"1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" - Romans 6:1-2
She sat there on the pew. She bowed her head downcast in shame. Her hands were folded in front of her in neither surrender nor rebellion. She simply knew how she lived her life. She knew the private dark struggles that haunted her even into her dreams. The altar was calling her, and her hands desired to praise God but every time she thought of acting out the compulsion to do so, an image of her sinful life would pop into her mind. When images of her sinfulness would plague her thoughts (with images), in that instant she remained immobile on the pew. Tears continued to stream down her face. She lived a life of sin and shame. It was an endless struggle, a struggle that had vicious cycles. Cycles that would seem to tear at her soul a little with each committed repetition of her addiction. She begged God to kill her so that she didn’t have to endure such failure. She begged God to end her life so that she didn’t have to fight the battle any longer. But onward her life continued. The seconds ticked by, and the time continued and yet she mourned the distance she put between herself and God. She could feel the distance, the silence, the shocking cavern of distance. She knew that God was everywhere. However, she was certain that when she uttered a prayer God refused to listen. She was positive that God was to ashamed of her to give her a second glance. She saw in her mind’s eye the wicked blackness of her soul. "How could God ever use a girl like me?" She wondered these hopeless and desperate thoughts until her very being began to drown in depression and hopelessness. There were weeks of course where she was certain she had overcome her lustful addiction. for glimpses in time while praying she could feel the warmth of God overwhelm her and she was elated to feel him around her. But the same night she would go home, and her temptation would be waiting to overwhelm her once again with its provocative and lustful passions. This cycle of addiction played over and over, day by day in her life. For years she struggled! For years, tears, and anger, and bitterness ran through her veins! "Why Me?!" She would scream to the air! Frustrated! She couldn’t understand the surrender and relationship of God, and through the lack of God relationally in her life, her addiction grew stronger with each high. So there she sat on the green pew, with her continually bowed head in surrender to her shame, her desire for God so great but her soul to bound up by the addiction she allowed to rule her life.
The truth is that we have sold our souls back into spiritual slavery! We are bound by the wrists and ankles of addiction. The modern Christian in many ways has not sold out to the gospel like the disciples and saints of the first century did. I was sitting in Romans as Bro McClintock was speaking on Romans 6 and he mentioned that when we become a new creature in Christ we turn AWAY from sin upon conversion. I pondered the concept of turning away, and instantly my heart saw the words; despise, hate and loath! We should hate sin!
But to a certain point a modern Christian accepts the fact that we are going to sin anyway. We don’t welcome sin, but we don’t exactly take the proper steps to hate it either. We have become lukewarm with our hearts. One tiny sex scene in a movie is no big deal . . . but then those little sex scenes aren’t enough to appease your curiosity anymore and before you even realized what has entered into your life. Three months later, maybe even a year later, you look at yourself and realize that you are addicted to porn and you can’t fight your way back out of the pit you created.
Here is the difference between Paul and the difference between you and me. . .
Paul said, we are NEW creatures in Christ! We sin NO MORE! He doesn’t mean that you won’t make mistakes but he definitely doesn’t condone sinful actions on the part of human lusts and passions
Whereas, the modern Christian says, We are just man, we are just human. We are bound to sin. God will forgive us!
Do you see the distinction?
"5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.7 For he that is dead is freed from sin."
- Romans 6:5-7
A slave after being freed from its oppressor would never willingly go back into a life of struggle, of pain, lack of wage or mistreatment! So why do we as Christians flirt with the idea of going back into the shackles of sin? Knowing that the consequences of our actions would be dangerous, our desire for the moment overtakes our logic for the long term. But we have become so complacent with our walk with God. Our hearts have become desensitized to the world. We pick and choose our wrongs to match our comfort. For instance, an example of a heinous sin is homosexuality in the church. men and women are publically ridiculed, spiritually condemned and almost spit upon for being open about their 'life choice.' However, a person with a secret sin of pornography, adultery, gluttony GOSSIPING is not spit out of the church for their 'life choice' YES! It is a life choice. No matter what the sin. If it is a repetitive sin of any kind, and a constant in your life, then you have made it is a 'life choice' or 'life style.' As a result, you are no different than your brother struggling with homosexuality. The gossiper and bitter heart is no different than a person struggling with pornography or gluttony. It is all the same.If we are not careful! We will be a generation of Christians that without us even realizing will have been seduced back into the bondage of a sinful life. Just because you go to church regularly, clap your hands when the music is playing or even sincerely worship when you are in church does not mean that you are a Christian at heart! Let’s check ourselves and see just how Christian our personal lives really are.
For many of us we were raised in the truth. We don’t know what it was like outside of the truth. The concept of a new creature in Christ feels kind of foreign because we always had the truth. However, here it is; sin is sin. A life outside of God is sin. When you sin, you are living outside of God. When we were baptized in Christ, we became a new person dead to sin and 'resurrected' in His likeness. Are we living the resurrected life of His likeness or are we still playing with the shackles of a sinful life.
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." -Romans 6:11-13
We are born again through Christ, as a new man, so let’s start acting like it!
