Sin Is An Urge

Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11). Go and sin no more is a guiding principle of the Christian religion. But have you ever stopped and really thought what sin was? After all, how can you stop doing something if you don’t have a clear picture of what “it” is?

Sin is an urge, a strong desire to go against the will of God and to act upon that urge. So sin has two sides to it, the urge and then the action. The Christian battle is with the urge to sin. It’s called temptation. As long as we stay in the fight with temptation then God will strengthen us and guide us to victory. But if we lose faith in God and His abilities we will lose the fight. We fall or transgress from the urge to the action and committal of sin. We now have yielded our self over to that sin. Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” (John 8:34)

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” (Romans 6:12).

Once we have acted upon the urge to sin, we give up on God and yield to whatever sin it was. That sin now has dominion over our soul and body.

Sin is like alcoholism. The alcoholic is controlled and owned by alcohol. He has yielded himself to it completely. He knows it is bad but when he tries to quit the addiction draws him back in with strong cravings. All sin acts in the same fashion.

So what do we do once we realize that we are in complete darkness of sin?

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:5-9).

God is the light. If we repent of our sins He will cleanse us of all darkness and sin. He certainly will cleanse us for he does not want anyone to die and sin kills!

“For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezekiel 18:32).

Once cleansed we must resume the fight of temptation with the sin we were just freed from. The only way to do that is: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-8).

But we must be very careful to never fall again for the second fall is usually much worse than the first. Jesus warned the man who had been healed of an infirmity of 38 years, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14)

Jesus died on the cross so we would have the ability to fight, fall, repent and fight temptation again. Never think it is too late. It isn’t. Don’t let sin reign in your body. Rid yourself of the darkness within. 

Repent! Trust in God and live!

Bill Hitchcock