With the same human life

So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. The law was without power because it was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do: He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that everyone else uses for sin. God sent him to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. He did this so that we could be right just as the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

God used a human life to destroy sin - but that human life was the Son of God, come to earth with the specific mission of taking our sins to the cross. Does it ever surprise you that God used 'human life' to destroy sin? Jesus experienced what we experience from day to day, growing hungry, weary, sweating from hard work. He didn't just pop onto the scene in all his divinity and take on sin! He lived with us, as us, yet he remained without sin. This gives me hope - hope that it is possible to live on this earth and not give into all the temptation that is surrounding us each day.

God did what the law could not do - it judged us guilty, but in Christ, he judged us free from sin. There is more to this being 'free' from sin that we might not realize. We must live following the Spirit of God, not our sinful lusts and selfish pride. That said, we might not realize that it is even possible to say no to sin - since temptation is all around us, pulling us every which way. Sin isn't some ethereal force we can blame for our disobedience. It is the response of our sinful, selfish nature (human form) to that temptation. Obedience is just the opposite - it is our holy response to resist the even the desire to give into that temptation/

As you might have already discovered, having a 'set of rules' by which we live doesn't make us free of sin. Our pride still exists - even if we remove mirrors, we will still find some way to make a comparison of ourselves with others. Our lusts still exist - even if we say we want to live pure and upright lives, it is hard to avoid all the pulls of our flesh in our own power. We will still want that chocolate bar an hour from now! We need God's help to avoid giving in - our own willpower is never enough. Rules guide us, but they don't make us holy. Only God does that! We need Jesus to overcome whatever pulls at us the most - it is his 'righteousness' that makes it possible to resist sin's pull, not ours! Just sayin!

A crumbling pillar

Finally Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen. After all, we are close relatives! The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.” Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord. (Genesis 13:8-13)

Abraham and Lot realized great increase in flocks, herds, silver, and gold - so much so that it was possible arguments were breaking out among the keepers of the flocks and herds as to watering holes and grazing lands. One wanted this grazing land, while the other wanted the same piece of land. One wanted that watering hole, and the other wanted it, too. The 'closeness' was getting to be too much for the 'wealth' of these two men to remain that close to each other in the land. So, they come to an agreement - one would choose all the land to the left, the other to the right. A brief 'survey' of the land by Lot had him quickly enthralled by the lush pastures, deep watering holes, and beauty of the landscape he beheld. The whole valley would be his - he would select that which looked the most inviting and 'best' for his livestock. Isn't it just like us to look upon something, becoming more enthralled by what we see as 'good' without ever looking beyond what we see on the surface? 

Lot headed toward Sodom - a land we would soon come to understand as 'full of sin' and about to undergo God's judgment because of the depravity of their sin. What had 'surface beauty' really had a 'hidden ugliness' that would soon become the undoing of Lot and his family. Sin has a way of 'masking' its true character until we are so engulfed in its presence that we find it is quite hard to escape it. Abraham did not take the best for himself but left the choice of the land to Lot. Did this mean he didn't look upon Sodom's landscape and see a thing of beauty himself? We don't know that, but we do know he was a man of his word. He told Lot he'd let him choose the division of the land, and he did just that. As the nephew of Abraham, he should have deferred the decision to Abraham. I wonder if anything would have happened differently if he did? We will never know, but we do see the consequences of only looking at the superficial and the resulting loss it brings.

Sin doesn't roll out a red carpet for us, but it certainly does a great deal to hide what is just beyond the 'good stuff' we see with our eyes. Visual appeal is one of Satan's most used 'tricks' to lure us into places and actions we would be best to avoid. Maybe this is why scripture warns us: "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever." (I John 2:15-17) The one look can create a craving we find hard to resist - just like Lot began to crave the goodness of the lush pastures and well-watered places for his herds and flocks. The lust of the eyes is something we need to ask God's help to recognize quickly, so we aren't found moving closer and closer to entering into sin's 'locale'.

The rest of the story? Lot and his wife actually settled too close to Sodom and became accustomed to the activities that went on there. This is how sin works - it moves us closer and closer to its 'hub' until we find it hard not to 'conform' to the things we see and hear. We might not 'indulge' in the action of some given to the sinfulness all around us, but we certainly don't do much to counteract it! Were it not for Abraham's appeal to save Lot from the coming judgment, he might have been brought to total ruin. Looking at what sin does to our hearts, we see Lot's wife - looking back, longing for what she had in the most sinful place she could have dwelt. Sin has a way of getting us to constantly 'look back' and long for what we had, but we fail to see that what awaits us when our hearts are so 'given over' to sin is that we become crumbling pillars, unable to stand in the presence of a holy and powerful God. Sin might lure us in with promises of goodness, but the end of sin is judgment. All the goodness sin held out to lure us in will never keep us standing in the presence of a holy and just God. Just sayin!

Who's Fighting for Me?

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free. (Romans 7:21-25)

A fact of life...that I want to do what is right...but I choose what is wrong. Sound like anybody else's life story? There is a constant struggle of the 'will', isn't there? We find ourselves pulled this way and that, all the while wanting to go just one way - the right way. We actually hear this still small voice within telling us to do right, but then we listen to the louder voice within (our sinful nature) telling us to do something that will 'please' our sinful nature. The struggle is real, and it is constant for some, infrequent for others.

The multitude of times we have given into our sinful nature is probably too innumerable for any of us to list, but the truth of the matter is that we are likely choosing to respond to our sinful nature less and less the longer we are serving Jesus. How does that happen? There is a subtle, but consistent shift in our focus. We begin to see how much our sinful nature is pulling us 'off-center' in life and we focus more on what will keep us 'on-center'. How? Through prayer, time in the Word, good teaching, and solid relationships that build in accountability.

The one who struggles with these conflicting desires really needs to remember that our freedom isn't a 'wish' or a 'dream' - it is an accomplished fact through Christ Jesus. We are 'set free', not by our own willpower, but by the 'will of God' resident within us in Christ Jesus. That still small voice that is telling us to do 'right' isn't just a whim. It is the very voice of his Spirit within - helping us to choose the things that will honor him, in turn bringing honor to our lives. 

Freedom isn't fought for in our own strength or self-effort. It is accomplished in Christ Jesus, but we need to 'enforce' that freedom in our lives. When those taunting and 'pulling' voices want us to go one way, and we clearly hear it is the other way we are to choose, we need to rise up in the power of Christ to resist. That may look a little like us taking a moment to pray because prayer drives back the forces of wickedness. That may take on the form of us recounting a scripture we have read earlier in the day because the Word of God causes the devil to flee. Remember, we are given the tools to overcome sin's pull, we just need to use them when the struggle gets real! Just sayin!