Sin: Facing it Alone or with Jesus

Jesus doesn’t shrink from my fallen, sinful condition. Quite the contrary, He longs to be invited inside, in order to eradicate it. The nature of sin is shaming. As it was for Adam and Eve, it points out our shame and nakedness. Sin makes us ashamed and tempts us to hide. And this is Satan’s very hope – our separation from God.

Facing My Sin Alone

As long as I am facing my sin alone without Christ, I am facing it separated from my only Solution. Which one of us doesn’t wish to clean up our mess before anyone sees it? We feel it is better to fix it rather than getting caught and possibly punished. This is the nature of sin. Sin perpetuates fear, and in that fear, we hide rather than seek help. Pride, lust, entitlement, and envy are all sins that separate us from God. This is why Jesus desires us to involve Him, not exclude Him. He says, “Take Me into it, let Me face it in you instead of you!” This is the best news ever.

This strikes against the ploy of Satan. It stands against the walling-off-power of our sin. To face our sin in Christ exposes us to His healing Light and opens our hearts to Him as the Source of Life. I was never called to struggle and strain against my sins through self-effort.

Sin and the Satan’s Ploy

The enemy knows as long as we’re continually attempting to overcome the sinful self apart from Christ, we’re separating ourselves from the Overcomer. Then guilt weighs on our hearts, which shames us further, which pushes us away from not towards God. Here is a visual of this. It’s like a fireman attempting to put out a forest fire without water or hoses. All the spit and stomping in the world fails to put out the flame.

The scheme of the devil is designed to divert our union and fellowship with Jesus. As long as I am exerting myself to do the work of being Christ, then I am the christ, not Jesus. Utterly frightening! Remember the phrase I heard God say? “Effort is blasphemy!” This is a further extension of that. Me doing it…fail! Him doing it…success!

Sin: With Him or Alone?

I’m not meant to be alone, performing righteousness on my own. The reality is, I allow Christ’s righteousness to be righteous in me. When Jesus says, “Take Me into it, let Me face it in you!” He desires to be the Source of the Solution. Bringing Him into it unveils the separating lie which keeps us on the devil’s treadmill. Then we embrace the reality that relationship with Christ is in everything and everywhere.

He lives ALL of life through me as me from my basest struggles to my most spiritual mountaintop. His Life is not to be compartmentalized into spiritual and secular, or natural and spiritual. He is my Life and He is with me in everything.

“But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Romans 8:10

“Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.”
2 Corinthians 4:6-7