The root cause of all sin is that we choose created things over the Creator. Jesus came to earth and, through the cross, dealt with our sin. Every sin we do can be traced back to this root. Tim Keller calls it the “sin beneath the sin.”
If I look at pornography and masturbate, the root sin is that I chose momentary pleasure over choosing God and his design for sexuality. If I am eating too much (gluttony), the root sin is that I am choosing to find satisfaction in food and not in God, who made food for me to enjoy and not to overindulge in. If I lie to a friend about why I can’t hang out, I am choosing to trust that I know what’s best in the situation and that God doesn’t know what’s best.
Pick a sin, and you’ll find it’s root is choosing something over God.
Many times, sin is a chain that extends with many different links all the way down to it’s foundation. We struggle with pornography because we have an inordinate desire for the male or female body. But this desire is not limited to just pornography; we also look at other people and lust after them. But it’s not just seeing people that makes us lust; there exists in our mind images of men or women that feed our inordinate desire. And when we masturbate or hook-up with somebody, it solidifies how much of an inordinate desire we really have.
This can be so overwhelming because it feels like an insurmountable obstacle. We can’t kill sleeping around if we don’t kill looking at pornography; we can’t kill looking at pornography if we don’t kill masturbation; we can’t kill masturbation if we don’t kill our lust for men or women. And not only this, but we aren’t truly killing any of these things unless we are choosing God over all of them.
We fall into a defeated mentality because we want the whole thing to go away. Killing any one part of the sin by itself seems pointless. After all, what’s the point of killing a sin that seems so far removed from it’s root?
But Jesus came to earth and dealt with the root cause of all sin. He chose God over his own desires and lived perfectly in our place. He took the punishment and wrath we deserved for choosing creation over the Creator. And he rose again, conquering sin and death on our behalf.
Once we believe in the gospel, God changes us and makes our desire and goal to glorify him by the way we live: in our thinking, speaking, actions, working, friendships, sexuality, and every other aspect of our lives. We have been reborn, as Jesus calls it. We have a new heart with new desires, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us to help us obey God’s commandments. And because of this, each day we are becoming more and more like Jesus, growing in holiness, and killing sin by the power of his Holy Spirit.
Killing sin in our lives is never pointless. In fact, it is the exact opposite because God is glorified anytime we kill sin. We become more like Jesus every time we put to death any sin. We have been given the Holy Spirit, and it is his job to make us more like Jesus. The Spirit is the one who gives us the power to kill sin. Every time we do, we are showing off the work of the Spirit and bringing glory to God.
Someone once told me we are like a white piece of paper that has become completely black with dots of ink. Once we have been saved, the Holy Spirit begins to take off the dots one by one. The whiter the piece of paper becomes, the more obvious the black dots appear.
I use this illustration to point out the truth that the more like Jesus we become, the more obvious it will be that we are not Jesus. Our sinfulness will become more obvious to us the closer we get to him. We know how perfect he is the closer we get to him, and his perfection casts light on our imperfection.
If you are weary, if you are burdened by the heaviness of your sin,take comfort in the fact that Christ has dealt and destroyed the root of your sin, that you have been reconciled back into a right relationship with God, and that you have the Holy Spirit who will not stop destroying sin in your life. Every sin killed is a victory that brings glory to God.
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