You’re driving down a two-lane country highway and occasionally pass vehicles coming from the opposite direction. In Texas, it seemed to be the custom to give a subtle wave, maybe just raising two fingers up off the wheel to those drivers you passed.  And as most of us know...it's easy at times to get distracted with any number of things while driving. Let’s be honest here...who has not ever had to make a quick correction when you found yourself ‘drifting’ into the other lane, thankful there was no collision with an oncoming car?

And whether there is/was an oncoming 18-wheeler that you avoided missing head-on, or not... you still make the adjustment with your steering wheel because everyone in their right mind knows that driving in that other lane is extremely foolish, dangerous,(not to mention illegal) and could prove to be fatal.

Can I state the obvious here and say that meeting a truck or any vehicle head-on while both are traveling at 60mph would most likely result in immediate death for all involved. Hence, all the more reason to be paying close attention to your driving and staying ‘in your lane’.

So why is it that we have failed to grasp this concept and maintained a similar mindset when it comes to our walk with the Lord; and I am referring to this idea of ‘setting our mind on things above’ (Col. 3:2) while “We pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Heb. 2:1)

I have a pretty good idea why most of us have grown lax, or ‘at ease in Zion’ as the prophet Amos mentioned (6:1) when it comes to drifting ‘out of our lane’ and into ‘oncoming traffic’ ...which would be a metaphor to ‘sin’. And this idea of ‘staying in one’s lane’ would be compared to ‘abiding in Jesus’ as we follow Him.

Friends...sin still leads to death (Rom. 6:23). Sin is what the ‘tempter’ entices or distracts us with so as to gain access back into our lives (Matt. 12:43-45; James 1:13-16). Why do you think we are admonished to ‘give him no place’ (Eph. 4:27) and to ‘resist him’ (James 4:7)? It’s because he goes about like a ‘roaring lion seeking to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8) and we know what his ultimate goal is: To ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ (John 10:10). Why on earth do you think Jesus admonished that man whom He healed after suffering for 38 years...to ‘go and sin no more or something worse will happen to you’ (John 5:14)?

But where there has been great deception is in this teaching that ‘believers’ no longer are ‘punished’ for sinning ...’since Jesus took our punishment on the cross’. I hate to break the news to you, but nothing could be further from the truth. “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience’ (Eph. 5:6). God’s children are ‘obedient’ (1 Pet. 1:14). And IF they sin, the Father will deal with them (Heb. 12:5-11) Have you ever given pause to what Paul might have been talking about there in 1 Cor. 11:30-32 or 5:5?

This false sense of feeling ‘protected’ or ‘immune’ to the consequences of sin is the very thing Jeremiah and Ezekiel were rebuking due to the false teachers of their day and the ‘peace and safety’ message being preached (Jer. 23:16-19; Ezek. 13)... and is still being preached today(1 Thess. 5:3).

If you are driving down that 2-lane highway and drift into the other lane because you glanced down at your phone, when you look up... do you just dismiss the reality that you are faced with and tell yourself- “no big deal, my car is equipped with multiple safety air-bags so nothing serious will happen to me if I continue on like this”?

Well that’s pretty much the mindset many ‘believers’ have today because they’ve been taught something that does not line up with God’s word.

Sin. Still. Brings. Death. (Rom. 6:23). And those who continue to live according to the flesh will die! (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 6:7-8). And what are we going to do with Gal. 5:21, cut it out of our Bibles? Did Jesus not say ‘unless you repent, you will all likewise perish’? (Luke 13:3,5)

I hate to break the news to you,(well, not really) but the death of Jesus on the cross and subsequent resurrection...was not some spiritual form of ‘over-draft protection’ like what a bank offers you in case your check bounces, ...or when you ‘sin’.

On the contrary...what His death, burial, and resurrection accomplished was obtaining our freedom from the captivity and bondage of sin so that we could ‘go and sin nor more’ (Rom. 6:17-22, 1-5). And yes, “IF”...we sin, we can still find forgiveness (1 John 2:1), but is there not great freedom in knowing that is the ‘exception’ ...and not the rule because of what He did for us (Rom. 6:17-22)?

When you hand the keys and car over to your 16-year old for the first time upon receiving their driver’s license, you pray that they would have a ‘healthy fear’ while on the road, because you know all the potential dangers they are about to face, especially if they get distracted. Paul had a similar concern when it came to the development of new and young believers (Gal. 4:19) because he too, new full well all the potential ‘traps’ out there. No wonder he writes and admonishes us: “Therefore, my beloved... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12)

I have to remind myself multiple times a week to leave the ‘results’ of these daily teachings up to the working of the Holy Spirit, knowing what I can do...and can’t do. But there are those occasions, like right now...when I just want to ask more of a rhetorical question... “Is the magnitude of any of this starting to ‘sink in’ for anyone out there?