The Military Trains Us, God Recreates UsChikamu

Sin Made Me Do it

By Kelli Baker

We are born sinful. From the moment we are conceived, our natural inclination is to sin. Paul describes this as the desire to do right, but around the corner of every right decision, an evil decision is always lurking.

It is in our nature to gravitate toward the wrong choice because as Paul says, nothing good dwells in him. Our human nature is always drawn to the easy and enticing way out.

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul points out some specific examples of our fleshly nature: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Pick your poison, we all struggle with one or more of these sinful behaviors. It's part of living in a fallen world.

We are at war within, Paul writes. While in his inner being, he delights in the law of God; he’s facing a war against his morals which holds him captive to the law of sin that dwells in him. The war Paul describes is between what he knows in his heart to be true and what he feels in his body. This inner conflict between choosing to do right and wrong wages inside of us as well. Integrity is one of the military values. When we are faced with a decision to do the right thing, regardless of who may see us, our values must lead us rather than our desires. The same is true in our Christian walk.

Our bodies want to serve the law of sin, but our minds desire to serve the law of God. We know in our hearts that we want to do the right things and please God but the grip of sin has power over our bodies. Our only answer to being delivered from the power of sin is Jesus Christ. Once we become followers of Christ, we are saved from the bondage of these sinful deeds. Our identity is found in Christ and his power within us gives us the strength to deny those fleshly desires.

Do you continue to struggle with sin? Is there a sin that you felt you had won the victory over? Does it seem to keep creeping in and showing its ugly head? There’s victory in Jesus. Cry out to him and trust him to deliver you.