The Affections of Sin – Part VI - What Does Sin Turn Us Into?

When you think of sin I have one more question for you. Do you believe that you are in control of your sin or does sin posses you? Can a person commit a sin without being affected by that sin? In our sin are we turned into something or are we in affect in charge of our sin? Do you posses the power to stay in control of your sinful acts, or has sin possessed you in such a way that it has polluted your soul. When you think about sin in your own life do you see it as something that is apart from you, or is it something that has defined who you are? Has sin taken hold of you; has it become a part of you? If sin is something that is separated from you and has not taken hold of you, then explain why people inside and outside the church have been taken captive by it? That they have given up so much of their lives to serve it. In your own life what do you refuse to give up to God and stay distant from Him so you can keep hold of a certain sin, or lifestyle? Think closely about it and remember the word lifestyle. Because man cannot do an evil act and not be consumed or corrupted by this act. He cannot act in an evil manner and be good, without corruption. For evil is not an outward act but an inward corruption that is acted from the heart. As the book of Proverbs states it in 23:7 (KJV) – For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And as Jesus says in Matthew 15:18 (ESV) “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” 

Sin does not come into a man’s life and become an act that is apart from him but is actually a part of the one who commits it. If that were not so, then why do we name those who commit such sins? We have names such as fornicators, adulterers, thieves, and drunkards.  How many names do we have for ourselves because they have become our identity?  No one starts out to become those types of people but sin is planted in our hearts and we grow accustom to its affections. Temptation and pressure do not produce bad behavior as some would say it does but it only uncovers the true fruits that have grown within the heart. Sin has not come to take a piece of our lives, it has come to be a master of our lives. If it were not so then why have so many lives been corrupted by it and taken hostage into its destructive care.

Two biblical examples of that idea are Saul and Judas. When we look at King Saul of the Old Testament we see a man who in the beginning was humble when Samuel told him he would be King. And even hide from the responsibility of what God called him to be, but not much later did his pride turn on him and he tried to kill his own son because he became the hero of the day. Later on he tries to kill David because he had became God chosen one to rule Israel after Saul. And Saul even turns to a witch for counsel after Samuel’s death since God had turned from him. We see a man who starts with humility turns to pride and then is over taken by jealousy. The same result is the same when it comes to sin in Judas’s life. He was picked out by Christ to be a disciple and saw Christ work and heard Him teach of the coming kingdom. He enjoyed companionship with Jesus and many discourses of what Christ taught His inner twelve. He was as close to the Son of God as anyone could be in respect to the physical. But when it came to the spiritual it is a different story. He dipped into the treasury for his our uses and was not willing to change for God’s kingdom; but was changed by his small sins to allow Satan to have a foothold by his double minded lifestyle. Then he would turn over the Messiah to the authorities of this world for thirty pieces of silver. When the blunt of his sin come to his mind he could not take it and ended his own life by his choice by hanging himself on a tree. In contrast, one died on a tree for many while another died on a tree for himself.

When we look at these two examples of what sin turns us into we see two men who had it all and refused to turn to God for help. They also refused to repent and receive forgiveness for their sins. We can point to them and say how foolish they were and learn nothing for ourselves. Or we can see how much we are like these two men and look to God for guidance and forgiveness. Do we desire to live a life that looks to itself for gratification, or will we live a life that turns to God for fulfillment. Remembering what the outcome of these two examples were and know that if we stay on the course they did, we will come to the same end as them. Will we put our hope in God’s plan for our lives and turn the reigns over to Him, and obey what he calls us to be. Or will we live in a false perception that we sit on the throne of our lives and we answer to no one but ourselves. Living a lie that says we can repent later on. Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Nothing could be more ruthless than to make men think there is still plenty of time to mend their ways.”[1] Listen to the warning John the Baptist gave the Jewish people, “Repent, for the Kingdom is at Hand”. (Matthew 3:2)  We maybe Christians and we may call ourselves children of God but the deeper question is, are we living for God today? If so, then rejoice in the grace of God, but if we are living a double mined life then turn to God today and seek His face and know what true grace is all about. Trust in Him and know you are saved. The time is at hand.

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship,  Simon & Schuster, New York, Copyright 1959, pp 211