James 1:12-16: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
WE DETERMINE WHAT PART SIN PLAYS IN OUR LIFE, James 1:12-14. Things get out of control by our taking liberties, rather than mortifying the flesh.
JUST AS SIN HAS A BEGINNING, IT ALSO HAS A FINALITY, James 1:15. Sin allows none to be a player, without making them a victim. Sin plays for keeps: there are no harmless sins; all sins are evil. Sin is what is wrong with the human race. All the things going wrong are due to sin.
THE NATURAL MAN IS DEAD IN SIN, THUS IT NEVER AWAKES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. Thus, we see the same sins repeated over and over. Sin is due to the sinful lusts that lie deep within our natural man, James 1:14. Not being due to ignorance, it will not be prevented by knowledge. Adam and Eve had knowledge and good morals before they sinned. Sin is not due to deficient circumstances either, as sin conceived and brought forth in Eden’s utopia.
Neither is the answer to sin’s problem found in isolating ourselves from other men, to live in our own world. We would have to be able to first shed our own human nature. If we were the only person in the world, the problem of sin would still be with us, as we are sinners by nature, rather than by contagion. Even though God started the human race over again with Noah, it still had the inherent depravity of Adam.
The only answer to the sin problem, is the victories that are found in Jesus Christ, Romans 7:24-25.
THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW WHERE ONE STANDS IN THE BATTLE AGAINST SIN APART FROM HEARKENING TO GOD’S WORD. “…Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law…” Romans 7:7 NOTE: “by the law.” To set the law aside as the right standard, is to not know sin! What made the act of eating of the forbidden fruit to be sin, was not in how they saw it, not in how they picked it, not in how it looked or how they felt about eating it, but what made it sin was that it was the transgression of God’s law. Today, people are still judging things by how they see it, rather than according to what God’s law says, thus sin abounds!
WE MUST ACCEPT THE AUTHORITY OF GOD’S WORD IF WE EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT SIN. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” John 3:4 Beware of sinning against the law by rejecting it as being God’s definition of sin! There is no remedy for this wilful sin!
SHARING
