Isn’t all exile a punishment for sin?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/in-exile/

This last Sunday, we began our six week focus entitled exiled how to live in a place that isn’t home. And in our introductory message, we talked about really all believers, ever since the garden, have experienced exile, being away from their true home with God. The question comes in this week is, isn’t all exile a punishment, even if the only exile we’re really experiencing is being out of the garden? Well, that was a punishment, wasn’t it? So isn’t exile always the result of sin?

The question comes up because in the course of the sermon, I said, you could do everything right and yet still be in exile. But if we reverse the story and go back to the beginning, we see humans didn’t do everything right. That’s never been the case. And so aren’t we really experiencing the effects of the original exile, even if there’s not a specific exile like Israel had when they went into exile in Babylon? And the answer is yes.

And are, in terms of yes, we are definitely experiencing the effects of the original sin out of the fall. But that doesn’t mean that we are in exile because we have done anything specifically wrong. Just like any other sin, anytime anybody commits any sin, it gets all over everybody. Everybody is affected, whether they were directly participating in it or not. You could think you’re working for a company.

That company has some kind of scandal. You didn’t have anything to do with it. You didn’t know anything about it, you didn’t participate in it, but now you’re out of a job because the company tanked after they had the scandal. And so you are experiencing the effect of someone else’s sin. And that is largely the case with us post fall.

We were not involved in that, but we are experiencing the effects of that. Romans five talks about death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who didn’t sin by breaking a command. Right. They’re experiencing the effects of the fall, the death that resulted of the fall, even though they didn’t necessarily have anything to do with that and might not have done anything wrong, necessarily themselves. Right?

They’re just experiencing the effect of it. And so, yes, all exile from the garden is the result of sin, but that doesn’t mean that we necessarily did anything wrong. And again, that was the point of Hebrews eleven, listing all these Old Testament saints, some of whom were living in Israel, some of whom lived before Israel, some of whom never got to Israel, some of whom were taken away from Israel. Right? Yet all of them were in the same category of exile away from their real home.

Well, thanks for the question. Hope that’s helpful. And we will see you next time.