To Encourage You

James 1:14-15 “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

This summer I was surprised with how many unsightly dandelions had invaded my front yard. They were everywhere! I just so happened to have a gallon of 2,4-D spray in my garage, so I decided to try it out on them.  It’s supposed to kill dandelions but not grass, so it was the right thing for the job.  As I was spraying, my neighbor stopped by to talk about my efforts.  He had some experience with this chemical, but I didn’t. I said something to the effect, “well, we’ll see how it works.” To this my neighbor replied, “Oh, it works. The dandelions are dead; they just don’t know it yet!”  I thought that was pretty funny when applied to dandelions.  But then I thought about his statement again this evening when I read the verse above from James 1.  It talks about the effect of a poison that has touched every human heart.  It’s a little three letter word that is just as deadly as the three-character poison named 2,4-D.  The poison that I’m referring to is spelled S-I-N.  It touches every life at conception and its impact on us both physically and spiritually is summed up very well with the expression “We’re dead, we just don’t know it yet!” 

There’s an interesting parallel between how the herbicide I used works and the way sin works. Immediately upon application, 2,4-D causes a plant to begin to grow in an out-of-control manner.  They just can’t stop and it means their certain doom.  In the verse above it tells us that the sin that affects every human heart causes certain things in our life to grow in this same way.  Sin affects every area of life, including our desires.  Because of this we are drawn to things that will harm or even kill us.  They are things like sex that is outside the bounds that God has laid down for it, or greed, or harmful habits like the use of various drugs or alcohol.  Those sinful desires result in sinful thoughts and actions, and James tells us that when sin is fully grown (again that out-of-control growth) it brings forth death. The problem is that most people don’t know this. They aren’t aware of it.  They actually enjoy the pursuit of their evil desires. It’s like a mouse that thoroughly enjoys its feast of cheese up until the time the mouse trap snaps down on its head. As soon as it enters the trap, it’s as good as dead, it just doesn’t know it yet. 

But unlike mice and dandelions, we can read the label on the poison or the trap and find out that there’s a way not to be taken in by it.  The label is written in black and white throughout the pages of the Bible.  It’s there that we find out that although we’ve been infected by the deadly poison of sin, the God of heaven and earth has made a way for us to be healed. He made a way of escape. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that, “For our sake he (i.e., God) made him (i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  This is the one and only antidote to sin.  Jesus took our sin onto His own perfect, sinless body and died as a result. As such He paid the consequences for those who were already dead, although they may not have yet known it.  But now we can live, if we will simply repent of our sin and put our faith in Christ.

You see, Jesus not only died for our sin, but defeated death and hell by rising from the grave!  Romans 6:5-11 explains this as follows: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Isn’t that wonderful news?! Surely, it’s the best news that has ever been told. It’s the good news of the Gospel. So, what about you?  Have you repented of your sin and placed your life in the hands of Christ as your lord and master? If not, do you realize that you are as good as dead without this antidote. But with it, Hallelujah, the dead can live eternally. Praise the Lord!