There is in our time
a certain morbid fascination with death icons.
Perhaps it is due to the relative ease with which we can kill ourselves
and others. Satan whispers in our ear
and we buckle in the knees, unwilling to take a stand against the lunacy of our
age because we are beguiled. Death and
sin walk hand in hand and to love the imagery of one is to be wed to the other. Sin ushered in death; it was not the other
way around. Sin is the enemy; death it's
prostitute. The sin of man so thoroughly
disorients us that we can think there is something magical, mystical about
death but every sane person despises death; is nauseated by it. Rarely does the atheist welcome it; even
those who seem oblivious to what lies behind it. Death is the enemy in every way and we should
hate it...but not because it is the object, it is rather the verb. Sin is where all of the horror resides; where
the terror springs forth. We die because
sin is there. Without sin, death would
never touch our lips. We are wrong when
we give death the idol's gaze; take your eyes off death and look at sin
squarely. That is the place where you
must give all your attention and make the most of your time now in your
hand. Sin must be faced and hated with
all the passion you once gave death.
The Son of Man did not come to raise us from the dead; otherwise He
would have just gone about emptying graves.
He came to kill off sin and to do so, He had to die. He never feared death; it was sin that broke
His heart. When Christ bore your sin to
the tomb, He buried death with it. He is
the Resurrection and the Life because He wrecked sin in one final violent
blow. We live a righteous and Godly life
not to please God but because we realize just how horribly despicable sin was
for Jesus Christ and like the mother who stomps on the head of the viper that
has just bitten her child, we in the righteousness of Christ's holy life crush
the breath out of each sin we find lying at our feet. Be done with sin. Despise its poison. Hate its smell. Detest its look. Make certain of the enemy.
The enemy boasted, 'I will pursue, I will overtake
them. I will divide the spoils; I will
gorge myself on them. I will draw my
sword and my hand will destroy them.' Exodus
15:9 NIV
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