_SIN AS POISON_
NUMBERS xxi. 4-9.
And this is the familiar teaching, that sin is a serpent. It possesses a
deadly poison. We may give it pleasant names, but we are only ornamenting
death. A chemist might put a poison into a chaste and elegant flask, but
he has in no wise changed its nature. And when we name sin by philosophic
euphemisms, and by less exacting terminologies--such as "cleverness,"
"smartness," or "fault," or "misfortune," we are only changing the flask,
and the diabolical essence remains the same.
And, then, sin is a serpent because it is so subtle. It creeps into my
presence almost before I know it. Its approaches are so insidious, its
expedients so full of guile. "Therefore, I say unto all, Watch!"
But in Christ the old serpent is dead! Christ "became sin," and in Him sin
was crucified. The thing that bit is bitten, and its nefarious power
destroyed. But out of Christ the serpent is still busy and malicious,
claiming what he presumes to call his own.
Let me, then, dwell in Christ, where sin "has no more dominion."
"Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have life."