Sin is Insane

Imagine a son who walks away from it all, completely wasting his inheritance in a sinful lifestyle. Everything he has is taken from him — all at breathtaking speed.

Life is ebbing away …

The endgame becomes a job of feeding swine just to survive. Life becomes so bad, he craves what the swine are eating.

Insanity: of unsound mind … deranged … disturbed … utterly senseless …

Greg Simas asks the question … “When are we going to figure out that sin is insanity?”  I encourage you to read his post: Questions on Leadership and Finishing Well. See what you think about the issues he is raising.

We need to think deeply about who we are.

At the most core level, sin is unnatural to us. By core level, I mean we are designed to live in wholeness and consummate integrity.

Of course, something terrible and far-reaching has happened. Humanity has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

‘The Scream’ is one of the most recognized paintings in art history. The artist, Norwegian expressionist, Edvard Munch, wrote of a “an infinite scream passing through nature.” The expression of the hairless individual is one of angst and agony. Sin has also affected the creation.

Sin is a dead-end job

The insanity of sin never ends … it’s a perpetual indentured servitude.

And the compensation? Death. Death and all of the sub-expressions of death: sickness and disease, lack and poverty, relational destruction, murder and war.

The wages of sin is death … but, God has provided a pathway to be restored.

The free gift of God is eternal life … life from God is a superior quality of life which begins now and never ends.

We can exhaust ourselves, laboring for sin, or we can freely accept the gift of God’s life.

The prodigal “came to his senses”

Jesus used a parable — an illustrative story — to teach about the prodigal son who returned to his father (see Luke 15:11-32).

It’s the story of all of us. It says the son “came to his senses.” After all of the mess he unleashed, he connected again with who he really was.

Approaching his father’s home was a return to sanity. And we know the Father was looking for him and ran to accept him.

The prodigal son had foolishly exhausted his personal inheritance. We know there was even more for him. Remember, the father told the older son that everything in the father’s household was his. His heart was the same for the prodigal son.

It’s a clear picture that everything God has is ours in Christ! We are joint-heirs with Christ.

By the way, grace is not merely unmerited favor when we make a royal mess of things. Authentic grace is also an empowerment from above to live the lives we were designed to live.

We can be free from sin

Sin is deceptive. We feel like we want it. But it always takes us further than we thought we would go. And it increasingly exacts a tormenting price.

But we can be free!

Truth makes us free. If we will learn from Christ and follow Him, He will make us free. He invites us into His freedom. See John 8:31-16. Jesus says, “Listen to Me. Learn from Me. You are going to become more free than you can imagine.”

New life. It all starts with being born again. Because of the Fall, we are born wrong the first time. I know this can be offensive, even scandalous to the natural mind. Yet, we can be regenerated (re-gened) through the new birth. Explore John 3:3-8.

See yourself in the cross. The Father has placed us in Christ. When Christ died, our old nature died with Him. When He rose to new life, our new nature rose with Him. We can now consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ! Dive into Romans 6:1-11.

Present yourself daily to God. We no longer have to present ourselves to sin … bowing down in servile obedience. We can present ourselves to God as alive from the dead. This is a conscious awareness. As we make decisions daily to do this, the Holy Spirit energizes us to live on a higher plane! Look into Romans 6:12-19 … look for the words present, presented and presenting.

Live a Spirit-filled lifestyle. As we set our mind on the Holy Spirit and follow His lead, He energizes us to live above the mire! Read Romans 8:1-17.

Thoughts?