Romans 5:20b Common English Bible (CEB) …where sin increased, grace multiplied even more.

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

I remember a movie about a race horse that just hated to lose. Any time a horse would come up alongside of him, this horse would put it into another gear. He ran out front and stayed there. The only race he ever lost was where the trainer put blinders on him and the horse could not see an opponent coming along beside him.

Have we ever put blinders on and didn’t see sin coming? If I am going to be honest with myself, if I were to choose blinders, then I knew sin would come. But our trainer doesn’t put blinders on us. He does just the opposite, He points out the dangers.

When I recently saw this verse, I knew that sin is always in pursuit, trying to catch us and trip us up. God’s grace is that extra gear which allows us to pull ahead, out of harms way. The only way we could be caught is if we stop running the race.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Run like someone else’s life depended on it, you who believe are safe in Christ.

2 Corinthians 13:5a  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

I went to my 40^th class reunion a few years back. Most of my classmates I had not seen since graduation. Some looked much like they did but with changes in hair, color or thickness, some weight gain of course. As I discovered who those strange faces where and began sharing with them, I discovered most of them had not changed one bit.

I specifically remember one woman, let’s call her Bee Bee, how as a teen kept herself aloof, socializing with only those who looked as good as she did, which were two. As she looked around the room she commented to me, “We should do this again soon while we still look good.” Wow, my status had changed, she actually spoke to me.

Then there was the mousiest girl in school. She never looked anyone in the eye, and had to repeat herself because her voice was so soft. Now she is bold, confident, interesting and yet she looked just the same as in school. What a change. So while most people don’t change all that much, some really do change.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Walking by faith changes you. There’s your proof.