MOST children who have the opportunity of getting to the seashore in summer, much enjoy the complete change from city life. Their time is taken up, to a great extent, in playing in the sand, making mounds, bathing in the sea and sometimes fishing.
In our picture, we see the little girl has caught a crab and the man who is by her side has taken it in his hand and is showing her the pinchers it has, and, no doubt, is warning her to keep from letting it get hold of her finger, for it can pinch and hold so tightly to anything it gets hold of, that one can hardly pull away from it. It has great strength for such a little creature.
This reminds me of another thing that holds with great strength, and that is sin. If one gets into any had habit, it is very difficult to give it up. It gets such a hold that it makes one a servant to it. The Scripture says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16. It is well to remember that if we sin, we are serving sin. But, thanks be to God, there is a way we can be set free from its awful power, and that is through putting our full trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. First, in Him as our Saviour and then as the One who strengthens us.
Jesus is the only One who was able to atone for our sins before God, so He bore the full penalty on the cross, when he was forsaken of God, because He was made the sin bearer. But now, He is accepted before God, therefore the sins He bore are gone, for He could not be in God’s presence with sin upon Him.
This is for all sinners, but it is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who gets the benefit, and can know that his sins are forever put away before God. But he also can be kept from sinning by being occupied with the Lord Jesus. So the Scripture says “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” ยค Jno. 3:6. That means more than being occupied with the Lord Jesus, it means going on in company with Him, and in doing so we will delight in thinking of Him as He is revealed to us in the word of God.
If you, dear reader, have believed in Jesus to the saving of the soul, you should seek to be kept by His power from doing anything that is wrong. The nature you had before you believed in Jesus, is just the same now and can respond to sin, but you have, through believing, received eternal life which must have Christ for its occupation. So may you take your delight in reading the word of God, of which Christ is the object, be cast upon Him for strength for the path, and that eternal life, will be manifested in you, and you will not be held by the awful power of sin, or made its servant, but will be obedient unto righteousness.
ML 05/27/1906