Prison

I was in jail the other day.  Okay so I really wasn't in jail, I was just visiting.  But I have determined something: jail is a creepy place!  It doesn't matter if it's a new jail, an old jail, or a multi-million dollar correctional facility; jail is scary.  And I'm not talking about the inmates that are there.  I've visited several jails and prisons and the inmates that I have met are no different than you and I.  They have made some mistakes in life, but the mistakes they have made have led them to prison.  But what really bothers me is the jail house itself.  To know that one slip, one mistake, can send you into a place where your rights are removed and you are confined to a 10 x 10 cell is a scary thought.  When you are in prison, your life is limited.  You are told what you can do and have.  You are kept from living the life that you were created to life, a life of freedom.  In life, we may not ever spend a moment behind bars but all to often we make ourselves a prisoner to sin.  We make voluntary thoughts and actions that lead us to disobey the law and will of God which makes us a prisoner of sin.  And there is no one who is immune to this.  The Apostle Paul knew this to be true as well. 

He speaks about it in Romans 7:14-24
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Sin is the prison that has held mankind captive since the beginning of time.  It's not that we don't want to do good.  Most of us would like to follow what is good and right, but the problem is that it's impossible to always do that.  That's where sin captures us and takes us as a prisoner.  Just being a prisoner is not the worse part.  You see, the Bible tells us that because sin has entered into our lives, we deserve death.  Romans 6:23 tells us that the "wages of sin is death".  Becoming a prisoner to sin gives us the death sentence.  That's what Paul is saying here; that wherever sin is present, death is present.  Because of the sin that has placed us in its grasp, we have received the death sentence.

So, what hope is there for us?  Can we appeal our sentence?  Can we get a mis-trial?  Can someone give us a reprieve?
It's already been done.
Romans 8:1-4
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Christ's sacrifice has flung the door of your prison cell wide open.  He has offered you a reprieve, not only from your death sentence, but from your bondage to sin as well.  You can be free, if you so choose to be. 

Imagine an inmate, who has been in prison most of his life with a death sentence, having been given an opportunity to go free, but chooses to remain in prison and under death.  That would be crazy!!  It's ludicrous!!!  But that's exactly what many people choose to do today as they ignore Christ's forgiveness.

You can be free today from the bondage of sin and from an eternity in hell, if you will only receive Jesus Christ as your Savior today.

Romans 10:9-13
“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
Pastor Paul