08 Dec Virus in the Soul
How to describe sin? That is a tricky thing to do.
The first place that sin is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis 4:7. The Lord spoke to Cain, saying, “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain ignores the Lord’s warning, and sin ends up ruling Cain rather than Cain ruling sin. This isn’t the only instance of sin in the Bible; sin first enters the world in the previous chapter of Genesis through Adam’s disobedience, although it isn’t explicitly called sin there. However, the consequences are very real—it brings death.
Sin has been described in various ways, and most of those descriptions are true and helpful. Because sin is hard to describe exactly, many illustrations can be useful. One effective illustration is to liken it to a virus, which alters its host’s behavior and always proves fatal.
If anyone has seen the old Spider-Man movie with the black goo—a living symbiote that attaches itself to Spider-Man and transforms him from someone with a desire to help into someone motivated by revenge—this movie illustrates the idea of something that, once it gets onto or into you, changes you.
Imagine a virus that corrupts your body so that, once you expected a long life, you now find yourself in a process of decay. Imagine that the same virus changes your feelings so that joy is gone, it becomes hard to be grateful, and you have little motivation to do good. In its place, there is motivation to harm others, to seek only your own advancement, and to care little for anyone but yourself. Imagine a virus that takes away your compassion for others and replaces it with actual happiness when others are hurt. Imagine a virus that causes you to blame everyone around you for things that go wrong and to avoid taking any responsibility.
Sin is like that black goo. It changes a person to prioritize themselves over anyone else. People naturally blame others, are self-focused, care little for others, find it hard to be thankful, and struggle with motivation to do good.
But when the Lord takes away that virus… can you remember the moment it was gone? It is like you are a new person. A weight is lifted off you that you never even knew was there. You were so accustomed to carrying the burden of sin that you felt like a whole new person. And that’s because you did become a new person.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” —2 Corinthians 5:17.
It’s easy to blame others for their bad behavior, but it may be that they are struggling with a virus in the soul that changes their behavior. It’s natural for them to behave that way. They need Christ, so pray for them.
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