September 18, 2001
By: Jim Davis
It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.Romans 7:21-23 The Message
Someone has given sin a bad name and I am compelled to set things right!
I was talking with a close friend over lunch and the talk turned to sin. She said something that made me stop and think. "I don't believe in sin. I've been doing therapy for years to get past all my stuff from childhood and the mention of sin just puts me right back into all my shame as a child who was told that I bad and deserved punishment. I don't believe in a God that believes in sin."
As usual, I didn't have a good come back. On spiritual issues, I often have to take them in and chew on them for a while before I'm sure where I'm coming from and what I believe. I knew that part of her statement rang true to me in my faith. I don't believe in a punishing God who is waiting in heaven to zap me as soon as I make a mistake. That is the God of my childhood, and why I must put childish things behind me (as it states in 1 Cor 13:11) and take on an adult understanding of my relationship with God.
Sin is anything that takes my focus off of God. When I lust after something: a person, money, things, I fill the part of me that desires God with that lust, and there is no room for God. God knows that I was created with natural desire to be filled with the spirit. For some reason beyond my understanding, I try to fill that desire with other things, that is why the Romans passage speaks so loudly to me.
For me sin has an even longer lasting impact than just turning me from God. When I have sinned (even with my thoughts) I'm afraid or ashamed to go back to God and ask forgiveness. I feel even further from God and even more empty, so I try again to fill the growing hole inside me with more things, rather than God. Sometimes I feel absolutely hopeless.
The impossible situation Paul speaks of, and I that I feel when I sin, is resolved in Christ:
My seven year old, Harrison, gave me a good example of how I should respond when I know that I have sinned. He is a wonderful child and rarely needs discipline. However, sometimes he gets carried away at school and a note gets sent home. When that happens, his mother insists he tell me about his transgression when we're together. The last note was nothing horrible, just seven year old craziness (his mom had given me a heads up). When I asked him about it, he hung his head in shame and his lip began to quiver. As he told me about it, he began to cry in earnest, tears and all. Then a miraculous thing happened, he reached his arms up to me. I pulled him into my lap. With my arms securely around him, he was able to finish his confession. I reminded him that I love him. We talked about a better way to handle similar situations in the future. Then with a hug and a kiss, he was off to play with his new kitten, Jumper-Climber.
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved ... The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Romans 8:1 - 2
The Message
Prayer: Lord who loves me so much, Help me to remember that when I feel farthest from you, all I need to do is raise my arms and be pulled to your breast and wrapped in your love. Then I can share my worst fears and actions with you from the security of your arms and be forgiven.