Sin

Our pastor was speaking on sin and how sin is allowed to creep into our lives when we allow Satan an entry. It is often from our weakest points that he attacks us. I was reading CS Lewis' Magician's Nephew to my son and daughter tonight and the witch was trying to persuade the boy to sin as "no one will notice." The boy identifies the lie, immediately flees from the witch and does the right thing, even though it may cost him his mother's life.

J. Vernon McGee described sin something like this: A man in apartment building jumps off the top which will cause him to surely die. Another man who lives in the middle of the apartment complex sees the man jumping and decides to climb out of his window after the man that jumped from the top, meeting his death. A final man climbs out of the window from a lower story and meets his death too. Is the man who climbed from the top any more dead than the one from the lowest story? The net effect is that they are all dead. Sin is the same way. God sees sin as sin and must be atoned for.

The atonement God gave us is Jesus Christ. To understand that we need a Savior, we must realize we are lost. Until we come to the ends of ourselves and realize we are truly and completely lost, we will not feel the need to be completely saved. It takes true humility to realize that we are not self-sufficient and turn the reigns of our lives over to God. But when we ask for forgiveness and acknowledge that Jesus died for the atonement of our sins, not when we were saved or "doing good", but while we were yet sinners -- in all of our imperfections in order to fulfill the purpose of being joined again in union with the Father and embark upon a journey that will bring us new life as we seek to know Him better. This journey, when not giving up but remaining faithful, though we may stumble and fall, will brings us new life until, for His glory, our life radiates anew as more of the new remains and the old passes away. This journey must be undertaken with the Word in one hand, faith in the other, the Word upon our lips and a new song in our heart.

We may find on this journey that we are truly a failure by the world’s standards. But God judges the heart Hebrews 4:12. What may be a failure to man, may bring God the ultimate glory. After all, what sense is there in building a boat if no one has ever seen rain? Why deliver a people to the water when the mountains would be more obvious? Why choose over and over again those that care for sheep to lead His people? Isn't it wonderful that God's ways are not our ways? Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;"