So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. … Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord [Romans 7:17-20,24-25 (NLT)]
Sin is like a cancer that destroys step by step, sometimes so slowly we don’t realize what’s happening to us. [David Jeremiah]
A suspicious spot was removed at my annual dermatology appointment. When the biopsy indicated cancer, I had Mohs surgery to remove it. In Mohs, the tissue is sliced off in stages and examined by the pathologist to determine if (and where) any cancerous tissue remains. If it does, the surgeon removes the next layer of tissue, the pathologist examines it, and the process continues until no cancer cells remain. While it’s a time-consuming process, Mohs spares healthy tissue while eradicating all of the cancer.
I had a fair amount of time between slicing sessions to ponder how sin is like cancer. Although I look at my face every day, I didn’t recognize that little spot as anything dangerous and I think we’re like that with sin. A large raised red patch would have been easy to notice—the same way a big sin like murder or armed robbery is easily spotted. Small cancers like mine are not so obvious to the naked eye just like a spot of envy, smidgen of gossip, slight stretch of truth, or speck of flirtation can easily be ignored. Moreover, both skin cancer and sin look quite different from one person to another and it seems we’re more likely to notice defects in others than in ourselves!
Unlike skin cancer, which some people get while others never do, none of us truly can avoid contact with sin! Like cancer, sin is opportunistic; it’s just waiting for a chance to invade healthy tissue (and lives). Just as a little spot of unnoticed cancer can grow both deeper and wider so can a little overlooked sin. Fortunately, both cancer and sin are treatable when discovered early enough; they both can be deadly when not.
Although my physician kept my medical record, biopsy reports, and before and after photos, once our sins are forgiven God does not remember them. Being saved means that our confessed and repented sins are forgiven and the slate is wiped clean. Being saved, however, doesn’t mean that we won’t continue to struggle with our propensity to sin any more than having that one spot of cancer removed means I’ll never have another. Just as using sun block with a high SPF is no guarantee against skin cancer, being saved does not guarantee a sin-free life. While sin no longer reigns, like a stray cancer cell, it manages to survive and will try to destroy us.
A dermatologist and pathologist were needed to diagnose my cancer but a little prayerful reflection is all we need to find the sin in our lives. When we ask God to point out anything He finds offensive in us, we can be sure the Holy Spirit will make His voice heard. We go to a doctor to eradicate cancer but, to free us from sin, we go to the Great Physician: Jesus Christ! When a cancerous growth is excised, the doctors and nurses do all of the work but the work of cutting out the sin in our lives requires our effort. Granted, we’ll be empowered by the Spirit but it’s up to us to yield to God’s will and obey His word. While the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome sinful thoughts, attitudes, and actions, it’s up to us to say “No!”
Christ is the good physician. There is no disease he cannot heal; no sin he cannot remove; no trouble he cannot help. He is the Balm of Gilead, the Great Physician who has never yet failed to heal all the spiritual maladies of every soul that has come unto him in faith and prayer. [James H. Aughey]
The story is told of four blind men who, while walking together, collided with an elephant. The one who bumped into the elephant’s trunk concluded they’d run into a giant hose. The second man, feeling the elephant’s huge ear, disagreed and said it was an enormous fan. As he pulled on the tail, the third man assumed that it was a heavy rope. The fourth blind man, feeling the thick leg, pronounced them all to be wrong and declared they’d encountered a tree. Because none of them felt the entire animal, all of them were incorrect.
Stories—everyone loves a good one and we all have stories to tell. My children loved hearing their Grandpa tell stories of boyish pranks like stealing watermelons and tipping over outhouses but it wasn’t just his tales of mischief they enjoyed. They relished hearing about him working on the farm, playing basketball and wrestling, working his way through college, having a victory garden, and starting a business. The stories we never heard, however, are the ones I wish he had shared: the stories of his faith journey. He was a Christian, yet I don’t know how he came to be such a man of faith. I know he met his wife at a church social and they both attended the Lutheran church in our town, but that doesn’t tell me when and how the Holy Spirit truly entered his life. It doesn’t tell me about the times he might have doubted or been afraid or the times he knew without question that God was holding his hand or had answered his prayers.
The Apostle John used the word menó 53 times in his gospel and epistles. Frequently translated as abide, menó originally referred to the staying power of an army that is not driven from the battlefield. Meaning “to stay, remain, reside or stand fast,” menó came to imply an unbroken friendship or a continuous fellowship.
When the catering manager pulled me aside and said we had a problem, my mind rushed through various scenarios that could turn our daughter’s wedding into a fiasco. When he admitted not having the wine I’d ordered weeks earlier, I got nervous but, when he offered to substitute a better wine at a lower price, I heaved a sigh of relief and recalled another wedding when the guests unexpectedly got better wine! This happened 18 years ago but I still remember it whenever I read about Jesus’ miracle at Cana. The guests at our daughter’s wedding had no idea why they enjoyed such good wine and neither did the guests at that wedding 2,000 years ago.
Devotions of the Heart 