Preparing to Fail

A Conversation in Sin: 

“When I’m in the middle of a battle over my sin, how do I overcome it?” The answer is that you can’t. The only way that anyone overcomes sin is through the work of Christ in them. “Alright, but how does that work?” Well, you have to trust Christ that He’ll carry you through each temptation. “Okay, so how does He do that and what does that feel like?” It’s a matter of your trust in Him and not in yourself. “Alright, well how do I do that to the point where I don’t sin?” You evaluate those things that you want to trust in and realize that they are not trustworthy, but that Christ is the only one trustworthy. “Yeah, that’s all well-fine-and-good, but when I’m faced with temptations, I’m not in my right mind and rationality really isn’t an easy thing in the thick of it.” Good point. “So…”

You Need a Plan:

I’ve had this pretend conversation over and over with myself in the midst of temptation. I’ve sought to think logically about sin and it’s false promises. The problem is that when you’re being tempted to lie, lust, or loose heart, rational thinking isn’t happening. Sin, at it’s core is not a logical thing. Sin is an emotional response to stimuli. Sin is a default that we’re born, prone to. Sin is anything from breathing to bartending. “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23b ESV) So sitting down and having a rational conversation with yourself in the midst of the temptation is going to be one of the worst things you can do. Trust me, I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. Alright, so what does?

“…nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18 ESV)

So if that’s true of Paul and of me, and of you, what’s the alternative to falling into sin? Worship. But if you’re anything like me you ask yourself the question, “How?”. To which the logical argument begins all over again. The how is not to be asked in the midst of the temptation. If you don’t have a plan before the temptation, you’ll never overcome that temptation in Christ. Before I offer the biblical plan let me say first that even if you overcome your temptation, in the moment, it doesn’t mean that you’ve just escaped sinning.

Sin’s Abstinence Might Just be Sin Too:

Recently I was confronted with a very harsh reality. You see previously, (the first 12 or so years of my salvation) when a temptation arose in my heart I utilized a means of combating it. When a temptation arose, I would shame myself for being tempted. I would, under my breath and to myself, demean myself for being tempted. For the most part it worked, at least when I remembered to do that. What I forgot to remember is that the Christian life is not a list of good things to do, and bad things to abstain from. The Christian life is about living in the power of Christ and not in my own strength. When I would refrain from any particular sin, because I shamed myself to keep my hands clean, my heart was still full of sin––the sin of self-reliance.

“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23b ESV)

This makes the proverb, “The plowing of the wicked is sin” (Proverbs 21:4 KJV) understandable now. In light of Romans 14, falling into temptation, or not, can both be sin. Sleeping with another woman or sleeping with your wife, can both be sin. Anything, means just that, anything––including, abstinence. So, as we move forward to consider the plan we need in place, we first must understand that this plan can only be something that is rooted, founded, and has it’s complete essence in faith. For any plan that fails in this is not a plan away from sin, but simply a plan to sin another way.

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11 ESV)

The Plan:

You’ve heard it before. You have, and I know it. You say, “I’ve memorized verses and passages that deal with my sins and have tried quoting them in the heat of battle.” And you’ve sinned regardless. Right? Yeah, me too. You know what’s happened to me? I’ve gone into battle and pulled out the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17) and been pummeled. And I’ve thought, but I had my sword out! I had the verse! If that doesn’t stop it, what will? There is a fundamental error in our logic as well as in our exegesis of the text. This verse doesn’t say, “If you want to overcome sin, memorize proof-texts in your mind.” It says, You store-up, or you “hoard, reserve––esteem”, the “utterances” of God that you “might not” sin. The term “might” is too often completely over looked.

The classic interpretation of this verse, memorize the Bible and you won’t sin, is wrong. The Bible is not for the primary purpose of defeating your battles with sin. The Bible is about Christ. It’s the story of who we are in light of Christ. It’s the story of what He has done for us. And it’s the story of why He did all those things. Psalm 119:11 expresses our need to store-up God’s whole Word in our hearts so that we might; know Him more, love Him because of what we learn, worship Him because of the love and knowledge we have of Him, and then thru this worship we might be kept from sin. The plan to defeat sin is not simply a self-reliance upon your ability to quote Scripture, but rather to set as your aim, knowing God more, loving Him because of what you know, and then that love causing your heart to worship Him more and more and more. If you’re in the thick of worshipping God, you’re less likely to fall into sin.

Best Laid Plan’s of Mice & Men:

Before we all run off trying this plan out and testing my thesis, let me give one great big caveat. This caveat is the same one that appears in the text of Psalm 119:11. Don’t forget that the Holy Spirit revealed this passage in light of the word “might”. So we have our plan. We’re going to store-up God’s Word in our hearts so that we might know Him more, and therefore love Him more, and therefore worship Him all day long. The sad reality is that although we’re less likely to sin in the midst of worship––we still might. John Steinbeck was an early 20th century author. Some of his most prolific works are; “The Grapes of Wrath”, “East of Eden”, “In Dubious Battle” and the first of his novels I ever read, “Of Mice and Men”. Frankly, Steinbeck is a major downer. In the literary world He’s said to be a “realist” and sadly, I must agree.

“but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7 ESV)

Let me offer by way of illustration the Cliff-notes version of the book “Of Mice and Men”. It’s the tale of two hobos, George an average guy and Lenny, a burly man most likely struggling with autism. George has been watching out for Lenny for a long time now but when Lenny accidentally kills a woman, George shoots his long-time mentally-challenged friend, so that the towns-people don’t exact a more inhuman justice from him. And that’s the end of the book. Sad, depressing, but unfortunately realistic. No matter how hard we try, we’re going to sin. Psalm 119 knows this and makes provision for it by using the term “might”. We do all this. We make our plans. We worship Christ as often as possible by reading and storing up His word. But at the end of the day, you and I remain sinners. Until Christ puts away our flesh, we’re still trapped by it and no matter how hard we plan, we still––might sin. That’s the end of our book, period.

Final Word: 

So as a final word of encouragement let me leave us not with a depressing reality like good ole Mr. Steinbeck, but rather with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul. The words that we too share with him. The words that breath hope into this life and reveal that you and I, in our struggles are never alone. More importantly though, you and I, if we’re in Christ, we’re not condemned.

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:21-8:1 ESV)

Plan to worship Christ, but trust that His grace is still sufficient when we fail.