davidbowerkingwood

Regardless of Who You are or Where You Are You Have Problems!

Problems are a way of life as we live our lives on this troubled world. We’ve all heard the old saying which goes something like this, “You’re either in the middle of a problem, just emerging from a problem, or getting ready to encounter a problem in your life.” The longer we live the more readily we can see the truth of that statement.

While problems can take many forms there is one problem that we all share and that is the problem of sin; when we are born of human fathers we inherit a racial virus called sin.

Have You Been Infected?

The short answer is yes, you have the virus and although the symptoms can be controlled, you will have this virus as long as you live in the mortal body you now occupy. The virus of which I speak is called the sin nature, a plague on humanity that we have inherited as a part of being a member of a fallen race.

We have previously discussed the removal of the sin barrier by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Although sin is no longer the same barrier it was before the cross, the problem with personal sin and quality of life remains. Salvation is resolved by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, the Christian’s daily life, led by the Holy Spirit is another matter. Although the Christian’s salvation is secured by the power of God, the Christian’s moment by moment fellowship with God is totally dependent on a daily Spirit-led life.

I have noted many times before, as regular readers of this blog may recall, that all mankind born of human fathers are born spiritually dead. There are no other options, we died in Adam when Adam disobeyed the one commandment God had given to him; this is referred to as “the Federal Headship of Adam.”

Spiritual life comes when each individual receives Christ as Savior but sadly our sin nature remains in us. Our lives have, in effect, become a spiritual battleground between good and evil. We have, in these mortal bodies, the residual sin nature we inherited from Adam, and the Holy Spirit which we received when we were born again. Although the battle has been ultimately won by the Lord there are tactical conflicts involving us which may go well or go badly.

An Example

Like so many others I get fever blisters which means I have the fever blister virus with which I will have to live all my life. Although I know exactly where my sin virus came from I have no idea how I got the fever blister virus. All I do know about it is it is with me all my life and there is nothing I can do to rid myself of that virus.

One thing I have learned is to successfully control the symptoms of that virus. Somewhere along the line I discovered the power of lysine to control the virus. It appears the amino acid arginine promotes the growth of the virus and the amino acid lysine suppresses it. I have learned to limit my intake of foods high in arginine and take a lysine supplement every day. If I get the familiar feel of an oncoming fever blister I drastically increase my dosage of lysine and usually the symptoms go away without ever getting the pesky fever blister.

Now why do I burden you with all of those details? Because the same principle applies to the sin virus; it can be controlled by following God’s instructions on dealing with the sin virus. There is, as it were, a spiritual lysine that can help control the virus of sin which is humanity’s universal problem; personal sins are only symptoms of the basic problem.

Next time, “How Does That Work?”