December 13

Read: Hebrews 12:1-2

Let us lay aside… the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1). The Sin Which Besets Us

We saw yesterday that God’s people must lay aside every hindrance to the Christian race. And all that does not help, hinders. It is by running that we learn what the hindrances are. It is after we have been saved and have tried to serve God that we begin to feel the things that hold us back. It is only after we have tried to live without sin that we become sharply aware of (2) “the sin which doth so easily beset us.”

No man who sincerely tries to serve God believes that freedom from sin comes easily. Put out at one door, sin has the frightening habit of coming back in at another. And it often comes so cleverly disguised that we have entertained the unwanted guest for a time before we recognize its true nature.

That is what it means for sin to beset us. Its power is subtle but relentless. Various translations of our text underline this tenacity of carnality. “Sin which clings so closely”; “every clinging sin”; “the sin that so readily entangles our feet”; “and every sin to which we cling,”

The Expositor’s Greek Testament says, “The article [the] does not point to some particular

sin, but to that which characterizes all sin, the tenacity and strength of our foe calls for the greatest possible help that God can give us. But even for this, God is well able.” Faith to be heal’d Thou know’st I have,

From sin to be made clean; Able Thou art from sin to save, From all indwelling sin.

— Wesley’s Hymns (More tomorrow)