Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

The bottom line here is that there is no excuse for sin. I know that I justify sins in my life all the time, and I try to rationalize them or think about them in less than Black and White terms. The truth is simple: when it comes to sin the only option for a Christian is no. For those of us struggling, there is only one solution, and that is to quit cold turkey.

 

Yes, there will be times when we have troubles, but we need to understand that the simple answer to the whole problem is not to sin. So many times we want to come up with strong and complex psychoanalysis into the nature of sin and how God is “cleansing” us of our sins, &c.

 

Why do we struggle with sin? Why is it so hard for us to just say, “No?” I honestly don’t really have a good answer for that. But we know that we are promised salvation from sin; we are also promised that all temptations that fall upon us, every urge to sin, is given to us in no greater amount than that whiich we are able to overrcome. Sin no longer controls us, and we are free from it. We are now slaves to righteousness, and as such, we must realize that when the choice presents itself, there is only one option, period.

 

We should also realize that we are not controlled by sin. We have power over it; so, why then let it control your life? The word “let” is really good, because it accurately describes the situation. Sin is not something sitting inside of us that we have to “force” out. Rather, it is something outside of us trying to get in. We also know from scripture that any sin that comes to our door does not have the power to overcome what defenses are available to those with Faith.

 

What then? Sin can only enter into our lives if we allow it to enter in. If we choose to budge and let sin enter our lives, it has a foothold. Always remember that Sin is on the outside, and you can choose to let it in the door, or you can simply say, “No.”

 

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.