Devotional: Exceedingly Sinful

Exceedingly Sinful

I felt fine when I did not understand what the law demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die. So the good law, which was supposed to show me the way of life, instead gave me the death penalty. Sin took advantage of the law and fooled me; it took the good law and used it to make me guilty of death. But still, the law itself is holy and right and good. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my doom?
Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It used God's good commandment for its own evil purposes. (Romans 7:9-13, New Living Translation)

Does this sound familiar? These statements used to describe me to a tee! When I was born-again, instead of feeling free, I felt like such a loser. Don't get me wrong, I understood that I was promised eternal life - a home in heaven - but I couldn't believe I had been so... (for a lack of better words) stupid! Every time I went to church and learned more of God's Word, I would think to myself, "Why didn't you know that dummy!? " Unworthiness had a strong grip on me.

But what was I really feeling? Like Paul said, "...the good law which was supposed to bring me life brought death [or condemnation] to me." So does that make the God's Word bad? No, of course not. Let's look at verse 13 in the New King James so I can show you something very important.
"Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful."
There's the key to our feelings of condemnation: our past sins will appear "exceedingly sinful" making us feel condemned. But the Apostle Paul was trying to make a point about how ugly sin and it's cohort, condemnation, can really be. Ray Comfort once said, "If you have a shallow understanding of your sin, you will have a shallow understanding of God's mercy." Isn't that true? God had to show me where my condemnation was coming from so I could better understand who I have been made in Christ. I am the righteousness of God in Christ and "my sins and lawless deeds He remembers no more" (Hebrews 10:17).

On this side, I can gratefully say thank you to God for the revelation that my sin was exceedingly sinful, not because of the condemnation, but because it gave me a great awareness of God's mercy. A lack of this understanding is a real deception to most of the Body of Christ. The reason is because without understanding and sincere brokenness and repentance over our sin, God is not required to do anything for us. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." The Message Translation of this same verse says, "If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened."

In other words, when our sin does not appear to us as EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL, then we can get pretty comfortable with our transgressions and even go so far as to not even call it sin! And this is the danger of taking God's mercy for granted.

But the good news is this: "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You" (Psalm 86:5). He does hear (when I recognize my sin and call on His mercy)! Praise His Holy Name! I'm glad I understand sin and its consequences. I do not want to be deceived. Every sin I commit is exceedingly sinful, and because I don't have a shallow understanding of this, I also don't have a shallow understanding of God's abundant mercy... Condemnation has no place on me!