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 In Christ, Bitter Sin Becomes Sweet Salvation (June 22, 2023)

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” (Ephesians 4:31)

Experience teaches us that, in its dynamic variety, life is a mixture of unpalatable bitterness and savory sweetness! Our joys, triumphs, and pleasures are tempered or balanced by the sorrows, setbacks, and sufferings that living in a fallen world invariably brings. Given the widely diverse and quickly shifting circumstances of our lives, as difficult as they may be, Christians must remain steadfast in our faith and trust that God is using our hardships and trials to accomplish His will and bring about our ultimate spiritual benefit.

Gleaning a lesson from Old Testament Scripture—following the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, God supernaturally satisfied the thirst of the fledgling nation by making bitter waters sweet. After three days without water in the wilderness following their miraculous Red Sea crossing, the Hebrews came to Marah (meaning “bitter”) only to find bitter water that they could not drink. Aggravated by the people’s grumbling, Moses cried out to God, “…and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” (Exodus 15:25)

Like the bitterness that negates the drinkability of water, our human sinfulness separates us from fellowship with a righteous God and destroys our usefulness to serve His divine purposes. And just as the LORD used a tree to sweeten the bitter waters at Marah, He provided for the sweetest gift imaginable—the salvation of mankind—through the use of a tree that became the cross upon which Jesus Christ died to atone for your sins and mine! Jesus invites everyone to trustingly surrender the bitterness of their sins to Him and taste the sweetness of His salvation!

 “Jesus answered and said…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14)



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