I’m a gardener, so I am
well acquainted with the effects of The Fall. God meant what He said when He
told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you . . . by the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:17-18). If you have ever tried to raise a garden
then you know the battles against bugs, blight and baking sun can be tiring and
frustrating.
The other day I went out
to check on my potato patch only to find that I had been invaded by a farmer’s nemesis—the
potato beetle. The little pests, no bigger than a pencil eraser, can wreck
havoc on potato plants in just a matter of days. With a voracious appetite, all
it takes is just a few to defoliate a plant faster than Agent Orange. Not to
mention they reproduce overnight. I tried dusting my plants with pesticides,
but the vermin have proven resilient. I have found that in order to save my
plants, I have to go down the row with a plastic bottle and pick the bugs off
one by one and let them fall into a solution of soapy water. Daniel—my
3-year-old son—likes to take a more violent approach by squishing their guts
out with a stick and rock.
As I was performing this
tedious task, I thought about the far-reaching effects of The Fall and how my
battle against the beetles resembles the saint’s struggle with sin. Have you
ever noticed how the Bible portrays this conflict like a tug-of-war? Paul
writes in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to
each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
Just like my battle with
the beetles, I have to be diligent in fighting my sin nature. The
bugs never take a day off, and neither does the Devil, so neither can we. Jesus
spoke of discipleship like this, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Did you notice that key word “daily”? There is no
short cut to sanctification. We must exert spiritual sweat and fight through
until we die or get raptured out of this world.
Just like my battle with
the beetles, I have to be drastic in
fighting my sin nature. There is no compromising, bargaining or truces with
these buggers. They have come to kill, steal and destroy. Likewise, we cannot
rationalize when it comes to sin. Taking up a cross daily, involves putting to
death the flesh and its desires. Speaking on the sin of lust, Jesus advocated
radical surgery, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it
away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole
body be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29).
Just like my battle with
the beetles, I have to be detailed in
fighting my sin nature. Going down the rows and picking the bugs off one-by-one
is slow and backbreaking, but it ensures that I don’t miss many. In our
struggle with sin we have the power of prayer and confession. We ought not to
gloss over our sins glibly, or ignore them, thinking they will go away. We
ought to call the sin what God calls it—lust, anger, envy, lying, pride,
coveting. One by one we must allow the Holy Spirit to pluck out the sins from
our lives. The good news is that we have powerful detergent that wipes the
record clean, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from
all sin.” (1 John 1:7) -DM
No comments:
Post a Comment