THE STRENGTH OF SIN
“The sting
of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
1
Corinthians 15:56 (KJV)
Our
opening scripture lets us know what the effect of sin produces – death; and it
also lets us know what strengthens sin – law. Death, as caused by sin, is the
reality of separation from the life of God. But this cannot be possible without
sin possessing strength. Therefore if we are going to address death we need to alienate
the strength of sin. Once sin losses its
strength, it will not be able to separate us from the rich life that is in God.
Death occurs when we feel condemned.
The
life of God is the sustenance of mankind. It contains all the provisions that
man needs for his well-being on earth. It is in this life we find wisdom,
peace, joy, visions, righteousness, health etc. Just as plant cannot survive without sunlight; likewise, man cannot
survive with God’s life.
The
strength of sin happens to be no other thing but law. I need explain what the
law is. Law is the consciousness of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil was the tree of law. It made them aware of what was good and
evil.
When
we live by the law (knowledge of good and evil) we empower sin to produce death
in us. This was exactly what happened to Adam and Eve. Once they partook of it,
they stayed away from fellowship with God.
Notice
that the first knowledge they conceived after eating of the tree was the
knowledge of evil – nakedness. And this was what made them stay away from
fellowship with God. When we live our
lives on the basis of the knowledge of good and bad we will most likely see the
fault lines in our lives. God does not want us to focus on our weaknesses;
rather, he wants us to focus on his grace.
Paul,
on focusing on his weakness, asked God to take it away, but God told him to
focus on his grace. Begin at once to focus on God’s grace trusting that it will
be sufficient for you and you will experience glory in that area of your life
where you were once ashamed of.
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