The NOT so Itsy Bitsy Spider...

I remember my pastor in Mississippi using the illustration of a spider and spider web to focus on the problem of sin in a believer's life.

Very often when we see spider webs, we knock them down or clear them away. However, we are often frustrated to see the web back a day or two later. Over the past couple of weeks, I have had a spider weaving a web just outside my back porch door. The spider only weaves the web at night. Often as I take the dog out for his last walk, I see the beautiful web in place to catch a late night snack. And even though I have knocked that web down more than once, the web is back the next night.

The reason for returning spider webs is quite simple. The spider is still alive. Unless the spider is dealt with and killed, the spider web will keep returning. For the spider is the source of the webs. However, it is much harder to kill the spider than it is to knock down the web.

We know that as believers we still sin. And when we do, we can be thankful that if we "confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) However, we can compare sins within our lives to these spider webs. By confessing them, we knock them down. However, it usually is not long before we find ourselves "spinning a web" (sinning) again. Many times we get caught up in a vicious cycle which involves sinning, confessing, sinning, confessing, and so on. The problem is that we are not dealing with the source of sin: the sin nature. In saying this, I am not saying that we will never sin. The focus, however, is that we are not enslaved by our sin and caught in and characterized by the vicious sin cycle.

You see the spider (sin nature) has been dealt with. God has made provision for us to overcome sin. That provision was made at the cross. Yes, the cross was the place of salvation where the penalty of sin was paid for. But the cross was also God's way of making provision for us to live the Christian life without being enslaved by sin. At the cross we were freed from the power of sin. "I have been crucified with Christ..." (Galatians 2:20). "Knowing this that our self was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be rendered inoperative, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." (Romans 6:6). God has provided the way. The sin nature has been dealt with. We must, however, "consider ourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus". (Romans 6:11). The sin nature only has power over us as we allow it to. Its position is on the cross.

If you are caught in the cycle of sin and thinking you can't get out of it, rest in the provision of the cross. There the sin nature has been dealt with! The spider has been taken care of. Believe it, and rest in it!