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Anyone who has died has been set free from sin (Romans 6:7, NIV).
When I travel to the Philippines, I stay at a hotel in the Cebu IT Park, which consists of many high-rise towers mostly housing call centers. I walk the 70-acre Park’s perimeter a couple of times each morning for exercise.
In two small fenced-in locations on the outskirts of the Park, I always pass a hundred or so smokers corralled together. Rain, snow, or shine, there they are. To be geographically correct, since they don’t have snow in Cebu, I should write, “Rain, typhoon, or shine, they stand there smoking.”
Seeing this herd of smokers, I’m thinking judgmental thoughts like, “How dumb is smoking?” or “I’m glad I’m a better person and not addicted to cigarettes,” and “Don’t they all look like they’re having a great time, Barbara?”(My wife walks every morning with me.)
During my smoker-bigoted thinking, the Spirit usually reminds me of this passage…
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life (Romans 6:20-22).
We witness similar sights in the U.S.A., smokers confined to a “smoking only area.” In over 50 years of pastorally discussing habits with others, I’ve never heard one smoker say, “I’m glad I started smoking.” Okay, time to stop focusing on smoking, how about pornography, food, gambling, and other vices? Also, behavior and attitudes like meanness, anger, unfaithfulness, not keeping commitments, and perpetually showing up late to appointments.
As my mentor pastor told me 45 years ago, “There isn’t a 1-to-10-point scale of sin, with some being worse than others. Romans 3:23 says, ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’”
A snide reader of Interruptions could even accuse my opinionated view of smoking as sin, but all of you are too kind for such behavior!
It’s not that I wasn’t tempted to smoke. When I was in high school, I tried smoking several times. Smoking was cool, a sign of rebellion and freedom. I wanted to smoke, but found myself allergic to it, ending up wheezing, coughing, and being called a wimp by my puffing friends. Today, I thank the Lord for His grace of a peculiar allergy.
Which brings me to grace: sin confessed openly at salvation, still hidden in the secret recesses of our souls without confession, or a blatant addiction, all of them can only be overcome by grace. And with God’s grace given in different ways, let’s be grateful for past deliverance while continually asking for it because of our current behavior.
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:13-14, emphasis added).
Grace, God, give us grace! Let us be holy.
Amen! I was hit with my own sin as a young person, pre-teen at 3 a.m. this morning. I asked God’s forgiveness a long time ago but felt moved to confess to Tony as well. He is a good God that is full of grace and gave me a husband that understands and is gracious too.
On another note, pray for my niece, Erin. Her counselor calls it autism burnout. She’s unable to work or exercise. She can barely even function with activities of daily living. Rosie is concerned as Erin doesn’t think the behavioral hospital is the answer. Pray for David also as he has issues of his own and works late daily. It breaks my heart.