“With coronavirus attacking, whether in or outside of prison, sin seems to be highlighted in all of us. In prison, our moving around has been restricted, our regular routines are disrupted, and somehow in all of that the lusts of the flesh press in. So for my own sanctification and my own good, I keep my heart focused on Christ and not on those around me.”

As believers in Jesus, we have been called to become in our daily experiences what we are spiritually: “raised in Christ.” We are to live our lives knowing that Jesus Christ is God, and He is all we need. When we’re “raised in Christ,” we are new creations, having put off the old sins the way a person would take off soiled, dirty clothes and put on clean ones.

This process can be grueling, indeed. Often the old dirt of sin comes back again and again. A person trying to rid himself of his old ways can grow discouraged. Take heart. You are in the process of sanctification, and “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (v. 4).