The Covering

In one of my favorite Steve Camp songs the chorus is "I know some day I will be free, the weight of sin will be released, but for now He covers me."

This past week I have been VERY impressed by the bondage of sin.   Impressed in that I am amazed at how firm a grasp that sin can have on one's life.  And it doesn't really matter where the sin comes from.  There are really three places that we "get" our sin.  One place is from Satan.  The tempter certainly enters our lives from time to time to try to trip us up.  Scripture shows us in the book of Job that God does sometimes allow Satan (and his hordes) to work against the believer.  And as Jesus told Peter, "He would sift you like wheat."  We're not really a match for the devil.  He's crafty and he's had thousands of years of practice as the accuser of the brethren.

But we also get wrapped up in the world.  Sometimes it doesn't take a visit from Beelzebub to knock us off track.  The world is full of influences that work against our sanctification.  That was the whole reason for the command to be "in the world, but not of it."  We have to function in the world.  In fact, we should enjoy it - God made it, and originally it was good.  But as man has fallen deeper and deeper into his depravity, that goodness has been tarnished by our rebellion.  It's when we begin to allow ourselves to be caught up in that wave that we become "of the world."  The morays and philosophies that bombard us every day through advertising, television, school and yes, even sometimes the church itself call us to deny that which is Holy and trade it in for something that is a lie.

Bigger than both of those (I believe) though, is our own flesh.  Adam blew it originally, but I've jumped right on that wagon.  I am tempted every day, and in some way shape or form I fail.  I have no one to blame but myself when I'm honest.  My fleshly desires, my "owe-it-to-myself" ideas and my passions can tempt me in untold ways to do things that I know are downright sin.  And it's so easy to get trapped in it.

So many people get swept up in sin, sometimes simple and sometimes complex, and it traps them.  That concept of bondage that Paul warns us of races into our mind and we know were caught.  Panic can start to set is as we fight (in real rebellion) the call to repent, and look for cheap absolution.  Unfortunately, since our sin is only exposed by the law we feel it's weight bearing down.  So many though look for a way out, only to find that they judgement of the law is staring them in the face.  God's justice is coming, and they begin to abandon hope.

This dear reader is where the Gospel meets us.  We come to a place where we realize, by the grace of God, that we cannot win.  The Spirit wakes us up and shows us our failures.  He takes us by the hand and points out our condemnation, and then as the sentence of death is read to us Jesus shows us that He has borne that consequence.  It is through the hellish death and humiliation that the King of Glory suffered, that the Spirit takes our dirty rags off and covers us in the robes of Jesus' righteousness.  That is amazing grace.

God has promised that someday he'll perfect us.  We'll be completely free of all of the things that trip us up.  The world, the flesh and the devil will no longer work against us.  Rather we'll see things clearly, and only know the glory of God's perfect kingdom.  But until then, the blood of Christ covers each of us and keeps us until that wonderful day.