"Forgiven souls HATE SIN. They can enter most fully into the words of our Communion Service, 'The remembrance of sin is grievous unto them, and the burden of it is intolerable.' It is the serpent which bit them—how should they not shrink from it with horror? It is the poison which brought them to the brink of eternal death—how should they not loathe it with a godly disgust? It is the Egyptian enemy which kept them in hard bondage—how should not the very memory of it be bitter to their hearts? It is the disease of which they carry the marks and scars about them, and from which they have scarcely recovered—well may they dread it, flee from it, and long to be delivered altogether from its power! If you and sin are friends, you and God are not yet reconciled. You are not fit for heaven; for one main part of heaven’s excellence is the absence of all sin." ~ J.C. Ryle
"Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." ~John Owen
It is strange that the very thing that kills us, destroys marriages, and makes a mockery of what is greatest and most beautiful (God Himself) is not hated more by us. It is understandable that a soul enslaved by the sin nature would love sin, but the redeemed also struggle with it.
The detestable desire to disobey God is still in the flesh of God's children. It must be vanquished. Just as the Promise Land was given to Israel, but still had to be conquered so it is with those that are given New Birth. We must wage war against sin and submit our bodies to our King as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to Him.
This begins with hating sin for what it is and loving God for who He is!
1 comment:
Yes, amen! In fact God wants us to resist sin to the point of shedding our blood, with Jesus as our role model – Heb.12:3-4. In light of what you’ve written and Hebrews chapter 12, I am beginning to understand what Paul was saying in Col. 1:24.
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