Sin-thesis

The biggest challenge for a living man is the deceit in his heart that he is in charge – a deceit that we start off trying to sell to others, but end up imbibing ourselves thereby becoming its ultimate victims. Sometimes it can be the youth who is fed up with his parents’ intrusiveness bursting out, “leave me alone; it is my life and I have to live it the way I want’. Or it is the well-meaning counselor who tells us with condescending concern to “take charge of our lives and quit whining”. Whatever the circumstance, the fact is that these things have been repeated so many times they now appear to be true. But unfortunately, they are very far from the truth. The fact is someone else is in charge. Romans 7: 14 – 25 paints a striking picture of the helplessness of man and the strength of the captor over our will:

“we know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (NIV).

Does that not look like you, like me, like us all? We can admit it openly or do so secretly; it really makes no difference. We are as affected by this plague as the madman on the street possessed of legion demons and as culpable to penalty as the dead man lying by the roadside, shot while robbing and against which we closed our noses when we passed by. We are all sold as slaves to sin. That is why even though we try so hard to hide it, it clings to us like a second skin, and always tries to pop up and disgrace us at the slightest opportunity. We are helpless because we are sold. We are slaves---and slaves are never in charge. That is why we do it despite the fact that we hate it. We are sure it is not the right thing to do, yet we indulge in it when no one is watching; then clean up and put up a good face. Sometimes, the slave driver is not that civilized; it takes hold of that quiet gentleman and ridicules him in the public; throwing him into a fit of rage that leaves all of us wondering what actually happened. We have never seen him that way and it is difficult for us to imagine he did it – fought in the open! No, he did not fight in the open; he merely served sin, which at that time wanted to fight in the open! Sin could have decided to do something else maybe secretly, somewhere else. It makes no difference.

Indeed someone is behind all these; “an enemy has done this…” declared the scriptures (Matt 13: 28). That someone is behind the wreckage that is left of man and confuses our thinking making it difficult to make the necessary connections and identify him as the one at work. He points out to us that God did not tell the whole truth when he said we shall die on the day we eat of it, because we ended up not dying. The sense of care-freedom, resignation and apathy are all part of the grand plan to keep multiplying the death. But the problem is that the enemy we see is not the actual enemy. We see death, we see weakness, we see cruelty, we see failure, we see several ‘indicators’ and sometimes bury ourselves into fighting them. But the real enemy is SIN and that we do not ever see. Not that there is much difference except in manifestation and timing, but our perception is warped as we place our attention on death, decay and the devastations that have come upon man and the earth, but see little of the sin behind them. All that we decry on earth is death, but really the source of all the desecration is sin. Ironically, we fear death but welcome and enjoy sin. We cry out at the physical, spiritual, psychological and material manifestation of death, but feel snug, lukewarm or uninterested at all appearances of sin. We might commit, spend a whole night in prayer vigil binding all demons and purveyors of sickness, oppression and death in our lives, but come back to meddle in lies, backbiting, and all manner of ‘fun’ during the day. The sharp pain, hurt and cry that accompany the visitation of death severally stand in sharp contrast to the excusing, enjoyment and lethargy demonstrated towards the indwelling of sin. But there is no death without sin. Sin is responsible for all the woes, hurts and limitations of man. The bondage of man to the elements, to principalities and to self is made possible by sin. And sin is not limited to the ‘evils’ we listed above; but also includes all ‘good acts’ not done in the will of God.

Sin is the one that has held us captive and subjected us, and all that should have been under us to decay. But while doing so much havoc, sin will never come out in the open as the fierce enemy it is; he appears as the one that pampers us; then points our attention to other things as the problem. He makes us think our problem lies in our poverty; our illiteracy, our lack of finesse, our poor mannerisms, uncouth culture and modest social background. He points to our social network (or lack of it) and tells us if we had only managed to be better bred;