Some Love To Sin

    One thing that I have observed in people, is that there are two
types of people who are leading lives of sin.  One is the type of
person who loves it.  This type of person consciously rejects
everything that is good and right around him because he loves the
thrill to his senses that rebellion and evil gives him.

    The other type of person is one who does not particularly love it
but has for one reason or another been deceived and trapped by it. 
This person did not intend to go this direction, but because of
mistakes made, and not knowing the right direction to go, ends up
there nevertheless.

    Our problem is that as human beings, we have a built-in bias
towards the sin and evil that is all around us.  We just naturally
drift that way when left to our own resources.  My sister has a two
year old son who is rather typical of two year old boys.  She recently
commented, "they sure learn to lie early", as the kid was trying to
get out of trouble for something that he had done.

    How did he learn this behavior?  He didn't.  It just came through
naturally as part of his human nature.  To do good is something that
has to be learned as truth comes from God and is not natural to our
human condition.  David said in Psalms 51:5, "Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."

    Our next problem is that because we cannot bear the burden that
our sins place on us, we try to justify ourselves by a multitude of
excuses or by shifting the blame onto someone else.  "My Mother and
Dad didn't raise me right" or "The old-maid schoolteacher in the
second grade had it in for me" or "My boss at work is always trying to
pick on me by giving me all the dirty jobs.  Any of these sound
familiar?

    However, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we no
longer have to justify ourselves to cover up our guilt feelings as He
has justified us before God and has given us a way out.  This way
comes by dying to ourselves (the lusts and passions of our bodies that
drag us down) so that we can then begin to live to Christ.  The sixth
chapter of Romans shows us that since Jesus died on the cross for us,
we can now live by believing in Him and in the end live forever with
Him.

    We no longer have to fool ourselves by saying that "I'm really not
so bad, look at ole' Joe over there.  That's really bad" when if we
stopped to compare ourselves with the only righteous human being,
Jesus, we are old 'Joe' over there.  It is only when we allow Him to
clean us up and make us new that we can face the Judge of heaven and
earth and give account for every word uttered and deed performed.  It
is only then that we can say, "Come Lord Jesus!"

Frank Cooke