All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. -Ephesians 2:3-5
The Scripture says that in the past, when we were still dead in sin, our hearts were often set on going against what the Lord would have us to do. When we set our minds to it, there was no limit to how far we might have gone against God. The one who has taken that plunge away from God and into sin just doesn’t know when to stop. You may have heard me speak of our old dog, Jenny, who died sometime back. I recall that several years ago, around Easter, someone had given our sons some of those huge Hershey Kisses. Somehow, one of those had been left out, and Jenny, not knowing that chocolate can kill a dog, had eaten nearly an entire one. Fortunately, she was fine and suffered no ill effects. The point is, she did what people often have done; dive into something we know is bad for us and will do us great harm, but we choose plunge into it anyway. It’s a giving into the sinful nature, that person we used to be before we knew Christ, rather than fight against it.
The problem is this: giving in is easy. The resisting is what is difficult. That is where the true challenge comes in. Giving in to sinful and destructive desires requires no effort whatsoever; any fool can do that. Standing firm and resisting, however, that is the work of the committed and dedicate servant of the Lord Jesus. Ours is not to be children of wrath (v 3), but rather the high call of God in Christ Jesus is to be children of obedience to God. By walking with the Lord every day we find spiritual victory. We become conquerors over that which would otherwise rob us of life, peace, and joy.
Fortunately for us, God who is rich in love and mercy has made us alive in Christ Jesus. We need to no longer live under that influence of the sinful nature. Sin doesn’t have to reign over us any longer. Rather, Christ can have the preeminence in us. His power can be made actual and real in us. I saw a program once in which a man was supposedly a martial arts expert, and he was going to break with his bare hand a large stack of ice blocks. He took a whack at it, and it didn’t break. He hit it again, and it still didn’t break. After several attempts it became painfully obvious that he wasn’t going to able to break that block of ice.
To me, this is illustrative of our trying to break the power of sin on our own strength. We can stand there and hit it all day and produce no greater effect. We will never be able to completely break sin's stronghold over us on our own strength. Only through Christ can the power of sin and death be broken. We can be made alive in Christ Jesus.
