Day 328/365- Romans 1:28-32

"Sin breeds sin"

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:28-32 NLT)

There is always progression with sin. We see this clearly throughout the whole of the Bible. Psalm 1 reveals this clearly, "Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers" (Psalms 1:1 NLT). The literal progression is "walk, stand, sit."
Lot lives near Sodom, moves into Sodom, & then has to be dragged out of Sodom right before it is destroyed, losing his wife in the process.
David lusts after Bathsheba, calls for her, lies with her, lies about it, covers it up, has her husband killed, & loses a child because of it.

These are just a couple of a multitude of examples we see in the Bible. And we can see this truth displayed in our own lives. Sin breeds sin. Sin begets sin. As Tim Keller says, "You don't commit sin, sin commits you. You don't do sin, sin does you."

There is something about sin that takes us captive & multiplies. It consumes, destroys, & steals. Sin is not something to be played with. It must be nailed to a cross & killed. This is what Jesus came to do.

All of this begins with the same root: pride. Paul says of these people here that they refuse to acknowledge God. That one refusal leads to the giant list of sins that follow. What we think about God will either lead us to him or away from him. It will lead us to follow him or ignore him, believing he does not exist. There are just two progressions. There is one of two realities shaping our lives right now. We are either shaping God into our image or he is shaping us into his image. We are either changing him to suit us or he is changing us to suit him. We are either molding him into what we think he should be or he is molding us into who he wants us to be. One leads to a sinful progression of atheism & the other leads to eternal life.

Which one are we?