Mar 21 - "Hitting The Target"

Romans 6:12-23
"When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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Having spent most of this week in Las Vegas for a company meeting, I have certainly seen more than enough versions of "Sin City's" claim to fame. It is around you all the time...in your face moment by moment.

Don't get me wrong, Las Vegas is a very fun and energetic place to be as well as one of the very best people-watching places on the planet, in my opinion. The weather and the mountains surrounding the city are beautiful. But there is a painful side to this beauty, just under the surface. There are lots of very easy choices that can lead to dark places.

What is sin? Both the Hebrew (het) and the Greek (hamartia) words for sin which are used throughout the Old and New Testaments literally mean "to miss the target" or "to miss the mark". Not as bad as you would think. The definition speaks nothing of damnation and hellfire, evil and pain. We miss the target when we don't work hard enough...don't reach our potential...make the easy choices. Just off the mark a bit doesn't sound so bad, right?

Then, why not commit sin? Why not bring pleasure and ease to your life? As I have written previously, I truly believe that there is nothing we can do in our human form to either gain or lose God's eternal grace. It is just there. It will always exist for us. The debt has been paid; Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we would have everlasting life. God's existence and work in the world does not change based on whether you and I make choices that are based in sin. If that is the case, what's the big deal about sin?

The big deal is this: God does not require us to live without sin for His benefit. He guides us towards a life without sin because He knows that sin breaks us down. He loves us, and never desires us to to be broken. He knows that sin, in the form of repeatedly missing the mark over time, causes each of us to fall short of our potential. God has created a world for us where many choices exist; choices that lead to glorifying his gifts to us, and choices which send us down into a spiraling pit of misery.

Do the choices which represent the modern world's definition of "sin" lead to happiness, or do they lead to pain?

So today, think about the decisions and the choices you make. Are they easy or hard? Will they build you up or break you down? Make the hard choice...hit the mark. For each time we chose "hard", each time we do the work to hit the target, we become closer to God; not because He requires it to be close to Him, but because we require it to be truly fulfilled.