Do You Like Being Bad?

I was watching the movie Spiderman 3 with my nephew.  Although I've seen this movie a dozen times, I noticed one particular line I had never caught.  There's a climactic fight scene in which the brightly uniformed hero is fighting a black-suited version of himself.  The villain in black (called Venom) is actually a regular guy who is under the influence of a powerful entity from another world.  (Already seeing the spiritual parallels
aren't you?)

Spiderman calls out to the man inside the monster. He offers to help him, to free him from the influence of the evil entity from another world. "Let it go," pleads Spiderman.


The man inside the monster responds, "I like being bad. It makes me happy."

In the end, the man chooses to be destroyed with the monster rather than to be separated from its power and its pleasures. (Revelations 20: 10, 15)

You see, the way the Venom monster controls the regular guy inside is by forming a bond with him and then amplifying the worst traits the person already possesses.

James 1: 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Some people get saved because the see the beauty and promise of Jesus's love and they just love Him back.  Others only come to Jesus when they see the ugliness and doom in their Christ-less lives.    However, the sad truth is that some of us just like being bad.

I grew up in the church.  I had heard the gospel preached, taught, sung, and explained hundreds of times before I finally gave my life to Christ at age 22.   Why'd it take me so long?  Because I liked being bad.  It made me happy.

Until I found myself in the dark, crying, lost in the pointlessness of all the garbage I had piled up in my life, I was content to live in sin.  Addiction counselors call it "hitting rock bottom."  The Psalms calls it being of a broken and contrite spirit. 

In my time of brokenness the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the lessons I had been taught on Sunday mornings.  As I lay on the very rock bottom of my life, God honored the prayers of my parents and my grandparents.    Being bad no longer made me happy.  I didn't like myself being bad.  I surrendered to Jesus and he delivered me from my bond(age) to the devil and to my own sin.

The saddest truth is that some people won't stop being happy with being bad before it's too late.  In the end the monster from the other world (the devil) will be destroyed in fire. 
Before his time comes, our time will come and we must each make the choice in advance: 

Will you let Jesus help you?  Will you let go of your sin?  Will you come out of the darkness?

or

Do you still like being bad?