Out of nowhere, or out of anywhere it seems unavoidable: sin pops into my head. It might be lust or greed or envy. No matter what the subject matter, once that appealing counterfeit enters my brain, the wrestling match begins. There are all sorts of methods of discipline that can help a sincere Christian cultivate a pure mind and pure heart. Eventually though, we all fall short. The more practiced the Believer is, the more cunning our enemy and the more subtle the sin. The point is that there is never a moment when we can coast and there is never a day when we don't have to give it all to God. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ remains the only power for prevention and more importantly, the only power for redemption.
Matthew 5
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’[e] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
So, once the creep of sin enters your mind, what can you do? No doubt that a burst of excitement from lust can make you feel like it's already too late. The ache of Greed or Anger may send you down a road that seems impossible to come back from. I've gotten texts from friends saying, "Pray for me brother, I'm feeling weak." I do pray for them, but what I feel in that moment is "It's too late."
Once these prompts toward sin enter our minds, these temptations, we begin maneuvering for either a defensive stand or an offensive assault. We see the destruction down the road and then we beg, plead, command God, Satan and the World to act to prevent this act from happening. From experience, I tell you there is no place that feels more desperate and more isolated than this limbo land. We don't feel God's power, all we feel is the tearing of flesh and the building blocks of justification beginning to form. In a bold move we take steps to eliminate all temptations or sources of gratification. But our sinful desires remain and in fact seem to become inflamed. We curse God for making us this way or for not helping to take away this ache that we truly do not want anymore. We fail. Well, unfortunately that happens. We fail and then we repent and turn back to God and pick up the pieces, humble and broken and ask for his forgiveness to begin again. He does. He does not fail.
But what if we could change our perspective in this scenario?
In the verses above, it is clear that Jesus is saying that the Sin comes before the Act. However in our behavior we often repent of the Act and not the Sin. What if we began the repentance process one step earlier? What if we treated our crooked thoughts like the Sin that they are? What if we didn't treat our depravity, perfectionism, and pride like they were some cute affectation? What if we could train ourselves to be convicted in our own thoughts and not just by where these thoughts may lead? What if we were bold enough to ask forgiveness for the failing of our minds and hearts instead of praising our own will power. Because the truth is that even if you can save yourself from the Act, you have still committed the Sin. If you can't see this, then you cannot access the overwhelming power of Christ and will be left to navigate this treacherous territory on your own. This will leave you bitter and rigid instead of triumphant and at peace in his victory.
In the verses above, it is clear that Jesus is saying that the Sin comes before the Act. However in our behavior we often repent of the Act and not the Sin. What if we began the repentance process one step earlier? What if we treated our crooked thoughts like the Sin that they are? What if we didn't treat our depravity, perfectionism, and pride like they were some cute affectation? What if we could train ourselves to be convicted in our own thoughts and not just by where these thoughts may lead? What if we were bold enough to ask forgiveness for the failing of our minds and hearts instead of praising our own will power. Because the truth is that even if you can save yourself from the Act, you have still committed the Sin. If you can't see this, then you cannot access the overwhelming power of Christ and will be left to navigate this treacherous territory on your own. This will leave you bitter and rigid instead of triumphant and at peace in his victory.
The outside world can view the offerings of Christ as either too restrictive to be practical or that Grace is too much freedom to be real. In a way they are both on the right trail. The freedom from Sin leads to a binding with Christ, a union that overtakes your whole life. And the restrictions imposed on your soul by this new found freedom cut you to the quick. In this new love you find that the surface infractions that you used to feel bad for are nothing in comparison to what Jesus is exposing in your heart. So what is the selling point, this sounds awful? The selling point is the gentle erasing of your very self. All along you have known that there is a seemingly unreachable purity within you. All along you have known that there is a fleshy selfishness that blocks the way. Only in Christianity and in the person of Christ himself do we have a path that leads us to the best version of ourselves that he has been working towards since before the world was made. Once in Christ, you will realize that you were made for a different world.
2 Corinthians 10
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
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