SKIN DISEASE

What is sin? It’s a skin disease. Well hello--what does that mean?

When we walk in the flesh (according to our feelings and emotions) we are prone to feed our desires and find ways to make ourselves feel good. The acts of the fleshly nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Gal 5:19-21). Everyone who lives to please his fleshly, sinful nature will reap destruction. Basically, skin leads to sin. Or in other words, sin is a spiritual skin disease.

Melanoma, on the other hand, is a physiological skin disease. It’s a type of aggressive skin cancer, which is difficult to treat and rarely remains in remission. Recently, scientists have identified a cancer-initiating cell in human melanomas. These cells are the root of the tumor's growth. They not only can make more of themselves, but also can morph into other tumor cell types and appear to be very resistant to many common treatments. Any therapy that doesn't destroy all of these cells has no chance of completely eradicating the disease, and therefore, relapse would be imminent.

So if cancer stem cells are the root of melanoma, what is the root of spiritual skin disease? The answer is original sin.
Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve first sinned against God. The Bible says that we are sinful at birth, sinful from the time our mother conceived us. If we are born with a sinful nature and apt to please our flesh, then how are we supposed to treat our skin disease and kill the root of it? We apply similar therapies that are used for melanoma: chemotherapy (treatment with chemicals) and radiation (treatment with light).

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. To effectively treat our spiritual skin disease, we must undergo chemotherapy with the blood of Christ to purify us from all sin. By His stripes, we are healed. In addition, we need regular radiation therapy. God is light, and the Bible tells us to walk as children of light and seek what is acceptable to the Lord. When we live in accordance with His Spirit, we will reap eternal life.

The reality is: just like with melanoma, we must totally destroy the root of our spiritual skin disease if we have any hope of a complete recovery with no relapse or backsliding.