By J.A. Medders
After a grocery store run with my children—not forgetting a thing or child—I felt proud when we pulled back onto our driveway. As we exited my truck, I heard my daughter stomp on the concrete. Then more stomping. Then stomping with a dash of panic. She ran away, spooked and screaming, “Kill it, Papa! Kill it!” I gently put the eggs down and ran over to see a mutant, Hot-Wheel-sized, furry, wingless wasp-looking thing. I stomped. It moved. I stomped two more times. The beast ran. Three more stomps. It darted and tried to lose me in the grass, but after a barrage of stomps and some heel-digs, it was all over. I killed what my friends on Facebook identified as a “velvet ant.” Velvet ants are infamous for their bites and their toughness.
Sin is, too, isn’t it? But Jesus is stronger. The temptations we face are real, no doubt. But our death to sin and new life in Christ are even more real because that life will last for 10 billion years—and more—to come (Romans 6:5).
We all have various sins that easily trap us. But Jesus introduces us to new life, power, and a new way with Him on the throne. Sin’s grasp on us was formidable, but when Jesus died on the cross, He crushed the velvet ant-ness of our sin. Christ conquered and killed what every other power could not. He rose from the dead, bringing us with Him toward a life of grace, forgiveness, and freedom from sin (Galatians 5:1).
Our freedom from sin’s chains is as real as Christ’s cross and empty tomb. A no-longer-dead Jesus means a no-longer-doomed-to-sin you and me. Let’s not throw our hands up in despair, overhyping sin’s power and disbelieving Christ’s declaration of victory over it. Let’s receive it. Let’s accept the freedom Christ gives to those who believe.
Don’t buy the propaganda that sin has power over you. Look past it. Look back to a blood-stained hill outside of Jerusalem. See, by faith, a stack of used grave clothes from your risen Lord. Look beyond what tempts you. Look to the One who saves you.
If you are in Christ, an obituary for your life in sin has already been published, and good news is printed on top: “Dead to sin. Alive in Christ.”
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