By M. McCoubrey
A while back in a men's Bible study, our senior pastor Les Heath, said
something that's been swishing around in my brain ever since. Now,
several years later, I just had a conversation with my son where I got
to be on the other side of the exact same conversation and I realized
that I had to (re)share some of God's awesome truth.
My son, 7, in a conversation about sinning, says to me - 'but it's so
hard. I just don't think I could not sin. It's impossible'. If this were
a movie, it's where I would flash back in a slow dissolve to my
previous discussion. In it we were talking about sexual purity and that
turned into sinfulness in general. I had argued, or at least complained,
that I couldn't possibly be perfect. I know it, God knows it (it's why
Jesus came right?), so why pretend I could? Les, making an argument that
was sure to fall on deaf ears, says to me that it's not impossible. I
would only need to choose not to sin at each opportunity - something I
could certainly do. Did I mention that the message would fall on deaf
ears? Yeah, it did that.
But it struck me and stuck with me. I've spent 4 or 5 years mulling it
over and thankfully so as when my son took the same stance as I did - I
hopefully gave him a decent answer. And here it is (drumroll in your
head) ..... ready ..... you sure? ..... ok ..... here's it is: Don't
sin.
Ta-daa. Complicated isn't it? I mean, all this thought and that's the
result. But it's all there. God says to be holy as God is holy. God's
holiness means no sinning. And He says He won't ask us to do something
more than we can do, so apparently we can do this. But .... wait ...
seriously? Yep. Here's what I realized as I'm talking to Joey. We focus
on the impossible. Forget the mountain you have to climb. Forget the
desert you have to cross. I get so caught up in having to NEVER sin
again that I get convinced that it's not possible and give up before I
take a step and lose out on any benefit I might have gained. So forget
the big picture and ask yourself this question:
The next sin I am challenged with - can I say no?
Forget the next sin and the next and the next. This one sin; whatever it
is; can I say no and stick with God? Yes? Well there's your start. Ok,
first step done. Next sin, can I say no to that one? Yep. Really? Ok,
that's two down. Hey, look at that, I've stopped sinning. Oops, sin of
pride, dang, ok start over. Urg. But while I begin again, look at the
point. It's not about not sinning forever. That seems WAY too daunting
to challenge even if that is the goal. Just resist the next sin. If you
continue to do that consistently, you literally can end up never sinning
again. I mean, that kinda actually sounds like something I could try to
do, right? Forget what's down the road and just say no to the next
temptation.
And here's the great setup that ensures our success if we go for it.
Cause really, I'd love the idea that I could stick with it forever, but
the reality is that I will nearly certainly fail again at some point:
1. When I fall, I can get right back on the path and see if I can go further the next time (game theory - look it up :))
2. No matter where I am, with this focus I can track my progress following the Spirit and
3. When I fall, that's where Jesus' atonement steps in. He is the
sacrifice for the temptations I couldn't resist. He takes all the hard
ones, the ones I just couldn't resist...yet.
By ignoring the big, seemingly impossible task of eating the whale, I
just focus on the first bite and then the second and then the third.
Just to be clear, none of this is salvation. We ALL fall short. God is
clear on that and the idea of 'earning' salvation should be thrown out.
We've already blown that big-time so don't be thinking this is a
get-out-of-needing-Jesus card. But the cool part is that in a real and
practical way, when Paul says that we are no longer slaves to sin, this
is what he means. Whether we do it or not, we really could, at this very
moment, really never sin again. Without God's provision and
interjection into this world, that would never have been possible.
Go God!
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