The Minister and the Murder
The Minister and the Murder
A literary review in the London Times Literary Supplement complained that American writers of detective stories do not keep to the proper rules of the game. "In the traditional English story the author - unless without a sense of craftsmanship - does not have the murder done by a clergyman; he does not extract skeletons from the cupboards of those who are to live happily ever after; within the limits of the genre his characters observe the conventions of their social position to the point that where they disregard them they are marked down as suspects. But in the American story, spotting the culprit is more difficult because anybody may have done anything."
This may not measure up to English literary standards, but it most certainly does measure up to the Biblical standards of truth. The roots of sin - all sin - are planted deep in the human heart. The Word of God teaches us that they can never be uprooted, and that therefore God counts the old heart as "incurably sick" (Jer. 17:9 ASV). The divine manner of dealing with the sin of a believer is to condemn it, then to create through Christ a new life alongside the old.
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). Culture and education may keep some men from some sins, but these cannot deal with the root from which sins grow. Frequently enough there are outbreaks of every type and kind of sin in every type and kind of individual. These sins are consistent enough to show that sin lurks everywhere. The world has invented phrases to cover it, and so speaks of "black sheep" or "skeletons in closets." The truth is that the "white" sheep have the same hearts as their relatives who have broken out of the fold. The skin does no more than cover the skeleton that has become a world symbol of death.
Perhaps the unbeliever will point out that sin also crops out in the hearts of believers. We are the first to recognize this as truth, and to count it as a proof of our assertions. The believer has an old nature within him just as surely as he has bones beneath his flesh. We shall never know, though, how many believers who would otherwise have broken forth into open sin have been kept from sin by the power of God. It is through faith in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ that we can have a victory over root sin and the fruit of sin.
1. If we are new creations in Christ Jesus as the New Testament tells us, how then do we still have the “old man” living inside of us?
2. In what ways has the Lord protected and kept you from the root of sin?
3. What is the difference between the root of sin and the fruit of sin?
4. How do they manifest themselves differently in your life?
