Cynics like to question the idea of God not being able to be in the presence of sin because He is so holy, implying: “if sin has such power to corrupt holiness, isn’t it greater?” But they’re missing the point. It’s not that the light of the gospel of the glory of God is not strong enough to penetrate into the utter darkness of the fallen human soul–it can, and it does. Rather, the reason why God and sin can’t be together is that the darkness of sin cannot endure the exposure and splendor and purity of God’s inaccessible Light.
In other words, it’s not that God can’t bear the presence of sin, it’s that sin cannot stand in the presence of the Consuming Fire who is our God.