You Can Cancel Your Contract with the Devil
(Evening Prayer Service January 17, 2024)
A few days ago I began watching the television series "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace." Without giving away too much, this is about a little girl from Ukraine who has a form of dwarfism. The tragedy was that she was manipulated and mistreated. After being bounced from one adoptive family to the next, she finally landed in a Christian home. As I watched the story unfold, I couldn't help notice the problem that so many characters had, the problem of lying. Sexual abuse was also emerging from the background. Little by little I was sickened by the confusion, the manipulation, and the abuse. I thought, "This is why God made hell." But my heated condemnation eventually gave way to prayer and hope. I began to feel much better when I began to pray for all these people.
Paul had a similar experience when he came to the decadent city of Corinth. You can check out its history on your own. Paul's own words tell us enough about it. First he speaks the needed words of condemnation: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NKJV) "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
But the Lord had told Paul Acts 18:9-10 (NKJV) "Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”
Paul preached the Gospel: "1 Corinthians 6:11 (NKJV) 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
These are some of the most beautiful words in the Bible. These are the words we need to remember first for ourselves and when we see the lying, manipulating, and lusting activities of this world. What the world, sold to sin, does, is sickening. But God knows that, and He sees past it. He sees the amazing transformations that are possible when His grace is applied to any situation.
Because Jesus came to suffer, as God's righteous one for our unrighteousness, we can cancel our contracts with the devil. In our baptism that congenital contract was cancelled. This is the hope that we hold all for all the world around us. Like Peter, we can clearly see that the world is "poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity" (Acts 8.23). But because of Jesus we can also say with Paul, Romans 6:14 (NKJV) "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." In Christ, you can cancel your contract with the devil. What a beautiful truth this is. What a beautiful thing it is for us to believe this, and to be able to tell this to the world around us.
