Defeating the boogie man

When I was in junior high and high school I loved to watch scary movies.  The movies then were more geared toward the suspense element than the splattergory movies that are out now, and I loved the thrill of the chase and the escape that inevitably occurred at the end of most of them.  As I have aged a little, I don't really have a taste for that genre of entertainment anymore, but there are still elements from those films that fascinate me a little as well as cause me some frustration.  Allow me to explain.

If the bad guy in those movies couldn't be taken down with a bullet or a karate chop, then why not just blow him up?  Or - and not to be too graphic - just cut off his head?  Wouldn't that solve all of the problems of those innocent and naive victims who seem to always run to the darkest and creepiest parts of the house/camp/desolate building in their desperate attempts to escape?  And where are all the other people when these events are taking place?  When the scary guy comes to town, it seems as if everyone else is away on vacation.  Or he has a way of finding a large hospital that apparently only has a couple of nurses on staff and maybe one or two patients.  The plots of these movies is so predictable but I guess I watched thinking that maybe the outcome would somehow be different.

While I am grateful that life is not like a horror movie, our struggle with sin most certainly is.  I know that there are many times that I tend to run to the dark and dangerous places, hoping that I don't get caught yet not having enough sense to retreat to the safety of the light.  There are a whole host of people in my life that love me and can hold me accountable, but how many times have I managed to place myself all alone on the outskirts of town trying to fight the enemy all by myself?  And why in the world do I allow the scary guy to continue to torment me and hunt me down when I know full well that Jesus rendered him impotent on the cross?

Romans 6 serves as a vivid and humbling reminder of just how powerless sin has been rendered by the cross of Christ:

• "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (vs.2)
• "For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin." (vs.6)
• "He died to sin once for all...consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (vs.10-11)
• "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires." (vs.12)
• "For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace." (vs.14)
• "You have been liberated from sin." (vs.22)

That's quite a list of promises and reminders of the state of sin and our position in Christ.  Unlike in the movies where the boogie man runs rampant, sin has been defeated already.  We are waiting for the day when the Lord returns to bury it for good.  Does it still have influence over our lives?  Only what we give to it.

Our story has a happy ending.  The hero, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has dealt the decapitating blow to the enemy.  In times of war, if the leader can be brought down then his loyal troops are sure to follow his demise and victory can be claimed.  That victory is already ours in Christ.  The boogie man has been brought down.