Power Over Every Sin

E. Stanley Jones was a missionary, a theologian, and a prolific writer. He exposes the precious truth that sin is an unnatural invader or infection (and does not constitute our identity) in his devotional book Victorious Living:

"One of the greatest difficulties in evangelism, particularly in the East, is the moral fatalism that says in regard to one's own personal sin: 'What could I do? I am a man.' The implication is that sin is an integral part of human nature and as long as we remain human we remain sinful. The tyranny of that fatalism must be broken if we are going to live the victorious life. In the depths of our being--note I say 'the depths,' for a mere surface acceptance will not do--we must get hold of the idea that sin is unnatural, an invasion, an intruder, and is thus no necessary part of human nature. When a man sins, he is not a normal human, he is subhuman, or antihuman. There are three unnatural things which have invaded life: Sin is the unnatural evil of the soul, error is the unnatural evil of the mind, disease is the unnatural evil of the body.

"Jesus said that salvation is health. Wherever He uses the term 'Be saved,' it can be literally translated, 'Be whole.' The health of the soul is goodness, the health of the mind is truth, the health of the body is freedom from disease. Is a mind more of a mind when it has error in it? Is a man more of a man when he has evil in him? He is less and other.

"Every sin, then, can be conquered. Hold that within the mind. Do not allow the mind to admit of any exception. That exception will be the loose bolt that lets the bridge down. 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.' In other words, do not provide for any failure; provide for victory. There must be an absoluteness about the whole thing.

"I know the dangers of hypocrisy involved in this absoluteness. But of the two dangers, the greater is in mentally providing for sin in the life."