Faces on Faith: I just hate it
The ink is hardly dry on our 2014 resolution list before we have broken two or three of them. Woe is us! We are so weak sometimes! It reminds me of the words of the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Christians at Rome, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing!” (Romans 7:18-19) Paul understood our wrestling with sin because he wrestled too!
I hate sin because it is so powerful. Like Paul said, we often don’t do what we know is rightand we keep on doing the things we know are wrong. And then we kick ourselves for letting it get the best of us again!
I hate sin because it is so costly. I heard a wise man say once that sin will always take you further than you wanted to go and cost you more than you ever thought it would. Sin is expensiveand it always ends up with great loss.
A couple of years ago I ministered in a maximum security prison. Talking with an inmate who was in for life was quite revealing. He said, “I never thought that smoking that joint would lead to crack, (in fact, I told my buddies I would never do crack!). And I never dreamed I would become a dealerand then kill for it!”
I sat with a man who had lost everything.job, home, familyand his health because of a visit to a Casino on a Cruise Ship. “Something rose up in me that was bigger than me when I won that jackpot. I couldn’t stop from there.” And he didn’t stop until it cost him everything.
I hate sin because of all the deception that revolves around it..”It won’t really affect me. It’s really not my fault. People talk about sin because they want to spoil our fun! I could never be forgiven of that!”
I hate sin because it cost Jesus His life! Paul also wrote to the Romans: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We have now been justified by His Blood.” (Romans 5:8)
I am amazed, (maybe that is why Grace is Amazing) by God’s love and His solution for our sin problem. The Bible reminds us that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save us. (John 3:17) He knew our struggle and He knew our great need for forgiveness and His power to overcome!
Resolutions aren’t the answer. Paul finishes up by saying, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” Jesus is the answer to our sin problem! Have a Happy Hope-filled New Year in Him!