Let us walk becomingly, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in strife and jealously, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the passions of the flesh. (Romans 13:13-14)[1]
A friend recently asked, “Why do we continue to struggle with sin despite how clearly the Bible teaches that sin in general and specific sins can indeed be overcome in the Christian life?”
Here’s the answer I gave her in the moment:
- It’s a strategy issue. In the case of somebody learning to play flute or learn Galician, we assume they will need several hours a week focused on that. In the case of overcoming a sin like irrational anger, which we perhaps have practiced for 50-70 hours a week for 30 years, we often expect to overcome by beating it four or five times in a row. We don’t plan fully to resist, replace, and continue replacing the evil deed. In other words, we don’t design our lives around becoming Christ-like. We design our lives around watching TV when we’re tired, getting through the day, and just getting enough money to pay rent and relax. The result will be that our spiritual formation is rather influenced by those very things.
- We underestimate how hard change is in general (see above) so we think that ‘trying harder’ will work. But when trying harder doesn’t work (like with learning Spanish) we get frustrated. This is the fundamental problem of frustration is school.
- I think that modern Protestant Christianity struggles mightily with a fixed mindset and a victim mindset when it comes to sin. There is a strong tendency to not take ownership of our sinfulness. I’ll hear people say, ‘I know I’m sinful.’ But I’ll here the same person say in a sort of self-excusing joke, ‘I wish Adam didn’t eat that fruit.’ But the Bible’s teaching is that ‘all sin.’ We tend to treat our sinfulness as two things: a fixed state and the result of somebody messing with us. But really, it’s on us. We’re 100% responsible for our sins. We certainly have bad habits we’ve picked up from mom and dad, the culture around us, and so-on but we’ve also grown up with logic and reason, divine revelation, a will, and we’ve still chosen all of these things that make us materially discontent as well as spiritually destitute. Until we can take full ownership of our personal rebellion against God, I do not think we can fully choose to live otherwise. The other side of these mindset flaws is that we rightly believe that ‘there’s nothing we can do in the flesh to overcome sin.’ But the problem is that for those who believe the gospel, nothing we do is in the flesh unless it is sin. In other words, in the New Testament, any attempt to obey Christ by a baptized Christian is cooperation with God’s grace and therefore ‘in the Spirit.’ So, there is nothing you can do in the flesh that will help us, but there is a lot we can do with God’s endorsement, cooperation, and even foreordination (Ephesians 2:10) that would help you overcome our sins.
Very few of us wake up in the morning and say, “What can I do to put on Christ today?” “What can I do to take away provision for the flesh and its passions?” But I think this sort of resolute, daily planning is part of what it will take to overcome sins that have lasted a long time.
The other important thing to observe in the Bible passage above is that Paul says, ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ.’ The clothing metaphor is suggestive of daily work. This makes sense. To use a fitness metaphor, if you work for 6 months to lose weight, repair your blood sugar, and decrease you resting heartrate to keep from dying you know how to become super fit. But you might possibly solve your problem and then restart all the habits that got you so unhealthy to begin with. When it comes to spiritual growth, we tend to do the same thing. A small bit of success leads to lax living for a season and then we reap the results. That’s why Paul says this,
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Phil 3:12-16 ESV)”
So a constant recognition that we have not attained perfection must fit simultaneously with our pursuit of perfection. It is very important not to go in reverse on purpose. You can see this same principle in the story of the Ebenezer stone in 1 Samuel 7. If you’re in a war it is quite important to hold the line.[2]
References
[1] Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, et al., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012), Ro 13:13–14.
[2] Of course, it doesn’t mean to hold the line of a point of view about which you’re mistaken. The New Testament is clear about the need for reasonableness with respect to disagreements: Philippians 4:2-9.
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