A recent cartoon of Dennis the Menace pictured the mischievous young fellow kneeing at his bedside for his nightly prayers. As usual, he had some confessing to do—“It was an honest mistake with bad results.”

Some of our sins are honest mistakes. We thought we were doing or saying the right thing, but it turned out that we were wrong.

Quite often our sins are not merely honest mistakes. We deliberately chose to do the wrong thing. Our sinful nature won out, and we acted out in rebellion against God.

All sins, whether honest mistakes or outright rebellion, have bad results. Sometimes we have to suffer the consequences of our sin, even if it is forgiven.

For sin that is not covered by the blood of Jesus, the bad results are almost too terrifying to consider! Thank God that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be saved from the ultimate bad results of our sins!

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”—Romans 8:1.