When Sin Becomes A Choice

 DAILY VITAMIN

- When Sin Becomes A Choice

"Sin need never again be your master, for now you are no longer tied to the law where sin enslaves you, but you are free under God’s favor and mercy." (Romans 6:14 TLB)

The Bible says that those in sin are blinded by the devil (2 Cor 4:3-4). If so, then the question becomes: Why do Christians still willfully sin? And the answer is because they are making the choice to. 

John said that the born-again man cannot sin (1 John 3:9); and Paul tells us that is because the power of sin has been broken in our lives. He wrote "Of course not! Should we keep on sinning when we don’t have to? For sin’s power over us was broken when we became Christians and were baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ; through his death the power of your sinful nature was shattered." (Romans 6:2-3 TLB). And in verse 6, he explains better. "Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin."

However, in the eleventh verse he issued a command. "So look upon your old sin nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to him, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (TLB), showing us that it is based on our choices. Our lifestyles are dependent on our choices. We have a mortal and yet corruptible body while on it, so whether it responds to the calls of sin or not is down to the choice we permit it to follow. So, for emphasis sake, he repeats again more blatantly. "Do not let sin control your puny body any longer; do not give in to its sinful desires. Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes." (v. 12-13 TLB).

Thus, it's all about choices - our choices. He wrote again, " Don’t you realize that you can choose your own master? You can choose sin (with death) or else obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself—he will take you and be your master, and you will be his slave." (v. 16 TLB). He says it is kind of like relinquishing yourself to be a slave to either its urge or God's will, and then he tells us to be--in that case--slaves to God's will. So, the choice is clearly yours - live to sin or live for God!