Sin DOESN’T Separate Us from God
Rethinking the lie that sin separates us
Somewhere along the way, many of us were taught this:
“Sin separates you from God.”
It was said so often, so confidently, that it became gospel in our minds. We assumed that if we made a mistake, failed again, or walked through a season of doubt or struggle, then God must have stepped away.
Maybe He was angry.
Maybe disgusted.
Maybe just done.
So we began to believe that God only stayed close when we were doing well.
When we were reading our Bibles.
When our prayers were flowing.
When our behavior was squeaky clean.
But the minute we messed up?
God was gone.
At least, that’s what we were told.
Here’s the truth:
Sin doesn’t separate you from God.
Nothing can.
And Jesus is the proof.
The Verse That Started the Separation Idea
A lot of this theology comes from a verse in Habakkuk 1:13:
“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” (NIV)
It sounds like God can’t be near sin. But context matters.
This verse is spoken by Habakkuk, who is lamenting. He’s frustrated. He’s wrestling with injustice. He’s asking God why evil seems to go unpunished. It’s a moment of confusion, not a doctrinal declaration.
And even within the same passage, God clearly sees evil. He is involved, engaged, and working redemption in real time. The idea that God literally can’t be near sin is a misreading of the text, and a dangerous one at that.
Jesus Didn’t Separate—He Moved Toward
If sin separates us from God, then Jesus must not have gotten the memo.
Because He touched the unclean.
He ate with sinners.
He defended the woman caught in adultery.
He told Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and hosted Himself at his house.
He didn’t flee from sin, He walked straight into it.
Jesus didn’t say, “Clean yourself up, then come to me.”
He said, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened…” (Matt. 11:28)
And when Jesus went to the cross, He entered fully into the consequence and depth of human sin, not to separate us from God, but to reveal how far God was willing to go to stay with us.
But What About Isaiah 59?
You may have heard this one too:
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God…” (Isaiah 59:2)
Again, context matters. This is a prophetic indictment to a people immersed in injustice, oppression, and violence. The “separation” here isn’t God walking away. It’s people who have closed their ears to God’s voice. It’s spiritual disconnection, not divine abandonment.
There’s a difference between feeling distant from God and God actually being distant.
God never leaves.
So Does Sin Matter?
Absolutely.
Saying that sin doesn’t separate us from God is not saying that sin doesn’t matter.
Sin is serious.
Sin wounds.
Sin damages our hearts, our relationships, our world.
Sin wounds us. It distorts who we are and leaves us carrying shame, fear, and insecurity.
Sin wounds others. Our choices ripple outward, hurting the people we love, sometimes deeply.
Sin wounds the heart of God. Not because He’s disgusted or fragile, but because He loves us so much that our pain becomes His.
We don’t avoid sin because God will leave us.
We avoid sin because it hurts everyone and everything.
It tears at the shalom God longs to restore.
Jesus came because of the wounding.
He entered into the brokenness.
He bore the full weight of our sin, not to separate us from it, but to heal us from it.
To take away the sin of the world.
The Spirit isn’t shaping us into people who fear God’s absence.
The Spirit is shaping us into people who hate what harms,
Who see sin for what it really is:
A barrier to love, to wholeness, to peace.
So yes, sin matters.
But it doesn’t remove you from God.
It invites you back into healing with the One who never left.
Nothing Can Separate Us
Paul said it best in Romans 8:
“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers… will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing.
Not your shame.
Not your history.
Not your worst day.
Not your secret struggle.
God’s love doesn’t flinch.
God doesn’t walk away.
God is not waiting for you to get your act together before He draws near.
He already did.
His name is Jesus.
Why This Matters
If you believe sin separates you from God, then every time you fail, you’ll assume God’s love has left the building.
You’ll stop praying.
You’ll stop hoping.
You’ll spiral in shame.
And you’ll carry a lie that keeps you from the one thing you most need: God’s presence in your mess.
But when you know that God is with you, even in your failure, everything changes.
You stop hiding.
You start healing.
And you begin to trust that grace is stronger than your worst day.
See the Gospel Reframed Visually
If you’ve ever been told “sin separates you from God,” this video might change everything for you. In The Gospel in Chairs, pastor and author Brian Zahnd contrasts two visions of salvation: one shaped by retributive justice, and another rooted in the love we see in Jesus.
It’s a stunning visual retelling of the gospel—not where God turns away from sinners, but where God keeps turning toward us again and again.
Watch “The Gospel in Chairs” here.
“God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There’s never been a time when God wasn’t like Jesus, we just didn’t always know that. But now we do.”
The Gospel Is Better Than We Thought
Jesus didn’t come to make God love us.
He came to show us that God already did.
Sin is real. It has consequences. It can numb us, isolate us, distort our vision.
But it can’t separate us from God.
The cross is not a bridge to a distant God.
It’s the place where God meets us in the depths of our brokenness
And says, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Jesus is not your lifeline back to God.
Jesus is God - reaching, rescuing, embracing.
Always has been.
Always will be.
Reflection Questions
Where did you first hear the phrase “Sin separates us from God”?
How has that belief shaped your spiritual life or your image of God?
What shifts when you believe that God is always with you, even when you’ve fallen?
This theological correction is long overdue. Sin does not separate us from God. We sin because we feel separated from God. God has not changed since Jesus. He is always the same God. He loved every human born before Jesus exactly the same way He loves everyone now. The difference is that our awareness of that love has matured. The atonement sacrifice matured into the full expression of God's willingness to forgive us our sins in the messiah, Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It has matured because God has been growing this awareness of His love in us all along.
God has always based a harmonious relationship with us on our trust in Him, in His grace. God was never a God of legalism. Paul speaks at great length to make this point. The law was given to give us an awareness of just how damaged we humans have become and in so doing lead us to the cure for that damage, Jesus, the full expression of God's willingness to forgive us our sins. All of this should let us see just how evil the doctrine that sin separates us from God has been and still is.
Exactly. The teaching of what sin really is, has been flawed for a long time. There is a separation. But, it is not the way we have been taught. Obviously God is on the other side of the veil. He came to die for us to bring us to Himself. But, the Bible is clear that he hears every idle word, and there is no place we can hide from Him. He comes running when we call out and seeks to save and help us. When we sin, it causes problems in our lives, spiritually and physically. He is trying to save and help us because of that.