The Sickness: Bringing Our Sin to Light

Before I entered full-time ministry, I was a radiological technologist. It was my job to use X-rays, sound waves, or radioisotopes to take pictures or scans of people. In cooperation with a host of physicians, I sought to find the root causes of people’s ailments. Radiographic pictures of stomachs, gallbladders, intestines, bones, lymphatic vessels, and arteries revealed a lot about what a person did, ate, and practiced. Our job was to search for what caused pain or physiological malfunction so as to offer a prescribed treatment.

It’s interesting that ministry is very much the same—helping people discover the cause of spiritual malfunction. The Bible refers to the etiology—the cause—of humankind’s malfunction as sin. Though not a popular term, the underlying sickness of the human race can be boiled down to this truth: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All people miss the mark of God’s righteousness and are sinners by nature and by choice.

The ultimate consequence of this sinful nature and behavior is death (see Romans 6:23), which Christ overcame by His resurrection. Our sin kills us spiritually, but it also does harm physically—weakening our resolve, leaving us prone to self-destruction.

But, as strong as sin is, we have a stronger Savior—Jesus Christ. He is the only doctor who has the antidote to our condition. Because of His love for people, He provided a way to be saved from sin’s grip and its penalties through faith in Him. It is His delight to rescue people from the ruin their sins have produced. But first we must recognize that we are sinners, and then confess that truth—bringing our sin to the light of Christ’s holiness, allowing Him to transform us by the power of His love.

Filling a Hole

Addiction is often wrapped up in self-identity, as one attempts to fill a hole in life with pleasure and emotional euphoria. But only Christ can fulfill the heart’s deepest desires. As the early Christian leader Augustine of Hippo said of God, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”

Addiction is a mask that covers the yearning for true fulfillment found only in Jesus Christ. There’s a variety of obsessions and dependencies hiding behind that veneer, but over the course of this devotional, I’ll address addiction in three broad categories: substance, sexual, and social.

For Further Thought

What is at the heart of any form of addiction? What hole in our hearts are we trying to fill? What is the antidote to sin and any addictions that have resulted from it?