ray riceThe promising career of Ray Rice, a Baltimore Ravens star running back, may be prematurely over. TMZ, a celebrity entertainment and gossip news website, released a two-year-old video showing Ray Rice punching his girl friend, Janay Palmer, and knocking her out in an elevator.

Even though Mr. Rice had been arrested and indicted for this horrific act of violence, the NFL suspended him indefinitely after the video became public. The Baltimore Ravens then released him outright.

Domestic violence, expressing our anger and frustration by physically attacking someone is terribly wrong, whether or not it is done by a man or a woman. That lesson has been burned into our minds after seeing that elevator recording.

There is, however, another lesson that we can all learn from Ray Rice’s moment of rage. When he lost his temper, he probably thought that the confines of that elevator would hide his explosive behavior. He knows better now, but his disgrace is a good reminder of a vital, Scriptural truth: We can’t hide any of our sins. The Bible puts it this way: “there is no creature hidden from

[God’s] sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

The fact that God sees and remembers everything we do is really scary because God is completely pure and holy. Someone has estimated that the average person commits about one million sins in a lifetime. That’s probably pretty accurate if you consider that we are sinning every single time we lie, deceive, lust, covet, disrespect a parent, take God’s name in vain, steal, feel hatred for another person, or fail to love God with all of our hearts.

There are different ways of reacting to that mountain of sin. Some people tell themselves that there is no God, therefore they can do anything they want. Other people soothe their conscience by saying that God is loving and He will “understand.” Others claim that God is so far away that He doesn’t really care about what we do.

Those thoughts are not new. Thousands of years ago the Bible talked about them: “Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, ‘You will not require it’” (Psalm 10:13). “He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it’” (Psalm 10:11).

Pretending that our sins don’t really matter is just wishful thinking. Jesus warned us that “… there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known” (Matthew 10:26). Earlier God gave us this caution: “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, [even an elevator?] and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’” (Isaiah 29:15).

We may boldly claim that we aren’t worried about God’s standard of holiness, but deep within our hearts we know that one day every single one of us must stand before our Creator. The Apostle John was given a glimpse of what that will look like: “I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; … and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds” (Revelation 20:12).

Think about it. Our every thought, word, and deed will be exposed for all to see, even the ones we have forgotten or tried to hide in elevators. I sure don’t want that to happen to me. What about you? Thankfully, there is a way to escape that horrible event.

It’s true that God will punish all sin, but (and this is beyond amazing) God volunteered to become a man so He could endure the punishment that we deserve! “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just [He is perfect] for the unjust,[that’s you and me] so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

We are free from the punishment we deserve when we place our complete trust in what Jesus did on our behalf. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

People may never forget what Ray Rice did to his girlfriend, but Jesus paid for that sin. He also paid for all of your sin and mine. For everyone who repents (agrees with God’s standard of holiness) and turns from sin asking for His forgiveness, will never have to suffer God’s eternal punishment. Notice the assurance that God will then give: “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

When judgment day comes, all of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will have nothing to fear. God has erased the record of those wicked, hidden deeds we remember with such dread. We are safe IN CHRIST! Hallelujah!