01/15/2020
We have no idea what the innocence of Adam and Eve was like before the fall. Oh, we can try to imagine it, but every thought we have is tainted by the flavor of sin. The knowledge of good came to them as promised by the serpent, but had evil as its dark shadow, and changed them, and us, forever. So now we work, and we suffer as we seek to recover in Christ what was lost in the Garden that day.
“But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."”
Genesis 3:4-5 ESV
Sin is like the memory of terrible experiences that we might have encountered, those that no matter how hard we try... still remain with us. Such memories might fade a bit with time, but they are never far from our mind’s eye. The pain of those memories resurfacing in us over and over again with each painful recollection. The loss of a child, a lover that spurned us, a disabling injury, the horrible pain of war... there are so many, and they cut us so deep...
My father was a career soldier, an infantryman, and he fought in both World War II, and Korea. He was scarred by shrapnel, bullets, and lost parts of his toes to frostbite on frozen battlefields, but the greatest scar he carried was the memory of the horror and carnage he experienced. We call his generation the greatest generation, but the effects of war were just as real to them as they are to the young men and women who fight wars today. I remember going into his bedroom to wake him, and the moment I would touch him he would jarringly awaken... and for a brief instant I could see fear and panic in his eyes. It was real, and it frightened me to see it. This was my father, a man that in every waking moment seemed to be larger than life, but for that brief instant he couldn’t hide what he carried inside. This is how we carry sin... we might look fine on the outside, but in each of us the battle wages, and the memory lives on...
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Romans 7:21-24 ESV
The war against sin continues on within us, but we are given victory, and delivered from what it leaves behind by Jesus Christ. Sin is real, and it existed before the first bite was taken out of the apple, otherwise Adam and Eve would not have simply known the difference between good and evil... it would have been designed specifically for them. Jesus gives us victory, and takes away the consequence of our sin, and in this way allows us to awaken each morning in peace, but sin itself, from which we have been set free, remains.
“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
Romans 6:6-7 ESV
So why is it that Paul wrote in chapter 6 that Jesus sets us free from sin, but in chapter 7 he writes that he still sins? Does this perplex you as much as it has other Christians before you? Well it is God’s grace that is at work here through Jesus...
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:14 ESV
This is our free gift from God that takes the sin from us and frees us from its wages... however it does not destroy sin itself... but gives us dominion over our bodies which remain vulnerable to that sin.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 ESV
Paul separates us into two beings, the spiritual and the flesh, and in this way he shows us how the war wages on in us. Jesus sees us in this same duality when in the Garden of Gethsemane He says this to His disciples...
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."”
Matthew 26:41 ESV
So Paul talks about sinning in the flesh, not in the mind, or spiritually...
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Romans 7:25 ESV
But, we are not to yield to our bodies. We are meant to take dominion over them, and control them, so that should sin win a battle over the good that is in us, our spirits will regain control, and in contrition, and tears seek forgiveness through Christ who embodies God’s grace. In this way the flesh is subdued once more by the spirit, and our control over it is strengthened through our faith, and God’s grace. In this way our labor is not in vain...
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:56-58 ESV
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and your grace which is poured out on us through Him. We thank you for our redemption, and pray that in the time of our resurrection when we receive our new glorified bodies, that the sin that now tempts these made of weak flesh that we inhabit, will be wiped away, and lost to us forever. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who came to redeem us as sinners, and perfects us even now. We praise your name for the strength of faith that takes dominion over our flesh, and claims victory over the sin that attacks it. Great are you who defeats our worldly enemies, but greater yet are you who has defeated the sin within us. All glory is yours Holy Father, and it is perfected in grace, and through Jesus Christ our Lord. Claim me Father, and renew the innocence of creation within me.
Rich Forbes