Late one night in 1989, a shot rang out from a nice home in a quiet neighborhood. It occurred in a place where nothing bad was supposed to happen. A woman lay bleeding on her kitchen floor as an unknown male fled the scene. The suspect had forced his way into her house and shot her in the face. The critically wounded victim couldn’t provide much of a suspect description. We had very little to go on.

The following morning, a man showed up at the Police Department. He told the desk officer he shot a lady the previous night. He didn’t know who she was or if she survived. After he left a bar, high on crack, he picked a house at random. He seemed genuinely remorseful as he confessed. The man was subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison, spending the next 29 years behind bars.

I saw that lady recently. She recognized me in the grocery store. I remembered the case and told her it was a miracle she survived. The blast from the gunshot caused significant damage to her mouth and jaw. Although the scars weren’t visible, she had suffered constant pain for over 30 years. She told me the suspect died shortly after his release from prison. His obituary included a message from his son. It said he wished he had gotten the chance to know his father. He never did.

Three lives were forever changed that night by one evil act. A man chose drugs, and the outcome was a lifetime of suffering for an innocent victim. A young son was robbed of his father. The effects of one sin radiated out like ripples on a pond. Innocent lives were fragged in the process.

We live in a dark, fallen world. Moral decay affects every area of the human condition. Sin isn’t simply personal acts of disobedience. It is the cumulative moral corrosion that affects the entire world. God’s original creation was once deemed “very good.” Then sin entered. Today, we live in a world corrupted in every area.

That’s why God hates sin. It has become a cliché and is often used to suggest God hates sinners. Not true. He hates sin because of what it does to those He loves. He hates the destruction it brings. He hates the resulting death. His hatred for evil is driven by His love for us.

On a dark day around AD30, an innocent man hung dying on a cross. Millions of lives were changed that day by one selfless act. A man chose sacrifice, and the outcome was the eternal salvation of sinners like me. A Father lovingly gave us His Son. God’s grace now radiates outward like ripples on water, changing the lives of all who believe. God is making all things new, beginning with the human heart.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)