Saturday, November 27, 2010

What we are saying when we chose to live for sin over God.

by Dave Welsch

1 Peter 4:2 tells us that we should chose to live this life for God not for sin.

"That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."

We know that we were born with a nature that knows nothing but sin. It eats, drinks and sleeps sin. At the moment we came to Christ that sinful nature was crucified with Christ and we were given a new man, a new nature that is to be molded into the image of Christ. Unfortunately however sin still surrounds us and we still live in a fleshly body that desires sin. So everyday we must make our choice who will we live for today, sin or God. We of course know that sin is destructive and that its path only leads us to destroy our lives yet so often we chose to live for it. Recently I preached a message on this topic, you can listen to it here. For this article I would like to look at what are some of the things we are saying when we chose sin over God.

1. We are saying that we would rather have the temporary enjoyment of sin over the eternal loving relationship of our Father.

In the moment of our sin all we can think of is the benefit we believe we are going to get from this sin. Whether its pleasure, fulfillment, money or some other self gain but what we fail to see is what we are rejecting. In that moment we are choosing the sin over our relationship with God. Just as when a husband cheats on his wife he is choosing that one time temporary pleasure over a lifetime commitment of love with his wife. God has saved us and has committed to us for eternity by sending His Son to die for us, yet we to often chose sin.

2. We are saying that God is evil and withholding the best from us.

When we sin we are saying something very clear and direct to God - "You are not truly good to me" "You are withholding from me" or "You do not know what I need". Any of these clearly dethrone God and put us in His place. By choosing what God has prohibited from us we are telling Him that He either doesn't know what we need or He doesn't truly care about us. If we have been to Calvary we know better then that.

3. We are saying that the temporal is more valuable then the eternal.

Sin's fruit is temporal. It not only will last a short time but its fruit will not benefit the life to come. We were not made for this world and our focus should not be on enjoyment here but on the eternity to come.

The battle of choosing God over sin is not a one time battle, it is a daily lifelong war. We must make the choice everyday and if we should fall we must immediately repent and put our confidence back in Christ and His strength.

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