomes even clearer. Jesus does not demonstrate distance from those considered sinful. He moves toward them. He sits with them. He engages with them. He is not repelled by their condition, nor does He wait for them to change before approaching. If Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, then we cannot maintain a view of God that contradicts the life He revealed.
This means that God is not withdrawing in the presence of sin. He is not turning away, nor is He maintaining distance out of fear or rejection. Instead, He moves toward humanity, even in the midst of brokenness, not to affirm it, but to restore it. He is not afraid of sin. He does not look away from it. He steps into the middle of it so that people might encounter Him there.