All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Corinthians 6:12, KJV).
It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. “Who can bring a clean thing out of the unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4). “The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).
Education, culture, and the exercise of the mind all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to Holiness. That power is Christ. His Grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculty of the soul, and attract it to God, and to Holiness.
…Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9–10 BSB).
Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be indulged in only at the peril of infinite loss. What we do not overcome, will overcome us and work out our destruction. Let us not regard sin as a trivial thing – The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly (Proverbs 5:22-23, BSB)
The love and suffering and death of the Son of God all testify to the terrible enormity of sin and declare that there is no escape from its power, no hope of the higher life, but through the submission of the soul to Christ. If you acknowledge your sinfulness, do not wait to improve yourself. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). There is help for us only in God.
“Except a man be born from above,” unless he shall receive a new heart, new desires, purposes, and motives, leading to a new life, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Study God’s word prayerfully. That word presents before you, in the law of God and the life of Christ, the great principles of Holiness, without which “no man shall see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14. It convicts of sin; it plainly reveals the way of salvation. Give heed to it as the voice of God speaking to your soul.
