Never Sleep with the Enemy

In Romans 7:13 Paul says that God's commands make sin appear "exceedingly sinful."  The law is not often emphasized today because Christ has instituted the New Covenant in His blood.  We can be insulated from the severity of sin as offense towards God because we do not have to physically pay for our sins with the blood of animals or our own.  It is important that we look at each sin specifically, not in generalities.  In this way we bring attention to specific sins and through God's power put each to death without mercy.  We cannot "deal" with our sins.  We might as well deal with axe murderers and serial rapists!

There are patterns we fall into when thinking of sin.  We compare ourselves with others and "grade" on a curve.  If we seem more upright than someone else, we do not see ourselves as being in sin.  In school we are happy with an "A" grade, even though the range is from 90 to 100%.  God's justice demands complete perfection, and God gives no letter grades:  we either pass with a perfect 100%, or we fail.  And according to His righteous demands, we can't even score a 1% on His test!  In reading Jerry Bridges book Respectable Sins, the sin he emphasizes as most basic is ungodliness.  In my own strength I cannot be godly for one second.  If I could be godly for one second, then I could be godly for two seconds.  If I could be godly for two seconds I could be godly for five seconds.  If I could be godly for seconds I could be godly for minutes, hours, days, and years.  But in my flesh no good things dwells!

Sin means to miss the mark.  My sons have a Wii gaming system, and one of the activities in Sport Resort is archery.  At the beginning you start very close to the target which has a tiny dot in the middle of the bull's eye.  After completion of the first shot, the target is moved farther away and the wind begins to blow.  Then the target begins to move from side to side with wind!  I do not think it is possible to hit all four targets exactly on the bull's eye in the game, and it is even more impossible to perfectly conform to God's laws.  It looks very easy to hit a target in the middle.  Because we can see the target there is not doubt in our minds where to aim.  But actually being perfectly accurate?  That is something we cannot do.  We can be deceived to think that because we agree with the arrangement of the target, we always hit it dead center.  We criticize from the couch!  But when we stand up and try it for ourselves, we find ourselves complete failures.

I was thinking this morning of how bad sin really is.  When I allow sin in my life it is worse than having sexual relations with Satan while being betrothed to Christ!  I hope that is a abominable, disgusting thought to you.  It makes me sick to think I would be joined to sin instead of Christ.  No sane person would ever marry a notorious serial killer, and sin is the worst killer of them all.  Sin kills every time!  Sin is so horrible the perfect Lamb of God was killed and His blood shed so we can be forgiven.  We must see ourselves as sinners in the present tense before we can be saved for eternity.  Before his death the writer of "Amazing Grace" John Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things:  that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior." (Respectable Sins, Bridges, pg. 31)  The truth remains we can never see ourselves as sinful as we really are.  Because of this, during our lives on earth we will never quite understand how great the grace of God towards us.  Praise God for the Good News, that we who are dead in sins can be made alive unto God by grace through faith!

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ shed for me.  I have sinned greatly against you and brought dishonor to your holy name.  I renounce all sin and desire to live a life pleasing unto you.  Please forgive me and present me faultless before your presence with exceeding joy.  Thank you for your love and your faithfulness to redeem, reconcile, and restore.  All praise and glory to your holy name!