When faced with the choice of honoring or dishonoring God, why would you choose sin? After all the Lord has done for you, why would you choose to serve Satan instead of Him? To my shame, I have to ask myself this question far too often. Like Paul, I don’t do the things I want to do, and I do the things I don’t want to do. (Romans 7:15-19) It’s maddening!
How can we love Christ so much and still live our lives as if He were not more important than anyone or anything else? Christ is Lord; of that there is no doubt. (Philippians 2:9-11; Acts 2:36) But if we aren’t living that truth, then we’re living a lie and a life of delusion. (Luke 6:46; James 1:22)
Why would you choose sin when it has never brought you anything other than pain, heartache, and disappointment? I can’t recall ever sinning and being happy about it five years later. I’m not even happy about it five minutes later. Sin brings no lasting joy, no enduring peace, and it leads to death, not life. (Romans 6:21-23; James 1:14-15) Every bit of logic screams against sinning, and yet still we choose to do it time and again. It’s as if we have a death wish because we know any sin invites the wrath of God on our lives. (Romans 1:18-19; Colossians 3:5-7) There is no sin that is worth that risk.
Each of us would spend eternity in Hell for our sins if not for the cleansing and covering blood of Christ. (Romans 5:9; 1 John 1:7) We are saved because He died in our place. (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21) He took on the full wrath of God on our behalf. (Isaiah 53:5-6; Galatians 3:13) And how do we repay Him? Not with obedience, but with disobedience. We repay His goodness with sin instead of love. The cross of Christ is no excuse for us to continue to sin. (Romans 6:1-2; Romans 6:11-12) In fact, if we continue on with a lifestyle of habitual sin, it is proof we don’t belong to Jesus. (1 John 3:6-10; Hebrews 10:26-27) We need no other witnesses because we condemn ourselves. (Titus 1:16; Matthew 7:21-23)
Knowing sin only and always leads to death (Romans 6:23; James 1:15), why would you choose to sin? Why would I? We are weak, broken, and fallen individuals, but that is no excuse. God exhorts us to be holy as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16) He would not give us an impossible task. He always gives us the power to complete the work He gives us to do. (Philippians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:3) It is we who refuse to accept His help and try to live life on our terms. (Proverbs 3:5-7; Isaiah 53:6) That plan isn’t going to work. It never has and never will.
The only antidote for sin is complete surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord. He gets to say what we will think, say, and do. As long as we are guiding the ship, we will continue to fail. Only when we give complete control to Jesus will we find victory over sin. (Romans 6:12-14; Galatians 5:16) Only when we die to ourselves will we discover how to live. (Luke 9:23-24; Galatians 2:19-20) This life is short, and it’s our only chance to prove how much we love Him amid all this chaos. Our life is not our own; it belongs to Christ. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 14:7-8) So why would you choose sin?