A pest control person comes to your home because it’s overrun by rodents and spiders, and after he spends an hour or so ‘treating’ the home you pay him and he leaves. 

 Two weeks later, you notice a ‘decent decline’ in the pests, but they are certainly not gone and remain a problem, maybe not as bad as before, but still... Are you satisfied with the arrangement you had with the pest control guy? Did you pay him to remove the problem, or just ‘decrease’ the problem? 

 I don’t think my wife would tolerate on a regular basis contending with mice and spiders even if it was less than before. 

 You have leaking issues with the roof of your house every time it rains, with water seeping through the sheetrock of your ceiling in a dozen different places. You hire a roofer to come ‘fix’ the problem and after spending several hours atop the house patching and making repairs, you pay him and he leaves. 

 Now when it rains, in only leaks in 4-5 different spots. Certainly not as bad as before, but still…are you satisfied with the results that you paid the roofer to fix? I think we all understand the difference between ‘putting a band-aid on a problem’ and ‘fixing the problem’. Are you with me? 

 Humanity had/has a ‘sin problem’. 

 The problem was so bad for so long, that God set down His Law to ‘deal’ with the problem, knowing full well it would never ‘fix’ the problem. (Gal 3:19; 1 Tim 1:8-10) 

 He had another plan for that. 

 “God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins”. (Rom 8:3-TLB) 

 If you have been reading these post for a while, you hear me make mention often to Paul’s warning in 2 Cor 11:2-4 about the danger of succumbing to ‘another gospel and another Jesus and receiving another spirit’ other than the one Paul was preaching. 

 Jesus Himself warned of many ’coming in His name’ and deceiving many people in these days. (Matt 24:4-5) We are warned repeatedly in scripture…over and over to ‘Not be deceived’. 

 Can I just tell you as plain as I know how…. If you ‘met Jesus and invited Him in to your life/heart’ some time back…and you still have ...a ‘sin problem’, you may have been introduced to ‘another Jesus’. 

 Nobody…likes to admit being ‘conned’. 

 But there is a reason God likens us to being ‘sheep’. And we’ve ALL gone astray (Isa 53:6) 

 Here’s a test for you… 

 Referring back to my roof repair illustration…. If you call the guy back you paid to fix the problem and show him where it’s still leaking…and he gives you a nice umbrella and says to try that next time it rains in the house…you may have hooked up with a con artist. 

 If the person who sold you on ‘giving your life to Christ’ handed you an ‘umbrella’ with the big words ‘GRACE’ printed all over it…you may have a problem. (Rom 6:1-2)

 The ‘problem’ we all had and were born with, was this sinful flesh nature. Christ came to make us a new creation by abolishing, or putting to death, the old nature which was suppose to die. Completely. 

 And yes, on THIS side of heaven. 

 But by nearly everyone’s own admission on any given day, everyone ‘keeps on sinning’. We bought in to the ‘can of snake repellent’ the con artist sold us. Heb 3:12-13 warns that our ‘hearts can be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin’. 

 Did Jesus not warn us in Matt 24 that in these days men’s hearts would ‘wax hard’ or grow cold because of the increase of lawlessness? We’ve learned to ‘tolerate a little sin’ because it might not be as bad as before. 

 And twice Paul presents the illustration as to what happens with a ‘little leaven’…it will spread through the whole loaf. (Gal 5:9) 

 Jesus did not suffer the way He did on that cross and die…so we could end up with a cheap T-shirt and umbrella. He was raised from the dead in the newness of life and we are told that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in us. We are to walk in that same newness as Christ demonstrated (1 John 2:6) 

 That is…unless we ended up with…another Jesus and…another gospel and received …another spirit. 

 Paul encourages us to ‘test ourselves to see if Christ is in us’ ( 2 Cor. 13:5) 

 Here’s the Good News…the Real Jesus is still here and trying to awaken people of the need to repent and follow Him. 

 It would be a good idea to make sure things are in order. 

 If you think a leaky roof and a mice/spider problem in the house is bad…you’ve not seen anything yet. 

 Let Jesus FIX…the problem…not just put a cheap band-aid on it.