The Cunning Nature and Destructive Results of Sin

When we sin it is akin to taking many years of my time, and many millions of my own money (hypothetically!) to build a building that I have planned on constructing for decades. Once the building is fully completed after much effort and much toil and many resources expended, let us imagine that I then get into a bulldozer and begin to ram the building and rip it apart piece by piece within just a matter of minutes. So, what took me years, effort, money, time, and countless other resources, has now been torn down in a few minutes by a relatively simply task of ramming with a bulldozer. This is precisely the nature and result of sin. Sin is the optimal killer and sin is the optimal source of “waste”: The wasting of all of our resources including the wasting of our time, the wasting of our money, and the ruining of every relationship of which we are a part. This leads ultimately to the wasting of our lives and the destroying of our very souls in exchange for temporary pleasure. It is scary, frightening, sobering, and humble to realize that eternal and everlasting results can arise from a few minutes of pleasure; temporary, sinful pleasure results in  eternal ruin and everlasting shame.

Truly, is there anything more foolish and maddening than sin?

Why is sin so destructive, widespread, and complete in its destruction of human lives? Part of the response to this is that we are taking our own lives into our own hands and we are telling God that we are “omniscient” and that “We Know Better!” We claim to possess the knowledge of God, therefore, we try to run our own universes with our own limited resources to our own detriment. Another reason, however, that sin is so destructive is due to the cunning nature of sin. Part of the cunning and deceptive nature of sin is that it does not always destroy all at once. Sin, mostly, is not like a landmine that you step on and are instantly killed, but it is more like a cancer that grows undetected for years, perhaps with a few symptoms, before finally eating you up from the inside out and bringing you to the point of no return and, ultimately, to final death. Sin’s work is almost never quick, but it’s almost always a slow work, a “slow fade,” that kills, saps, and ruins slowly, but completely, once grown and brought to full fruition.

Temporary, sinful pleasure results in eternal ruin and everlasting shame. Click To Tweet

What is our remedy from the insidiousness of sin? Christ is our only answer. He lived a perfect life for us because we will never live a perfect life. Christ died for us, in our place, so that we would not have to die eternally. We’ve earned the judgment and wrath of God, but Christ has bore God’s judgment and wrath in our place so that, if we put our trust in Him alone, we could go free. Also, we must ask God to give us wisdom to see past the deception of the forbidden fruit of sin and see rottenness and bitterness that lies on the others side of that “bite.” In our own strength, we will always “bite into” the forbidden fruit of sin, but we must learn from our past failures, we must learn from the past failures of others, and we must find the strength and resources through God, at Christ’s cross, to overcome the power of sin. It is a supernatural battle that must be fought with supernatural “weapons” such as prayer, Bible meditation, heart-felt worship of God, and Christian community. May we use these God-given means to fight sin and to walk in the holiness for which the Lord has created us and called us.

Part of the cunning and deceptive nature of sin is that it does not always destroy all at once Click To Tweet