Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The Lord hath made all things
ready in His own time. He has even made the wicked for
the day of evil. Therefore it must come as no
surprise to us that the dominion of sin, as well as its destruction,
is ordained by the hand of Him who does all things well. When
the Lord spoke to Adam in the garden and said, In the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, He was not offering
a proposition to Adam, but was rather speaking prophetically
and declaratively. All of this was done to fulfill
his purpose for the creation of the earth, which I believe
was to set a stage for the manifestation of his grace in the redemption
of a people which he gave to his son before the foundation
of the world. His purpose to redeem those whom
he loved with an everlasting love was declared and carried
out that he might be glorified in the ages to come world without
end. What is the dominion of sin?
The dominion of sin is primarily spiritual darkness and its power
to bring condemnation. Every son of Adam has been born
into this world in this condition. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. The moralist and perfectionist
would have us to believe that the dominion of sin is simply
the breaking of the law. No doubt this is the definition
of sin, yet it is quite clear in the scripture that there is
more to the dominion of sin than simple acts of disobedience.
This is illustrated by the fact that even when the Lord's children
are set free from sin's dominion, they still commit sin. Paul,
speaking as a born-again child of God, said, I find in a law
that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
So sin's dominion is essentially its ability to completely blind
the minds of those that are ordained unto destruction, as we read
in Jude 4, and to prevent them from having a love of the truth.
It also has the power to minister condemnation to them in their
conscience. How is the freedom from this
dominion of sin manifested? Those who are ordained unto eternal
life are, in the Lord's own time, given faith to believe His promise.
This faith is not that which sets them free from the dominion,
but this faith is that which manifests them as the sons of
God, since He is the giver and sustainer of faith. While the
faith that they are given cannot make them free from its dominion,
Yet this is that which turns the eye towards the object of
that faith, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who alone is their
deliverer from this dominion. Who is the one who delivers from
sin's dominion? And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. The salvation of the Lord's people
has one purpose, which is the glory of God. But the benefits
to those for whom Christ died are twofold, since the dominion
of sin has a twofold reign. Christ came to totally deliver
his people from it. First of all, those who are under
its dominion are condemned by the law, for the wages of sin
is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. There is no escape for those who are sinners, both by choice
and birth. Second of all, sin carries with it the silence of
darkness, so that a man can find no way of extricating himself
from it, and even worse, has no knowledge of the lost and
ruined state that he is in by nature. He is a total captive
of sin's domain and a willing participant in his own destruction.
The glorious good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ,
the righteous Redeemer, has brought deliverance to the captives.
He has not simply delivered his people from the condemnation
of the law, but has undertaken to set them free from that which
has bound them since Adam was cast from the garden. blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. He has demonstrated
his power in spoiling sin's dominion. He has forever stripped its army
of all of its instruments of war, slain its king, and delivered
the spoils of victory into the hands of those for whom he went
into battle. For he is presently calling those
for whom he died. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Have you
seen this light? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.