What a bug bite can teach us about sin

I was out fishing yesterday with friends when I felt something bite me on the wrist.  I looked down and saw an ant there and flicked it off, but it immediately started itching, and I knew I was in trouble.  I’ve told you before that I am allergic to bees.  I found out today that I’m allergic to other kinds of bug bites too.  I know the routine.  Slowly the area around the bite started to swell.  Then the swelling began to creep up my arm.  Within a couple of hours, my hand looked like the Pillsbury dough boy’s.  With a bug bite, it’s easy to diagnose the problem.   The problem was the bug’s venom got into me.  I felt the bite and I saw the progress of the swelling.  The antidote is a steroid shot, a relatively simple solution to the problem. This morning the swelling had receded some and my hand looks more like mine than an advertiser’s cartoon mascot.  All of this got me to thinking about sin and salvation. Let me explain:

Sin gets into us like that bug’s venom got into me.  Sin is at the root of every problem we have in our lives.  Our own sin causes us problems.  We have health problems because we over-eat, or smoke or drink.  We have financial problems because we spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need.  We have relational problems because we are proud and won’t admit when we are wrong. We are addicted to video games, pornography, drugs, or gambling. Sometimes, it’s the sin of others that makes our lives difficult.  The boss is an ego-maniac.  Our children have walked away from the faith.  The mechanic is ripping us off.  Other times, our problems are caused by the fact that we live in a fallen world, which is the result of sin.  When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, sin and death entered the world.  Natural disasters, evil, bug bites, and the tendency of things to decay and deteriorate are the result.  

Unlike a bug bite, sin can be hard to diagnose, especially our own sin.  It creeps into our lives like the swelling crept up my arm, slowly but surely, and if we don’t get the antidote, our sin will kill us and keep us from heaven.  Satan entices us to sin, and he blinds our eyes so that we continue in it, so that we never make the connection between our sin and the hardship we create for ourselves by it. The problem is sin.

The antidote to sin is Jesus Christ.  When Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.”  That means that the work of paying for our sin is complete.  The debt that we owe for sinning against Holy God is “paid in full.” We will never pay the penalty for our sin if we believe in Jesus for our salvation because God doesn’t demand double payment of the debt.  Jesus already paid it for you once and for all.  That’s wonderful news of course, but how does that help in our battle against sin?  Romans 8:9 says, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  As believers, we have the Holy Spirit to help us defeat sin.  Romans 8:5-8 says, “⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”

Believers in Jesus Christ have the power to defeat sin because we have the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, living inside of us.  If we want to defeat the sin in our lives, we have to have our minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The will of God is not hard to discern.  He wants us to live holy lives, lives of integrity and high character.  He wants us not to worry and to trust Him for our needs.  He wants us to share the love of Jesus with others.  As we fill ourselves with the desires of the Spirit, the sin in our lives will decrease correspondingly.  If you have kids, you want them to be busy because you know that busyness keeps them out of trouble.  God wants us to be busy about His work in this world.  We can’t be sinning and doing His work at the same time.  If I had killed that bug or flicked it off of me before it had bitten me, I could have stopped that venom from getting into me.  If we kill sin before it gets into us, we will be spared of so much suffering and hardship that we bring on ourselves. 

Let’s be filled with the Holy Spirit; let get about doing God’s work.  We will still have the problems that come from living in a fallen world, and we will still face persecution for being Christians.  But hopefully, we will have far fewer problems that are caused by our own sin.