Redeeming Joy – Why Sin Never Satisfies

The commonest motivation of humankind is the motive of sin; of taking the Godship of God and rejecting it in preference for the godship of ourselves.

The manifestation is pleasure, ease, the greed of abundance, and several other sins of the flesh, where it’s our default to get distracted from the things of God. We cannot help but sin, and, because of this fact, we need God all the more.

We are marooned: 1) without God’s guidance in preventing the slide into sin; and, 2) without God’s blessing through repentance for when we have sinned. The only right of God we have is access to Divine mercy through Jesus Christ.

The ultimate motivation regarding a modus operandi for living life is this fact: though the act of sin promises pleasure and ease and abundance, sin never satisfies; not like the joy of our salvation can satisfy.

Salvation – A Thing for Those Sick of Their Sin

Notwithstanding the fact that salvation is for all—that all humankind form part of the potential elect—there is a kind of person that ‘gets’ salvation, once for all time. Their seed falls in good soil, germinates and grows, yielding thirty, sixty, one hundredfold (Mark 4:8-9). For this person there is no backsliding.

They have no way back to the old life, for the old life holds no attraction whatsoever.

They were burned by the old life—wallowing in their sin. They tasted and touched every angle of vice within their grasp and they saw for themselves the vacuous void of joy for such ‘freedom’.

The freedom in free will is on the one hand folly, but, on the other hand it’s wisdom, for the person who gives up their free will to live the saved life gets every blessing God has ordained for them.

These are upside-down concepts. When we take in life we lose. When we give in life we receive. When we give up the rights to our free will, by following the moral Law of God, we, for the first time, taste true freedom.

Going Beyond Sin That Never Satisfies

Because it’s a thing that promises much, and delivers initially, we can be tricked by the nature of sin. Of course, then we justify it. We want to protect our access to choice. But sin is slippery, and we could defy anyone to present a good case for sin in providing a sustaining satisfaction. We are deluded by the Sovereign of Sin (Satan) when we go on in that vein.

Sin only satisfies when there’s more sin to be had. It’s a highly conditional freedom—a trap promising captivity, not salvation.

But when we turn back to God and repent of our sin, we learn that God has more in mind for us. There is much more to be won regarding the joy of our salvation—which, for sin, was lost—when we, again, go after God with all our hearts.

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Turning from sin, which never satisfies, is the first crucial step in redeeming the joy of our salvation.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.