God Loves… Himself

 If I grapple with sin in my own strength, the devil knows he may go to sleep. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

All are told to put sin to death and so some try. But if the essence of sin is in the realm of self doing all for self, that is just self that is deceiving itself into thinking it is wrestling with sin. In other words, it is the essence of sin deceiving self into thinking that it is putting sin to death when in fact it is actually strengthening self. When the soul thinks that sin must be put to death (either actually or thinks that grace only does some of it) then the devil has already deceived that soul and can stand back (so to speak) and watch. Oh how the devil uses pride in the heart of the soul to twist and deceive the soul. Yet this points to something extremely vital in the Christian life.

In the Gospels we are told several times to deny self, take up the cross, and follow Christ. The self will most naturally interpret that as deny some things to self and then follow Christ. But what self is blinded to is that self is the real issue and the real problem. Self is willing to deny things to self, but self wants to be in charge of what things must be denied to self. This means that when self tries to grapple with sin, self is deceived as to the real issue and so will never be able to fight sin in reality and truth at the heart of it.

The Scriptures teach us that we must put sin to death by the Spirit. Notice, however, the teaching is not just that we must put the deeds of the body to death, but that that this must be done so by the Spirit. The person that tries to kill sin by the flesh or do it in his own strength cannot possibly overcome sin by his own strength and instead is being given over to it. 

Romans 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God

When we don’t put sin to death by the Spirit, we are deceived about sin being dead. The Scriptures set out that we are in bondage to sin and that we are slaves of sin, and yet we need one with greater power to come and release us from our bondage and slavery. As long as the soul looks to self for strength in the battle with sin, the soul is fastened in its bonds to sin. It takes a greater power to come and release the soul from its bondage. It takes the powerful hand of God to release the soul from its bondage and slavery to sin in regeneration, but in the daily life it still takes the work of the Spirit to release the soul.

This entry was posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:11 pm and is filed under The Sinful Heart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.