Problems are for Solving

On Monday I was reading in J.C. Ryle’s book Holiness (which I am not finishing as quickly as I’d like—but it is wonderful reading) and I came across the following:

. . . men try to cheat themselves into the belief that sin is not quite so sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are . . . . I fear we do not sufficiently realize the extreme subtlety of our soul’s disease. . . . Sin comes to us like Judas, with a kiss . . .

This is in a section where Ryle is talking about the deceitfulness of our own sin. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We deceive ourselves into thinking our sin isn’t sin and then we don’t need to repent.

Ryle’s book is a wonderful ‘gut check’ for me as I see my own lack of holiness and my need to constantly cry out to God like the Publican, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!�

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