Is Sin A Drug Addiction?
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” Rom 7:19
This is the summary statement of Paul’s famous “I do, I do not” passage in Romans 7. Here we have Paul – author of most of the New Testament exposing his vulnerable side by declaring that even, yes Apostle Paul, struggled with sin.
Now I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel great. Cause I’m in good company. Many times, I sit back and wonder how God could ever justify a schmuck like me.
If you sit back and and take stock of who you are in light of God’s Word, you’re an idiot if you don’t conclude that that you’re a schmuck – a sinner and by default, an object of the wrath of God.
Now humanists and atheists would be jumping up and down already if they read this. JUMP HIGHER! But seriously I don’t care. I’ve had enough trying to justify my faith to people who want to trash me and my beliefs.
I go to the Word to learn about my state and have no issues with it at all.
“Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom 7:20-24
LayGuy translation of this is:
- My soul/spirit/inner being loves God and His ways – knows that it’s true.
- But I have a dual nature – at war with myself.
- I have a nature which wants to please God and takes delight in Him. And another nature with the sole purpose of warring against my “inner” nature.
Where is the location of these two natures? The good side resides in my “inner being” and “law of my mind”. While the bad dwells in “my members” and my “body of death”. You get the gist yet?
Our physical bodies are the the haven for sin. Our “flesh” is where sin resides. But not my fingers, or my eyes or toes. It’s in the brain. In the chemical reactions and cravings of the human brain.
I’ve spent years in the pharmaceutical industry peddling drugs to GP’s and Psychiatrists. I talked all the time about serotonin and dopamine and and other chemicals in the brain. Go to Wikipedia and do your research on serotonin, and dopamine and endorphins. You’ll find that what we crave on a physical level often has it’s conception in the brain.
I once listened to a Psychologist talk about the chemical reactions exploding in the brain as a person consumes porn. The chase for porn triggers off all kinds of reactions. The secrecy of the activity solidifies the excretion of further chemicals. If climax is achieved, the mind and entire body is in a state of euphoria comparable to cocaine and heroin use.
When you and I sin, not matter what form it’s in, we have chemical reactions in the brain triggering off all kinds of reactions. These reactions are usually confined to the brain, but often cross the blood/brain barrier and the whole body is affected. Maybe now the following makes more sense.
“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom 7:22-24
My soul and spirit desires to please God. But they are incased in a body addicted to chemical reactions in the brain – the law of sin. Is it any wonder that anti-depressants and mind altering drugs are amongst the highest used “medications” in the world?
By 2020, depression will be the highest KILLER of mankind. Human souls will be dying at unprecedented rates due to this war. We take anti-depressants to blanket the pain – but we are in a war. A chemical weapons war – spiritual WMD’s.
The only answer to all this is Jesus. He alone has the antidote for this drug addiction. The law of sin holds us captive to the addictions of the human brain. The Spirit of life is different.
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2
It is my firm belief that only Jesus can provide us the rehab we need in order for us to be cured of our drug addiction. We enter into this rehab freely because of Grace. And our medicine is none other than the Spirit of God. We can be set free. The law of the Spirit of life is our antidote to the law of sin.
Now I just have to put this into practice. I think it’s time to pray.
Tags: Christianity, Grace, Jesus, Drug Addiction
To hear about people overcoming their vices (weaknesses) is a great witness to God’s power.
That said, Professional Christian Counseling is advisable and we shouldn’t be shy or ashamed of it. As you say, Jesus’ Grace is the great antidote.
Edgar.
Hi Edgar,
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments and agree with you. However living in Australia, there is a scarcity of Professional Christian Counselors. Wish it wasn’t so.
But I posted the above to help map out things in my mind I have been searching lately. I will follow up on this again to help shed some light for myself really – and hope it blesses someone out there.
I’ve had trouble with this passage over the last couple of years because I’ve been thinking about the dual nature and how it truly works.
We have these fleshly bodies that were created good and pure, but have been corrupted by sin. But are the “body of death” and the “flesh” the same thing as the physical body? Paul also says that the perishable will be raised imperishable and that our earthly bodies will be transformed at the resurrection. So in that sense sin is a separate entity that exists within the physical body (“the law of sin that dwells in my members”).
That, I think, is where the chemicals come in. They deliver the pleasure to the body. But they don’t release themselves, they have to be sent out by the brain. And the brain sends them out as service (slavery) to sin. But the brain can send out those same chemicals in service to Christ in righteous actions.
That of course has no bearing on the solution: Christ is all. Good thoughts.
Thank you for this blog and post. You are so right. I live this struggle out daily. I am 100 percent eternally saved and secure in Christ, justified by His grace through faith alone in Him alone, and yet, I experience this constant war going on within myself =( Sometimes I resist, other times I give in. I am also convinced that there are rewards for the believer (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) but God gets all the glory, and this has nothing to do with our eternal salvation. Your message here needs to be known by Christians of all places and all ages. I eagerly look forward to the general resurrection of the church when we will be raised incorruptible in glorified bodies and the horror of sin and its effects are all behind us, once and for all, forever.
Please email me and contact me. I want us to have discussions and I need an accountibility partner in Christ.
I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for saving me, I deserve eternity in the Lake of Fire but by His grace I Will not be there.
Erin