Sin is a mighty enemy, a ferocious adversary beyond reckoning. The devil and the world lurk without, but sin resides within our inmost heart. It is like a lion in waiting, crouching at the door, ready to strike at the slightest opportunity. These often come through our fleshly desires and passions, which wage war against our souls:
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”
Sin thrives wherever grace is not found:
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
It eagerly desires to hold dominion over us by making us obedient to its whims:
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?”
And the ultimate purpose of this domination is to prepare us for slaughter:
“Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of sin? Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus our Lord!”
In Him are redemption, deliverance, salvation, and grace. In Him are all the claims of the law of sin rendered inert:
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
By His almighty power we are commanded to exercise dominion over sin:
“Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Jesus knew no sin, and yet He became sin for us,
“so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Grace alone provides victory over sin; all other weapons are of no avail. Lord, thank you for delivering us from the sting and power of sin. Give us grace to do battle with what remains, and haste the day when in your presence we are delivered from the presence of sin forever!