The Wolf Within

In the book of Genesis we read about Cain's problem with Sin before he murders his brother. God asks Cain in Chapter 4 starting at verse 6:

The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it."

The reality of life is that each of us is born into a world where sin is within us and it always wants to master us. LIfe is about learning to master sin in each of our lives. I listened to the news this morning about a mentally ill woman in San Francisco who "heard voices" telling her to feed her children to the sharks. So, she dropped her three young children off a pier and murdered them. While she may suffer from the effects of mental illness, as a victim of domestic violence there was enough sin in her world to cloud her mind to do something that a normal person would see as horrific. Yet, I believe, that same potential to do evil and to allow sin to take over one's life lurks in every human being who has ever walked the face of this earth. None of us immune from the effects of the desires of the human mind that says " I am important" and that life is all about "me"! Theologians would describe this as something called "original sin" or man's "depraved mind". I like to think of it as the wolf within. Ocassionally I have helped out in the nursery at church watching over the little ones during services. I have always enjoyed observing the interaction of toddlers as they interact with one another. One child can be sitting on one side of a room that is filled with toys and all kinds of interesting diversions. Another child will be playing with a toy across the room. Invariably, the first child will spot the toy in the hand of the second child and then crawl across the room to rip that toy out of the hand of the second child. When that happens there is a flash of understanding that is not even articulated by the first child that says, "IT IS ALL MINE!" We are all born with a desire from within to see the world and everything in it as an object for us to grasp and control. Our natural proclivity is for selfishness. It is all about "me"! I know this subject well as I recognize how selfish I am. There are times when I try very hard not to be selfish; but, then that wolf from within will rear its ugly head and cause me to do things that I later regret. Those actions later fill me with remorse. The apostle Paul described this condition in Romans 7 this way:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.

This is the condition that surrounds each of us every day of lives. There is only one who can forgive sin and can offer us a way out of this captivity. I wish I could rid myself of the wolf within; but, I am convinced that as long as I live in a human body this is not possible. My only hope is built on nothing less than a faith in Jesus Christ as my personal savior who can offer me help with this battle. It is only through faith in what Jesus did on the cross that I can ever hope to escape the ravages of the wolf within. I may not have ever physically dropped my children off a pier into the ocean; but, I have at times spiritually ravaged my family by letting the wolf within control my actions. Before God we all stand guilty and condemned by the selfishness of own actions. I have never committed murder; but, when I hate someone I am just as guilty in the eyes of a holy God. Our battle cry has to be what the apostle Paul concluded:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The paradox of salvation is that we must die to live. We can only overcome the wolf within by the power of the Holy Spirit which is given to those who are born again into the kingdom of God. The best promise of all is found in Acts: 2:38! Following our baptism we are promised that we shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is only by concentrating on spiritual matters that we can ever hope to begin to master the wolf within.