Definition of the "Sting of Death"
Sting means “to inject someone with toxin (venom)’’ and death means a “lack of spiritual life” (Encarta Dictionary). Therefore, the sting of death is a sin (toxin or venom) that poisons the whole being and this brought about a spiritual death- lack of spiritual life. The physical body is alive but the spiritual well being is dead. Man is living in sin and his entire whole being was dominated by the power of sin.
Commentary:
The sting of death is sin. This gives venom to his dart: this alone puts it into the power of death to hurt and kill.Sin is the parent of death, and gives it all its hurtful power. (from Matthew Henry's Commentary)
The sting of death is sin because it is by sin that death gains authority over man, and it is by the law that sin gains its strength. The Law, then, stirred up sin, which led to death. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)
Origin of the “Sting”
In Genesis 2, the Lord commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the “Tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The Lord warned them that if they eat the fruit, they will die. However, Adam and Eve disobey the Lord and ate the fruit. After just a few moments, they didn’t die physically right away. The thing that had been taken place to both of them was actually a spiritual death. Their defiance against the Lord resulted to spiritual death. They become separated from God. The presence and the fellowship between God and the first man come to a death-lack of spiritual life. That’s why according to John 3:3, all people must be born again because all are spiritually dead. All must be born in water and spirit.
According to Romans 3:3, “The wages of sin is death.” So, therefore, whenever a Christian sin and live with sin, death arrives resulting to spiritual death- lack of spiritual life-lack of zest unto God. These are eventually being manifested as in the following: lack of desire to read the word of God and pray, lack of joy of belonging (fellowship), lack of interests on things of God, and lacking many things. At the very start of their Christian life, they are very eager to praise, worship and serve the Lord. However, along the way because of the sting of death (which is sin), one slowly loss the passion for the Christian way of life. The life of a Christian is in the Spirit- in the Spirit of God while the death comes from the sin committed, making him/her spiritually dead. All the way, all sin leads to spiritual death.
Therefore, we could say that the root caused of how and why many Christians often failed to experience God and His presence, it was because the “Sting of Death” in which originally came from Adam and Eve were effectually at work when sin is committed. Since the beginning and until now, the poisonous venom of the Old Snake (Satan) continues to affect the whole well-being of a Christian. This poison is like a pestilence growing and spreading throughout the world affecting all creations. Also, this is like a disease that infected a person and spreads to all the races and generations. It is like an infectious disease that always recurs even after a period of temporary healing and the person starts to weaken again that lead to spiritual death.The sting which is the sin was ingrained and deeply rooted in our whole being. That’s why every one of us has ingrained habits, and that habits are not that easy to remove. Also it’s the sting that makes us to have a sinful nature. We must completely remove the sting and be save from its power.
We should get saved from the “Sting”
In the book of Numbers 21:4-9, God commanded Moses to create a “Bronze
Serpent” and raise it up so that anyone bitten by a snake who look at it will be saved from the fierce sting of the snake at death. Just like the Israelites, we must be saved from the sting of death. Each one of us had been bitten by the serpent (satan) and the sting (the sin) had brought in us evil effect throughout in our whole being. We became slave to sin and we always follow whatever desires of the flesh. It is undeniable, we crave for the things desires by the flesh (Gal.5:19-21). This are the real concerned of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians believers when he said that they must continue to work in order to completely take away the sting and at the same time for complete deliverance against its ill effects.
There is a truth that we need to see and understand as true believers of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In the spiritual realm, we are saved from the judgment of fire in hell, our sins forgiven, we become holy and we become a new person. These we freely received in exchange for the sacrificial works of Christ. However, in natural realm or in reality, all of us have sinned, keep sinning and getting enslave by sin. This is the truth that even we, as a believer, still commit sin. Is there among us who never commit sin? There is none! It is so sad to think that many Christians continued to commit sin and enslaved by sin. If not, however, they ceased to grow and always return to committing sin again and again. It is also sad that for many, serving and worshipping the Lord has been only a ritual. This is because of the Sting of Death, which had clung and deeply ingrained in to one person, has never been completely removed. This disease or this “cancer of the soul” is very dangerous and contagious that if not completely treated with a right and perfect cure death and the fire of hell might awaits.
Another important thing that we need to understand is that the Sting of Death is the reason why we become slaves of sin. Our sinful nature have been there of long ago even when we were still in our mother’s womb. This is the main reason why man continued to commit sin ever since childhood. Even becoming a Christian, we continued to commit sin. When we became children of God, we did not immediately change in an instant. In fact, when we became born-again, we start as a “spiritual babies” born in the family of God. Just like a baby it needs to feed and grow and become a mature man. As a born-again Christian, we also need to grow and mature on the things of God. Thus, a Christian needs to continue to work in order to progressively free himself from the slavery of sin until he is completely saved from the ‘’Sting of Death’’.
Working out your salvation is more appropriate to examine and focus the study on the Apostle Paul mentioning the law, the sin and his experience in struggling with sin. In the proceeding posted documents we will look at the writings of the Apostle Paul to the Romans about those matters. We will analyze about what he found out about to himself during in his struggles with sin in which eventually he overcome. Likewise, we will fully understand that we need to work continually in order for us to be completely saved.
Next Page
Sting means “to inject someone with toxin (venom)’’ and death means a “lack of spiritual life” (Encarta Dictionary). Therefore, the sting of death is a sin (toxin or venom) that poisons the whole being and this brought about a spiritual death- lack of spiritual life. The physical body is alive but the spiritual well being is dead. Man is living in sin and his entire whole being was dominated by the power of sin.
Commentary:
The sting of death is sin. This gives venom to his dart: this alone puts it into the power of death to hurt and kill.Sin is the parent of death, and gives it all its hurtful power. (from Matthew Henry's Commentary)
The sting of death is sin because it is by sin that death gains authority over man, and it is by the law that sin gains its strength. The Law, then, stirred up sin, which led to death. (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary)
Origin of the “Sting”
In Genesis 2, the Lord commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the “Tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The Lord warned them that if they eat the fruit, they will die. However, Adam and Eve disobey the Lord and ate the fruit. After just a few moments, they didn’t die physically right away. The thing that had been taken place to both of them was actually a spiritual death. Their defiance against the Lord resulted to spiritual death. They become separated from God. The presence and the fellowship between God and the first man come to a death-lack of spiritual life. That’s why according to John 3:3, all people must be born again because all are spiritually dead. All must be born in water and spirit.
According to Romans 3:3, “The wages of sin is death.” So, therefore, whenever a Christian sin and live with sin, death arrives resulting to spiritual death- lack of spiritual life-lack of zest unto God. These are eventually being manifested as in the following: lack of desire to read the word of God and pray, lack of joy of belonging (fellowship), lack of interests on things of God, and lacking many things. At the very start of their Christian life, they are very eager to praise, worship and serve the Lord. However, along the way because of the sting of death (which is sin), one slowly loss the passion for the Christian way of life. The life of a Christian is in the Spirit- in the Spirit of God while the death comes from the sin committed, making him/her spiritually dead. All the way, all sin leads to spiritual death.
Therefore, we could say that the root caused of how and why many Christians often failed to experience God and His presence, it was because the “Sting of Death” in which originally came from Adam and Eve were effectually at work when sin is committed. Since the beginning and until now, the poisonous venom of the Old Snake (Satan) continues to affect the whole well-being of a Christian. This poison is like a pestilence growing and spreading throughout the world affecting all creations. Also, this is like a disease that infected a person and spreads to all the races and generations. It is like an infectious disease that always recurs even after a period of temporary healing and the person starts to weaken again that lead to spiritual death.The sting which is the sin was ingrained and deeply rooted in our whole being. That’s why every one of us has ingrained habits, and that habits are not that easy to remove. Also it’s the sting that makes us to have a sinful nature. We must completely remove the sting and be save from its power.
We should get saved from the “Sting”
In the book of Numbers 21:4-9, God commanded Moses to create a “Bronze
Serpent” and raise it up so that anyone bitten by a snake who look at it will be saved from the fierce sting of the snake at death. Just like the Israelites, we must be saved from the sting of death. Each one of us had been bitten by the serpent (satan) and the sting (the sin) had brought in us evil effect throughout in our whole being. We became slave to sin and we always follow whatever desires of the flesh. It is undeniable, we crave for the things desires by the flesh (Gal.5:19-21). This are the real concerned of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians believers when he said that they must continue to work in order to completely take away the sting and at the same time for complete deliverance against its ill effects.
There is a truth that we need to see and understand as true believers of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In the spiritual realm, we are saved from the judgment of fire in hell, our sins forgiven, we become holy and we become a new person. These we freely received in exchange for the sacrificial works of Christ. However, in natural realm or in reality, all of us have sinned, keep sinning and getting enslave by sin. This is the truth that even we, as a believer, still commit sin. Is there among us who never commit sin? There is none! It is so sad to think that many Christians continued to commit sin and enslaved by sin. If not, however, they ceased to grow and always return to committing sin again and again. It is also sad that for many, serving and worshipping the Lord has been only a ritual. This is because of the Sting of Death, which had clung and deeply ingrained in to one person, has never been completely removed. This disease or this “cancer of the soul” is very dangerous and contagious that if not completely treated with a right and perfect cure death and the fire of hell might awaits.
Another important thing that we need to understand is that the Sting of Death is the reason why we become slaves of sin. Our sinful nature have been there of long ago even when we were still in our mother’s womb. This is the main reason why man continued to commit sin ever since childhood. Even becoming a Christian, we continued to commit sin. When we became children of God, we did not immediately change in an instant. In fact, when we became born-again, we start as a “spiritual babies” born in the family of God. Just like a baby it needs to feed and grow and become a mature man. As a born-again Christian, we also need to grow and mature on the things of God. Thus, a Christian needs to continue to work in order to progressively free himself from the slavery of sin until he is completely saved from the ‘’Sting of Death’’.
Working out your salvation is more appropriate to examine and focus the study on the Apostle Paul mentioning the law, the sin and his experience in struggling with sin. In the proceeding posted documents we will look at the writings of the Apostle Paul to the Romans about those matters. We will analyze about what he found out about to himself during in his struggles with sin in which eventually he overcome. Likewise, we will fully understand that we need to work continually in order for us to be completely saved.
Next Page
No comments:
Post a Comment