The Cure for the Common Sin

At the doctor's office where I work, one of my responsibilities is managing prescription refill requests. One day, we received a faxed request for a medication with incomplete directions.

A medication intended to be written as “one tablet as needed for sinus congestion” read “one tablet as needed for SIN.”

And I thought . . . Wouldn't that be nice?

* one capsule three times daily for persistent temptation

* two capsules every four hours as needed for pride

* one tablet 30 minutes before each meal to prevent flare-ups

It seems there’s a pill for just about anything.

Couldn’t they find a cure for the common sin?

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery: “Go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

I don’t read anywhere that He wrote a prescription with that.

How can you and I go from our healed place in Christ and “sin no more”?

Paul gave us a clue . . . a command:

“Reckon [count, consider] yourselves to be DEAD indeed unto sin.”(Romans 6:11)

How would a dead person react to temptation?

Would a corpse cheat?

Do dead people struggle with gossip, lying, pride?

When we’re tempted, there’s no magic pill to swallow.

But we ARE instructed to respond like someone dead.

We’re to count on the fact that sin is no longer alive within us . . . and live that way.

Like a phantom limb, the sin that held such power has now been paralyzed from action . . .even though it feels alive and well.

We’re instructed to let it lie dormant, inactive, powerless.

Healed.

Or rather . . . Dead.

And one day (Praise the Lord!), we’ll be completely cured from the common sin.