7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? 8 Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.
So, is God affected by our sin? Elihu’s answer is that our sin does not affect God at all. Elihu takes God out of the sin equation completely. So, who gets the results of sin? People obviously do, as Elihu points out. When I am angry and express that toward my family, they obviously receive the negative impact of that anger. I do as well, as my relationship with them tanks. I take the results of this diminished home life to work and I have trouble concentrating, thus lowering my work productivity. We don’t connect socially as we used to because of the ruffled feathers, so our social network is affected. Our sin affects everyone to one degree or another. There is a ripple effect. But our question is whether God is affected by our sin, whether what we do changes Him. Scripture says that He is grieved when sin (Gal 4:30) affects our speech. Sin changed the very nature of creation itself. Romans 8:22-23 talks about sin causing the creation to groan in pain. Sin made relationship with us very costly; Jesus had to die to bring restoration. Our sin has affected God and continues to affect Him. Until He restores everything, sin’s price is high. Once sin is removed once and for all, then God will not be affected by it. So next time we think our sin affects only us, think again. There is no such thing as a ‘private’ sin. Every sin has a cost, a cost to you, to family, to friends, to society, and ultimately to God. One of the steps in recovery from addiction is to make a careful inventory of your wrongs and then go make amends. Part of our spiritual healing comes when we recognize the costs of sin.
The Arnold Journey 