Random Thoughts on Sin

Is there a point on earth where we see the end to our sins?

Is it true that we will always be captive to our sin?

Is it true that even as we think we have overcome, we will fall to attack?

Is the battle hopeless until our death?

I believe there is always hope. I think one of the worst things we can do is say that we will never see an end to our sin.

The difference is that we cannot expect that end to come of our own power.  For we are of the flesh.  Our flesh is sinful to its very nature.

The flesh is weak.

"Since therefore Christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourself with the same way of thinking; for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. "

We must deny the body.

We must be willing to suffer in our flesh.

It will feel like we are going against our very nature.

It will directly oppose the urges and cravings of our body.

But we must deny.

We must deny.

We must give no room to our flesh.

But how?  How can we deny our flesh when it is the very fabric of our lives?

We depend on our flesh.  It is necessary to live.

That is true if you are not a Christian.

If you do not have a different source of life to turn to, the situation is quite hopeless - you will never escape the bondage of sin.

As we grow in our faith, as we lean upon God.  As we pray for the Holy Spirit, as it fills us, as it transforms us - we find a new fabric of being.

We are dying to our flesh.

We are dying to ourselves.

We are allowing the spirit - Christ - to live through us.

We are leaning on his perfect, sinless, spotless life.

But the flesh is still there.

The flesh will always be there.

Until we die and are given a new, perfect body - the flesh will be present.

Therefore we are called to suffer.

The trick is that, when you are in love, you are able to suffer.

Suffering doesn't hurt - we do it willingly to serve our lover.

Think of an addiction.  Think of an addiction that has ravaged your body.  An addiction like cigarette smoking.  It destroys you.  It eats away your very source of breath.  With each inhale it kills you - yet you are unaware of your suffering.  You are blinded by your love for the calmness it creates.  Your love, craving, and dependency on this one thing has blinded you to the damage it is doing to another thing.

Christ must become our addiction.  The comfort that he gives us.  The love that we find in him.  The fulfillment that can only come from uniting with him - it will make the suffering of the flesh a dull echo.  As we die to ourselves we begin to live more and more for him. 

This step is essential.  There are many who have tried to die to themselves without replacing it with Christ.  This happens often through other addictions.  They replace their own desires with desires for lust, for alcohol, for drugs, for sex - they devote themselves to these desires of the flesh, they forget themselves..and one day when they are no longer able to feed these addictions.  When they are lost to them…they often die…for these addictions do not give new life.  Leaning on these addictions numb the pains of your flesh, they don't heal and transform.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Find the power of a new affection.  The power of the ultimate affection.  An affection that will transform and sanctify you - a power that will allow you to deny yourself -and one day grant you with a new body.  A body where the flesh and spirit are both willing.  The power of Christ allows us to confront and overcome our sins.  We will overcome -by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony!