THE POWER OF SIN
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
The last chapter dealing with the way God forgives the "penalty" of sin leads our thoughts quite naturally to the "power" of sin.
Usually when a person becomes a Christian, he experiences a moment of real decision, a time when he takes the vital step and becomes a living babe in Christ. Very often these decisions are moments of great emotional upheaval as the burden of sin falls off and the light of life falls upon once blind eyes. Surrounding the whole experience is a foretaste of glory — the peace of God blends with the joy of the Lord. At such a time the saved sinner will cry for joy and will witness to the fact that he knows he is saved because he can "feel" it.
Although this is a blessed moment it is also a dangerous moment. The saved sinner thinks, "This is it! How wonderful! I'll have this feeling forever!"
But, as the days or weeks go by, the flash of emotional experience cools off, and the mountain top experience chills as we come down to the valley beneath. To one who is counting on feelings there come tiny waves of doubt as the glow of an emotional conversion settles down to the ordinary everyday life.
Then there comes a day when the sins, once knocked out, rise to fight again, and the babes in Christ discover to their horror that the power of sin is back again — sometimes stronger than before.
Very often there is a chill of shame as they realize that not only are the old sins back again, but that there is something in their own being which wants the sin and reaches out for it. This is a crucial moment of testing, because from this point in the soul's experience, backsliding and coldness of heart can begin their withering plague.
Even though Christ met the penalty of sin, the power of sin is the daily problem in every Christian life. The greatest saints who ever lived had to face this problem — the power of sin in the life of the redeemed sinner. There will never come a day in your experience when sin will lose its power. Man by his behavior today is more wicked and cruel and sinful than ever before — certainly mankind hasn't improved.
Before the Second World War the modernists and the humanists used to preach that the way to produce a better man was by improving the environment. "Take people away from squalor and overcrowding and you will soon have a group of people developing the graces of the Christian life!" Such was their teaching then — now even the humanistic view of the inherent goodness of man is rather shaken.
Some men and women seek to escape from sin's power by entering the walls of a religious order. There, by leaving the world behind, they hope to be at perfect peace with God. But they, too, find that the wickedness of the world is not around them, but within them. Human efforts to handle this power of sin are varied.
Education was once considered to be the sure way to produce better people. "As people gain more knowledge and acquire more educated techniques they will see how bad it is to give way to sin." Such thinking is now out of date, for all it produced was a race of clever devils.
Punishing the body to keep sin under control is still used by some people. Martin Luther, you will remember, flogged himself into insensibility in an attempt to deal with the power of sin. Self-punishment, to a greater or lesser degree, physically or mentally, is still used, but the effect is only for the moment as the center of interest is diverted from the sin to the self-suffering.
"Christianizing" a life is another way to meet the power of sin. By turning over new leaves, by making new resolutions, by following another rule or pattern, the struggler hopes for success.
The majority of people, however, seem to ignore the power of sin in themselves, whatever they may say about others. To "put up" with the power and make the best of life is their answer. "After all," they say, "we are all in the same boat."
Romans 7:23 says:
"But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
All of us know of the force of gravity, that unseen power which pulls everything down to the earth — nothing escapes its downward pull. So it is in our daily living. There is an unseen power which constantly pulls us down — a spiritual force of gravity. No one escapes its downward pull. Always and everywhere men and women and young people are under its power. The results of all our attempts to deal with the problem are the same.
There is that in us which is against God, which is not subject to His laws, and which can never be made subject to His laws. It is profitless to try to live the Christian life under our own strength.
First, our fallen human nature can never rise up and be made subject to His laws. Secondly, not only can it not rise up; it is always being pulled down by the spiritual force of gravity. It is interesting to see, at this point, how we differ from the Apostle Paul. He could say in Romans 7:18: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells." He recognized his utter worthlessness and he wrote himself off.
We, on the other hand, led by the philosophies of our day, believe there is some good in us. If we could only find our good points and develop them, then things would be different. Paul says, "In me — no good thing." We say, "Well, I know I'm not perfect but, after all, I'm not as bad as all that!"
Paul was probably the greatest Christian who ever lived — and his humility proved it! As long as we are hoping to meet the power of sin by our own efforts, and to live a victorious Christian life through our own inherent good qualities, we are doomed to failure.
The answer to the problem of meeting the power of sin and living a victorious Christian life is not education or psychology, psychiatry or ethics, not even religion. It is a PERSON — JESUS CHRIST!
Have you ever realized that there has only been one really victorious Christian life in all the world's history — and that was the life of Christ Himself?
John 8:46 - "Which of you convicts Me of sin?"
Hebrews 4:15 - "In all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."
Hebrews 9:14 - "Offered Himself without spot to God."
I Peter 2:22 - "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth."
I Peter 1:19-"A lamb without blemish and without spot."
His life was one constant victory over sin in all its power. Who else could say as He did in John 8:29 when speaking of His Father: "I always do those things that please Him." Just think of it — always, and in all ways, those things that pleased God! One blessed victorious Christian life.
The only way for us to meet the power of sin is to realize more fully what we are told in 2 Peter 1:4: "By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. . . ."
When I become a Christian not only are my sins forgiven, but I become a partaker of the divine nature. Jesus Christ comes to live in me in the power of His Holy Spirit. Many of us believe that we receive the Holy Spirit when we believe, but we only give this truth intellectual assent. We don't know why He comes, and we are so busy living the Christian life and fighting sin that we have no time to find out.
Romans 8:9 says: "Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." So the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of Christ. Christ Himself is the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says I become a partaker of the divine nature. I already have one nature, a fallen human nature, which is at "enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).
So I now have two natures, a fallen human nature and the nature of the indwelling Spirit of Christ — the One who alone lived a victorious Christian life. One nature, which is sinful, is always being dragged down; the other, which is divine, is the resurrection life of Christ. One which can only fail, the other which can only succeed. But we have lived with the old nature so long that it is just "natural" to live that way.
Romans 8:2 has a wonderful promise: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." There is a new law which can make me free from the downward pull of the spiritual law of gravity, the law of sin and death. This law is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the upward triumphant victorious life of Jesus Christ.
What are the results of these opposite laws, operating as it were, at once? An example will help us understand.
Once I flew from Kennedy International Airport to London. As I walked from the airport buildings to the Boeing 707 jet I was subject to the law of gravity. When I came to the steps leading up to the place entrance door I had to climb up the steps using my power to raise my body up each step. On entering the plane I sat in the comfortable seat and just relaxed.
When all was ready the jet taxied to the runway, and after a while began to move down the long stretch ahead. The speed increased second by second until, when it was moving about 150 miles per hour, it left the earth, and rose up into the night sky above New York.
The force of gravity against which I had climbed into the plane was still seeking to pull the plane down to earth — the whole 150 tons of it. But there was another law in operation now against the law of gravity, a new law — the law of aerodynamics.
I knew nothing of the law of aerodynamics. I did not need to, but because I was committed to the plane, and because I was relaxing, I rose in triumph with the plane. The triumph of the jet was my triumph, its fantastic speed was my speed, all its possibilities were mine — because I was inside.
Thus it is with the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I do not need to understand the theology in order to benefit — all I need to do is to commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ as I did physically to the Boeing jet. Notice that it wasn't the quality of my faith that took me to London in six hours. A frightened passenger might spend the time in anxious fear, but he would get there just the same.
I am as strong as that in which I put my faith. If my faith is resting in Christ, then I am as strong as He is.
Notice, too, I did not have to help the plane to fly the Atlantic. It did not require any urging or pushing from me — the power was in the plane.
Similarly Jesus Christ can triumph in my life without help from me. It is when I interfere to "help" Him that things go wrong. Just imagine me, in my ignorance, at the controls of the Boeing jet! No, I just relaxed into the effortless perfection of the plane.
How then do we defeat the power of sin — with its downward pull — and rise to live a victorious Christian life? Surely the answer is simple. If I am in Christ and He is in me, as the Lord said in John 15:5, then my one job is to recognize this fact moment by moment and relate every circumstance to Him.
When the old temptations come with their seductive attractiveness, I must not go out to meet them in my puny strength; I must commit it to Him in a quiet simple prayer. "Dear Lord, this temptation is too great for me to handle. I can only fail. Dear Lord, meet this for me in Your strength." Then leave it to Him. He will gain the victory through your yielded life.
Our faith will need to be so very childlike. We must abide in Him, rest in Him, and His will be the victory. Remember I John 4:4: "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." The greatness isn't you or you plus Christ — the greatness is Christ alone. As we start to live this life of simple faith in the indwelling Christ things may seem a little awkward at first. Our natural impulse will be to get to work ourselves. We will need to cultivate His presence moment by moment to develop new behavior patterns.
Learn to thank Him for the blessing even before it comes. As the days go by, the practice of relating all to Him will become easier until, by His grace, we learn to trust Him in all things.
This does not mean that I just sit and do nothing, but that I expect Him to rule and over-rule in all my ways and all will be for His glory. This does not imply any form of instant sanctification. As I practice these new behavior patterns, so I grow in grace. This is something I must practice and work at day by day. At first, there may seem to be no change in my life, but gradually, as I allow the Lord Jesus to live His life in me, so the blessing is inevitable. There is no such thing as "instant springtime" but, if there is life, spring is inevitable.
Not that we can never go wrong. Remember the law of gravity is always in operation. If the law of aerodynamics ceases to function through loss of power, the force of gravity takes over and pulls a plane down to destruction. If I feel myself so much better that I step out in my own strength, down I will topple. If I do fail through self-effort I must always make a point of telling Him immediately what a mess I have made. Then I must confess my sin, thank Him for His grace, and go on to live for Him and through Him once more.
Thus, and only thus, can I come into the truth of what was studied in the second chapter, concerning the present tense of my salvation —"Daily delivered from sin's dominion by His resurrection life"— stand back and let the Lord Jesus live His life in and through me. It is His life, His victory, His peace, His power, His plan.
Christ never uses what is naturally good in us; otherwise, we would have the glory. It must be Christ only. Paul could say in Galatians 2:20:
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Christ had taken over in Paul's life.
There has only been one really victorious Christian life, and this thought is very comforting to the weak. We do not have to follow a pattern lived by someone else, or compete against the "super-saints."
The only answer to the power of sin is the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Christ is the answer to my every need."
