A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
🌷🌷October 8🌷🌷
The Lord Jesus died not only to take away our judgment and forgive our sins, but also to make us die to our old sinful nature. The Psalmist says that we are born in sin. “..in sin did my mother conceive me (Ps 51:5). “Right from the first son of Adam, Cain, all men have inherited a sinful nature from their parents. We cannot help sinning because of this sinful nature. Supposing you question a snake, “Mr. Snake, why are so poisonous? Why do you go on biting everybody?” What will be the snake answer? He will say “I am made that way there is poison in my fangs, and when I bite, I poison people”. A snake may look nice and harmles, as a child and yet it will bite anyone who touches it. It is made that way. What would you say if you were asked, “Why do you sin?” You would answer, “I cannot help it; I am made like that”. All of us are born with a sinful nature. It is that nature that makes us sin: we cannot help it. We are born that way. As long as that nature is in you, you will go on sinning again and again. You will never conquer sin unless you die to that old sinful nature.
Once there was a professor in London who tried to change the nature of his pig. He put the pig in a beautiful room with electric fan and all modern conveniences. Every day a servant washed this pig with hot water and scented soap. After continuing this treatment for some years, he took pig on a chain and went out for a walk. As they went, the pig saw a dirty drain, and immediately the pig tugged hard at the chain, and pulled away from his master. Then it went and wallowed in the dirty drain. The owner sighed disgustedly, and said, “For ten long years I laboured patiently to change you, my pig. All my efforts are in vain. A pig you are by nature, and a pig you will remain”. In the same way education will not change your sinful nature. What you need is an inward change. Otherwise the old nature will make you more and more corrupt. In fact, education makes a man more cunning in covering his sins. So it is necessary that you should die to your old nature. To do this, you must take into you by faith the power of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith you must say, “Lord Jesus, I see all the bad things that are in me: my bad temper, jealousy, and other lustful weaknesses. I cannot conquer them. So I want to die to myself today. Will you kindly put the power of Your death into me?” Only then you will be able to die to your old nature. The apostle Paul had this experience, and he could say, “I am crucified with Christ”. Christ’s death worked daily in the apostle’s life, and then he received Christ’s resurrection life. Dying to self should be our daily experience. Thus Paul was able to say, “I die daily” (I Cor. 15:31).
