About a year ago, I began to notice a vine growing around the stop sign on my street.
There was something intriguing about this vine. I even thought wow at one point, admiring the little flowers budding from it.
But although I thought this vine — with its little white flowers — was quite lovely, I felt something was…odd. I then began to feel like the Holy Spirit was prompting me to take photos of the stop sign. Not just one or two, but a series of pictures over the course of a couple of months.
So I did. Every couple weeks, as I was leaving the neighborhood, I would pull up to the stop sign and snap a photo; or when I would go for a run, I would snap a photo. The vine became more lush and beautiful for a while….
But then I noticed the vine was starting to dry up. And the flowers…they were no longer perky and pretty. They were shriveling.
Each time I thought to stop and take a picture, I realized how ugly this vine was becoming. And I began to see it — not so much as a vine any longer, but almost like a weed. And it was totally taking over the stop sign. And it looked disgusting.
By this time I realized — this wasn’t just a weed-like vine growing on a stop sign. This was picture of sin. That’s what the Holy Spirit was trying to show me.
Sin always starts out fun, exciting, harmless — it’s just a few drinks, right? Or just a few sexy pictures…or just a little buzz…just…just…just. There’s this illusion that we’re in control, but that’s a deception to get us to keep doing it. Because the more we do it, the more ensnared we become…and the harder it is to break free of that sin.
This is the nature of sin. Sin is insatiable. It cannot be satisfied. That’s why people feel like they have to keep going back, why it seems like so many addicts can’t just “walk away” from whatever drug or drink they are hooked on.
Now, that’s not to say that every single person gets mired in every single type of sin that comes their way. Not all sin is appealing to every single person. But here’s the bottom line: even though not every sin appeals to everyone, EVERYONE has some sin that will appeal to them…and when sin is left unchecked, it WILL consume a person just as we talked about in the first post of this series (see THE VINE (Part 1 of 2): Requiem for a Dream).
Back to the vine growing on the stop sign — eventually, someone ended up cutting that vine off.
I don’t know who was behind the removal, but it’s a good thing they did it because this is what happens a vine was left unchecked and overtook a street sign:
Looks like this is a pretty important sign — a warning sign that warns of an obstruction in the road (like a bridge). And yet, as important as this sign is, its purpose is being hindered by the vine.
This, too, is a picture of sin; but this is what it looks like when the sin has totally taken over a person’s life. The more a person gives over to a sin, the more it will consume him or her. Thus, the more deadly the sin becomes — and the harder it is to break free.
This vine might look cool from afar, but up close you can see parts of it are rotting and brown — this is a great illustration of what we look like on the inside because of sin. Some parts of us might have the appearance of being healthy, but in reality we all have some form of ugliness in us. This is due to our fallen nature, and it’s in all of us.
You may be asking yourself, If this is true, then things are pretty bleak. BUT WE ARE NOT WITHOUT HOPE.
The blood of Jesus Christ breaks the power of sin. God Himself came into the world as the person of Yeshua (in Greek, Jesus), lived a perfect life, and then went to the cross undeservedly to take the punishment that was due to us. His blood, which was perfect because He never sinned, makes atonement for our transgressions.
As people with fallen natures, we accumulate a huge debt through our sinful (i.e., self-centered) decisions. The debt is so great, we ourselves can never pay it. God understood this, so He came in the flesh, as Jesus, so that He could pay the penalty for us, setting us free from enslavement to sin so that we can have fellowship with Him again (just like He once had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, before their pride and rebellion separated them from Him).
Jesus. Jesus is the answer, no matter your question, no matter your situation.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 7:21-25
