You Must Get Rid Of Sin

 ⁴³ If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.
-Mark 9:43-47 (NLT)


Jesus' words here in Mark 9 are some of the most difficult to swallow. Why? Because it deals directly with sin, and it's effects on our lives. Let's face it, none of us wants to be confronted with sin, especially our sins. None of us want to think about the effect our sins have on our lives. But we must think about these things. For you, as a Christian, must get sin out of your life. Jesus gives us examples to demonstrate the how serious we should look at sin.


Jesus uses the eye, hand and foot to describe the sins we deal with. Some of us seem to "run" to sin, using our feet to take us to sin. Others seem to use the eyes to "look" at sin, meaning a struggle with things like pornography or looking to idols. Others seem to stretch out and grab sin, with can represent things like drugs and alcohol. What becomes a problem is when you don't see sin as sin. Left unchecked, sin becomes a natural part of life. For instance, many of us enjoy having a nice, cold Pepsi Cola on a hot summer day. Pepsi contains caffeine, which is a drug. Caffeine can take control of your life when consumed in large quantities. There are some people who can't start their day without caffeine. Unknowingly, they begin to think they can't live without that caffeine. Caffeine then becomes and idol because it takes control of their life. Do you see my example? Is sin in your life as important to you as your hand, foot or eye? If so, then you must part with that sin.


When Jesus teaches to cut off your hand or foot, or pluck out you eye, I don't think he meant to do this literally. I believe it is symbolic. I think it means you must kill the sin, and the desire to sin. You must kill that sin in your life. You must defeat the desire of sin. Paul writes in Romans 6:6-7, "We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin." For the Christian, sin has no control or power in our lives any longer. Jesus set us free from the power of sin. Therefore, we should no longer use our hands to reach out to sin, our feet to run to sin, or our eyes to look for sin. Instead, we should use our feet to run away from sin, our eyes to look for the good things of God, and our hands to reach out to God. 


Friends, sin is a serious problem. Sin has no power over us, and you must rid yourself of sin. Jesus uses the illustration of cutting off our hand or foot that causes sin, or plucking out an eye. When we get serious about riding our lives of sin, it may seem as if we are living maimed, like a part of us has been cut out. In fact, it probably has. I read this in Matthew Henry's commentary on these verses, "We must put ourselves to pain, that we may not bring ourselves to ruin; self must be denied, that it may not be destroyed." Either sin must be destroyed in your life, or you will be destroyed in Hell. Which is it going to be? Are you ready to rid yourself of sin? Think About It.