The shackles of sin

(2Corithians 2:11) “So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

Sin ensnares us to a life of overpowering disappointment but Christ frees us from sin and He alone equips us with power to serve the living God with a clear conscience. This is such a liberating reality that is causing my soul to sing. The joy of the Lord endures forever! But we must tick a few boxes before this becomes our veracity. There are so many different ways in which we can study this liberating subject, but we must all arrive at the right conclusion. Get it wrong and it will leave us clutching at straws or as a man beating his chest with a big booming voice, a clanging symbol with no melody. Our words must complement our lifestyles; there must be an echo of descant from our mouths.   

So where does that leave me, a man who has blotched so badly in life and in so many different areas that it hurts my head just to think on some of the foolish mistakes that I have repeatedly been lured into hoping for a different outcome. Sin is the great destroyer and it always achieves its objective if allowed free reign. There must come a time of clear understanding of sins authenticity in a person’s life before they are capable of seeking out God’s graces to seriously find forgiveness for their actions.    

Sin has one objective, sure it may be coated with many differing disguises but it has one intention and that is to keep you from God and more aptly put, from the will of God. Who is the Father of sin? Adam was the first man to succumb to it but Satan is the conductor! Keep a man enslaved in his sin and you will keep him from the will of God, a simple but profound objective that has stood the test of time. No differently to a member of an orchestra, on cue, summoned to play their part; a scary thought but overpoweringly accurate.

We must ask God to reveal the sin in our lives because our hearts are desperately wicked and it tricks us into believing we are okay when in fact we are not. God the Holy Spirit is the One who will expose the rot in our lives and I pray that God gives us the eye-balm to see our sin for what it is. If not we will continue as we did the day before and have very little effect on those around us. We are the salt of the earth and it is the sin in our lives that erodes away at it being useful when sitting at a table to eat. This is Satan’s objective to keep us feeding our sin, making us pathetic and useless as Christian soldiers. We are at war and the combat is about to heat up like never before, well not in our lifetimes anyway; are we willing to take this matter seriously?      

Even the psychologist understands that unless we address certain hurts in our past acknowledging them as your own reality it cannot be dealt with efficiently. If it remains buried it will always hinder our progress. What they do not tell you is that sin cannot be defeated by any of man’s efforts; that would be impossible. It took one man, Jesus Christ to conquer that beast and every effort prior to his victory came up short. Where we may make our mistake is that we do not live in His victory but rather excuse our sin as the norm, sweeping it under the mat and pretending that all is ok! When in fact we have been rendered powerless! Let us not be fooled into thinking that we are the masters of our own destiny, sin has taken care of that and until you are freed from its power we will be its puppet. We all must come to this realisation if we are to be freed from its entrapment.

Does the Christian fall privy its power? We shouldn’t, but many sadly do. I know I have. But there must come a time in a believer’s life when we stand up as men and cry, no more! We need to understand what that looks like and the Apostle Paul has gone to great lengths to break that down for us. With one objective, to free us from its power; Christ alone has achieved that but until that becomes our reality we will sadly remain privy to the power of sin. Spend time in the book of Romans it will bring about change in our lives when understood; take your time and ponder the meaty portions of God’s truth looking to Him the author and the finisher of our faith, which will liberate us to serve Him with a clear conscience.

David has helped me understand that no matter how we have blundered as Christians if we find God’s forgiveness it will be well with our souls, but until then we will be of very little use to anybody, let alone God’s will for our lives.     

  

Read Psalm 51…

Until tomorrow then we will look to unpacking that psalm and hopefully it will be liberating and set some of us free to serve the living God with a deeper understanding.

Signing off

Tyrone