Being troubled by sin

“I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” Psalm 38:18
Confessing our sin is one of the first steps towards conversion, but as we all know too well, it doesn’t end there. Christians do continue to sin – sometimes small, sometimes big; sometimes through weakness, other times deliberately. Paul addressed a wrong attitude that was floating around the church in Rome: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:1-2). There are two categories of ‘sin’ in view here: what Paul is referring to is continuing to live in a sinful lifestyle. The other category is the individual sins we commit through the day. Someone who is continuing to live a sinful lifestyle, has not understood the magnitude of what sin is – nor what it cost God.
Are we troubled by our sin? This can take many forms. Martin Luther was so troubled by every little sin he committed that it nearly tipped him over the edge – until he was set free by discovering that well-known verse: “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4, Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11, Heb. 10:38). Are we troubled because, like Luther, it shows us our own weaknesses? Is it because we know that our sin causes God pain? Jesus died for every single one of our sins; do you get the feeling that every time you fail, you are adding to His suffering?
This is the measure of our spiritual maturity: how much we hate sin in our lives and want to live righteously, for God. If we think nothing of it, we show that we don’t understand the cost of sin (Rom. 3:23). God doesn’t love us any less when we slip up, He is always there to forgive us when we confess our sin and ask for His forgiveness (1 John 1:9). But we must understand how God views sin, and develop His attitude towards it.