For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my
flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For
the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not
want. Romans 7:18-19
Easter is fast approaching and Brother Van’s sermon title is “No Greater
Love”. There is absolutely no greater
love than that which God has for man. We
are so underserving and sometimes so ungrateful yet He loves anyway. He gave His life for us, gave His Son for us,
all because He wanted to make a way for you and me to know Him. If you think about it, all the sins we have
committed against a specific person at one time or another, every one of those
sins has also been committed against God.
No one person we have wronged has more reason to not forgive us than
God. Yet He sent His only son to die for
us, in spite of how we hurt Him; and every time we hurt Him again we only have
to go to the cross and in that shadow we will find forgiveness, freedom, and
open arms.
Sometimes we don’t realize what special gifts we have been given,
especially the gift God gave us on the cross.
The verse above is such a great description of the inner war that we
fight every day. We are human and God
understands this. He knows we will fall
sometimes and that is why He provided a way for our atonement. However, He still desires for us to choose
Him every day. Sin does not flee and
Satan does not agree to leave us alone at the altar when we give our lives to
Christ. He wants us to fail and not be
effective for the Kingdom of God. He
wants us to be a stumbling block for others, to keep someone from giving their
life to Christ.
It is true that when we are saved, old things are passed away and all things
become new. We are resurrected in Christ
with a new life, but our bodies are still human bodies and we have
weaknesses. Many of us struggle with a
specific weakness. Just because you are a Christian, it does not exempt you
from the powerful draw of sin. Satan
knows your weakness and he will capitalize on that fact. We all do things we know are wrong and we
shouldn’t do them, but when we are involved in a perpetual cycle of sinful
behavior, we remain in the conflict that Paul speaks of above. We do what we don’t want to do and we do not
do what we want to do. We want to do
good, but we choose sin and this creates conflict in our hearts and steals our
peace and freedom. When we allow sin in
our lives, there is no rest or confidence in what Christ did on the cross
because we are miserable. We cannot reap
the full benefit of the great gift that God has given us.
The Bible tells us in Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members
of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves
to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. Sin can have a powerful
grip but God has provided a way for us.
Through His power we can choose every single day to not allow sin into
our lives to cause this raging conflict inside our hearts. It is a choice that must be made every day;
sometimes more than once a day. You
belong to God and sin is no longer your master.
Now you live under grace.
Both of these natures cannot co-exist inside our hearts
without misery; one will prevail. Galatians 5:16-17 says But I say, walk by the Spirit,
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in
opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. The nature you feed is the one that will prevail. Be deliberate in walking in the Spirit so
that you strengthen that nature and do not feed the sinful nature. It is there inside all of us but God gave us
the gift of salvation, freedom from sin and grace and mercy when we do make the
wrong choice. This Easter I am grateful
that He loved me enough to die for me, to take my place and the punishment for
my sins, regardless of the many times I have not chosen Him.
"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." John 6:40
