The Death of Sin

I love it when i’m reading the Word and God speaks to me right where i’m at. In truth, there’s nothing better.

I’m reading through Genesis, as it is the start of a new year, and in Genesis 22 Abraham is called to sacrifice Isaac. Instinctively, as i read, my mind connected this story to the story of Jesus talking to the rich, young ruler in Matthew 19. In both passages, the point of the story is: Do you love something else more than you love God?

I specifically focused on Abraham and Isaac because the concept of sacrifice involves death (and because it was the passage i was reading). And death involves finality.

Immediately, my mind asked, “Do you love sin more than God?”

“No!” i shot back.

“Then why haven’t you sacrificed it at the altar on the mountain, never to return to it?”

“It’d be easier,” i replied, “if i could see it lying there dead, like Voldemort’s body in the train station in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt 2.”

And then it hit me.

I can see my sin dead on the mountain already. Interestingly enough, the mountain in Genesis 22 is the same mountain in Matthew 27.

(This goes hand in hand with what i wrote here on Mark 11:24. Interestingly enough, i saw the residue of this verse on my bathroom mirror a few minutes before sitting down to read in Genesis this morning.)

Jesus died on the mountain to release me from my sin. In times of temptation i must look to the cross and see my sin lying there—dead. This will prove invaluable in the struggle against sin.

And when i stumble and fall—though i pray by God’s grace it becomes less and less frequent—i need to look to the cross and see Jesus hanging there, dying for me. I don’t have to live in a defeatist mentality because my sin died with Christ.

But Christ rose from the grave. My sin did not.

That’s the gospel!!!

In this with you.

Solo Deo Gloria
Solus Christus
Sola Gratia

Thanks for reading.