Such a short word with so devastating a meaning! Sin contaminates everything it touches and thoroughly ruins our lives, whether we see it or not. It is so endemic to us that we don’t always recognise its practice and effect on our life. We have a conscience to warn us of its presence, but we often quash the voice of conscience, as we don’t like its effect. We soft-pedal our sin and let it have place in our psyche and conduct. We fail to notice it after a while and we become unprofitable servants so easily. We forget the standard of God and go our own way, doing as we please and falling into all kinds of sinful mindsets and behaviour. 

Sin is anything that contravenes the holy law of God and a mindset that challenges His ways and holy will. We are born sinful with every desire to get our own way and fulfil our own agenda. We can see this in the youngest of children as they fight for supremacy in their lives even above their parents. We never have to teach a child to disobey, for we all do that naturally. Self and sin are our number one problem in our life, even above Satan and the effects of this world. We can try to evade the effect of other people and the sinful society we live in, but we find it so difficult to escape the desires of our own flesh and have little or no power to overcome it. 

We tend to excuse our sin and count it as not so bad. We excuse our lying and dishonesty and can be so hypocritical in our dealings with other people. We dislike people, gossip and leave people out of our group. We excuse our bad language which we may not say but think in our mind. We dishonour God and ignore His pleasings to believe in Him and find forgiveness, preferring the ways of unbelief and godlessness. So it goes on, and we still think we are good people! 

Sin starts small and we maybe don’t really notice it at first, but then it grows bigger and causes us problems. Somethings we don’t see it until someone points it out to us, and we get a shock at how much we have become entangled in it. We get used to sin really easily because our hearts are in tune with it and we actually want what sin offers to us. We think we are choosing for ourselves but in reality we have become slaves to sin and it drags us down. Our character becomes sullied with it and we become untrustworthy people. We become enthralled with what it offers, but it is always a trap that entangles our psyche and makes fools of us.

The greatest sin is unbelief, that separates us from the reality of Christ and drags us down into condemnation and ultimately eternal punishment. Sin makes a home in our heart and we end up loving it and making it our lifestyle choice. We live blindly and happily until God stops us in our tracks or we end up in eternal punishment. 

There is a remedy for sin, and even that we don’t want either, such is the hardness of the human heart. God sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our sin bearer and Saviour. He has paid the dreadful debt of our sin so that we can be forgiven and be set free. No one else could or would do that for us, such is the compassion that Jesus our Saviour has for our souls. He loves us to the end and is willing to forgive all who come to Him in repentance and faith. There is no other remedy for sin and we must humble ourselves before Him and accept what He has done for us. Many in these present days are so full of pride that they will not come and accept the offer of full and free salvation, and will not give up their life of sin so that they can be free from it. It takes an act of God to bring us to our senses and make us see the dreadful predicament we are in. 

We have come so far away from God that we are completely lost, dead in our sin and stumbling blindly into hell. God often has to bring us to the end of ourselves and make us see our dreadful debt and even then, we hesitate to come to Him. We are so foolish and weak and in such bonds of slavery, that God must save us and bring us to the point of repentance and give us the faith to believe. 

Maybe as you read this or listen to this, you think I am being extreme, which shows the sinfulness of sin and its deluding impact on our mind and heart. If we are to be free from it we must come to our Saviour and admit our failure and trust in Him and the work that He has done of us on Calvary. Will you come to Him today for full and free pardon? Will you humbly accept His offer of mercy, or are you going to stick with your own way? Will you admit your guilt before Him and own your sin that you might be forgiven for it? This is the way to life and peace with God. 

Repentance is so difficult for us and we don’t like to think of ourselves in a bad light but try to focus on the positive parts of our character, but God says we are thoroughly contaminated by our sin and need a complete renewal of life, mind and heart, if we are to released from the sin that besets us. Let us be honest with ourselves and look within to see the root and cause of the problem and bring it to God. Only He can overcome for us and give us the power and resilience to fight the temptations and desires that war in us. 

The Apostle Paul speaks of this in the book of Romans. He speaks of a fight to put away the sin that so easily besets us and the good we don’t do and the evil that we tolerate. Only God can set us free from the grip of these evil desires that we harbour, and give us upright lives for his glory. Let us earnestly desire purity and the ability to resist the temptations and sins that so easily infest our life. 

The Scripture contains lists of sins, least we should not realise our guilt and pass over our sinfulness. 

“For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also.”

2 Timothy 3:2-5

We all fall into this dynamic and harbour sin in our life. We must repent and believe that Christ can forgive it all and give us the victory over it all. This is the pursuit of the Christian life and is a life-long battle against the onslaught of temptation and evil desire. Let us seek the narrow way that leads to life and not soft-pedal on our sinful outlook and behaviour. There is a path of victory in Christ as we fill our mind and life with all good and wholesome things. We keep busy and resist the depravity in the media and seek the Lord. 

“…by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

2 Peter 1:4

We can escape through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart and life of the Christian, but we must want to be over comers and to be free of sin. This is the problem in our heart because often we don’t really want the purity of God but prefer our own way. This is not the way of Christ and we must pray for changed desires and outlook on the circumstances of our life. Only as our desires are changed by God, will we face our sin and want to be rid of it. This is the key to the life of victory and it is reserved for every true Christian. We have the victory over sin through our Lord Jesus Christ, and only in Him can we obtain that eternal life that will free us for the love of sin and make us the people God wants us to be.