June 24
  
RECONCILING ONE'S SELF TO THE FACT OF SIN 

This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Luke 22:53

It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have. If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is vice and self-seeking, something downright spiteful and wrong in human beings, instead of reconciling yourself to it, when it strikes your life, you will compromise with it and say it is of no use to battle against it. Have you made allowance for this hour and the power of darkness, or do you take a recognition of yourself that misses out sin? In your bodily relationships and friendships do you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin? If not, you will be caught round the next corner and you will compromise with it. If you reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger at once - Yes, I see what that would mean. The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship; it establishes a mutual regard for the fact that the basis of life is tragic. Always beware of an estimate of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin. 

Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical, never suspicious, because He trusted absolutely in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman, not the innocent, is the safeguarded man or woman. You are never safe with an innocent man or woman. Men and women have no business to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child; it is a blameworthy thing for a man or woman not to be reconciled to the fact of sin.

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Disasters in life are largely a result of naivity.  Either to dismiss sin or to ignore it or to deny that it exists, opens the door for one to take unfair and mean advantage of another.  Take, for example, the trusted employee who is caught in embezzlement.  This is usually caused by placing trust in an individual with no safeguards or accountability to help them not to be tempted to compromise.  Nearly every one can be tempted beyond his ability to resist, if the stakes are high enough.

When it comes to moral purity, we are inundated with the current society's messages that to be a virgin is neither popular, nor normal behavior.  Does this change the fact that fornication and adultery are sin? Absolutely not!  The biblical standard can never be defined nor interpreted by the natural mind.  To live in seclusion in our Christian circles may keep our children innocent, but as young men and women, they should not be innocent when "thrown to the wolves" as they go off to college.  They need to be fully informed of all sexual matters and warned thoroughly of the onslaught they will face once they leave home.  There is no virtue in innocence beyond puberty.  There is only extreme danger in it.

Do not sell sin short.  It is destructive.  It is dangerous.  And it is relationally devisive.  You do not need to be hateful or cynical about others who hold no biblical standards for themselves.  You can love them, as Jesus did in His time.  But the Bible says that we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  However, once violated by another whom you trusted, you are apt to become cynical.  Don't set yourself up for disaster.  Be prepared for it.  Then when it comes, you have at least a good chance of going through it without compromise.  As scripture also says, "...flee youthful lust..."  To do this, you need to know what it is so that you can flee from it when it comes your way.

Human nature can be trusted to do the "sinful" thing.  That is the nature of human nature.  The new nature can be trusted NOT TO do the "sinful" thing.  That is the divine nature.  But we must be appropriately informed and aware of the danger.   And we must remember that purity and virtue are matters of personal commitment to God.