Part 5 of 6 of the theme 'On Easter-resurrection-resurrection by Gijs van den Brink
Through the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can be freed from the power of sin. We spoke earlier about deliverance from selfishness and fear. But there are many more powers from which we can and must be freed.
Already in the 4e century circulated a list of sin powers that can control a human being. This was initially compiled by the monk Euagrios, born in Pontus in northern Turkey on the Black Sea. Later he had to flee and ended up in Egypt. His list is known to this day by the name "deadly sins.
We can and must be freed from pride (superbia), vanity.
The desire to be more important or attractive than you are. You don't want to hear the truth about yourself. You would rather live in the lie. You have a greater love for yourself and your body than for God. The most famous example about pride is the fall of angel Lucifer, who became the devil.
We can and must be freed from greed (avaritia). The desire for power, money, wealth and more possessions, while being fine with the fact that someone else does not have them.
The resulting crimes are treason, bribery and theft.
You even use violence and manipulation for this purpose. Only the Spirit of God can free a person from this sickening and all-destroying greed.
We can and must be liberated from lust and lechery (luxuria). The desire for sex and sexual experience receives tremendous attention in our world. Sex is seen as something everyone is entitled to. Every day we hear through the media how this gets out of hand. How men sexually assault women. Both inside and outside of marriage. The sex devil has tremendous influence in our society.
This sin makes people deeply unhappy. The Holy Spirit can free you from this; God can make you happy. Heavenly happiness He gives. And as you know, in heaven there is no more sex (Mat. 22:30). Heavenly happiness does not depend on sex. Jeremiah, Jesus and Paul were unmarried, but nothing indicates that they were unhappy.
We can and must be freed from jealousy (invidia), envy. You are not satisfied with who you are. You want to be someone else. That in itself is fine. But how are you going to get there? Many go and blacken the person they are jealous of, bring them down, speak badly of them. In order to try to become equal to the person you are jealous of?
But by bringing another down, you don't raise yourself up. It is a sin to think and act this way. And sin makes you further from God and even more unhappy.
You can be freed from this through Jesus Christ, if you put Him in charge of your life. Only God can give us true and eternal happiness.
Author: Gijs van den Brink
This is part 5 of 6 of the series "On Easter-resurrection-resurrection" Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!
