Stuck in the Mud of Sin?
© 2023 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
The other day I was operating my tractor. It weighs several tons. I had attached a shredder to the tractor. It was designed to cut small trees and bushes as though they were mere grass. It weighs near 1000 pounds. I was using the tractor to mow several areas on our property. Suddenly, I came upon an area in which the dirt was very wet and muddy. The front tires began sinking into the mud. The rear tires continued trying to move the tractor forward. However, they began to spin in the mud, digging themselves into a hole. I immediately removed power and put the tractor into reverse but it was too late. As I tried to back the tractor out of the mud, those rear tires dug in even more deeply. The tractor was stuck! There I was with a perfectly good tractor and shredder which was totally immobilized by the soft, muddy dirt.
The desires of fallen man can be like tricky mud. They can lead individuals into spiritual consequences which are like that muddy dirt. Inevitably, without the power of God, people will end up stuck in a sinful lifestyle which makes them incapable of anything good. The more they try to remove themselves from the muddiness of sin, the deeper they dig themselves into an even deeper hole. The only way out is for someone more powerful than they are to rescue them.
Thankfully, my son and son-in-law came to help. My son-in-law has a big four-wheel-drive truck. Ultimately, after much hand digging and use of a hydraulic jack, we got heavy boards under the rear tractor tires. We hooked the truck to the tractor. Its incredible power and traction pulled the tractor out of the mud!
If my own physical strength had been the only power available to me, I could never have pulled my tractor from the mud. Similarly, on the spiritual level, no man’s power is able to remove him from the trap of sin. Only God the Son, who came as the sacrificial Savior, has the power to do this. The apostle Paul recognized the necessity of the gospel. He adamantly proclaimed it to be inseparable from God’s power to save. He said,
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”. (Romans 1:16)
However, rejecting this truth leaves a person undelivered by “the power of God” and subject to God’s everlasting wrath.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” (Romans 1:18)
On whose power are you depending to pull you from eternal darkness of sin into the eternal light of salvation?
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