“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” - 1 John 3:9
The mark of a healthy body is a healthy immune system. God designed our immune system to keep harmful germs out of the body and to destroy any that do get in. The immune system is made up of a complex network of cells and organs, which are designed to protect the body from infection. When infection is detected, a healthy immune system will release lymphocytes – a certain type of white blood cell – into the body to fight the infection. A compromised or unhealthy immune system leaves the whole body open to attack.
Just as a healthy immune system will want to fight infection and rid the body of sickness as soon as it’s detected, a healthy Christian spirit will want to rid the heart of sin as soon as it is detected. You see, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, God’s Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. From that moment on, there is a constant internal war raging between the Spirit and the flesh…between the new heart and the sinful flesh. Trusting in Jesus doesn’t make us immune to sin, but it does make us more sensitive to sin. It may not always eliminate the urge to sin, but the Holy Spirit will – over time – increase our desire to please God rather than ourselves. God’s Spirit becomes like a spiritual immune system, detecting the threat of infection and teaching us to protect our hearts from sin.
The ravages of physical disease are evident to most of us. We have watched someone we love suffer…or maybe ourselves have suffered…the effects of earthly diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s. We have studied the devastating historical effects of epidemics like smallpox and the plague. But how many people truly understand the even more devastating and far-reaching ravages of the worst epidemic in all of mankind- sin? How many of us fear its consequences in the same way? Shouldn’t we, after all, since those consequences are eternal? Eternal death. Eternal judgment. Eternal separation. Eternal punishment. If we never force ourselves to see the reality of sin’s destruction, we will never be able to fully appreciate the depth of God’s love and forgiveness.
All of the ravages of sin have been answered in Jesus Christ. He satisfied every righteous requirement and then He overcame every eternal consequence. In Jesus, there is eternal life. Eternal pardon. Eternal fellowship. Eternal forgiveness. One of the marks that you are healthy in your relationship with God is in how sensitive you are to sin and how quickly you want to rid your life of it when it enters.
God, thank You for saving me from the ravages of my sin. Thank You for giving me Your Spirit to make me sensitive to sin in my life. Show me any sin that is hidden in my heart so that I can confess it to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Topics: Sin
