Lie: Man’s biggest problem is sin.
Truth: Man’s biggest problem is himself.
We have met the enemy and he is us. — Pogo
Sin is our insistence that, despite the overwhelming odds against us, we must have it our way. Obviously this sinfulness has penetrated deeply and infected our entire being. It’s gone so deep that . . .
Lie: Our hidden sins do not affect others.
Truth: Our sins, both visible and invisible, do affect others, especially the ones we love.
No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine . . .
Lie: Our sinful nature persists, even as Christians.
Truth: We are saints who have sin.
This is a stark divide. Who are we — saints or sinners? We can’t possibly be both, can we? To get right to the heart of the matter, the real question is . . .
Lie: The goal in life is to be sinless.
Truth: Sinlessness makes a poor and frustrating goal. Love is the goal in life.
Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Yes, we should avoid sin and we should be diligent to “make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” We should also know our weaknesses and shore them up, and make investments in their corresponding strengths.
That said, why is this a lie? What’s wrong with trying to be sinless? Several things: . . .
Lie: Some sinful habits are unconquerable.
Truth: All sinful habits are conquerable.
We all have weaknesses, propensities and bad habits that we coddle. These protected weaknesses become ‘the sin that so easily besets us’ – sins like anger, lust, bitterness, covetousness, lying, stealing, gluttony or sloth.
Depending on how deeply these sinful habits go, that is, how long they’ve controlled you, how extensive in terms of the number of people affected, whether you’ve taught that it’s normal, etc, all these factors contribute to make it more difficult to eradicate — but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with God’s redemptive power. . . .
Lie: I can overcome my sin if I try harder.
Truth: I can overcome my sin if I walk according to the Spirit.
We’ve heard it all our lives: the bigger the problem, the more time, energy, attention, commitment and diligence it takes to solve. But sin is not just any problem, it’s the problem – the problem of all problems. It’s actually the one problem that cannot be ‘solved,’ but must be defeated, vanquished, conquered. The good news is, that it already has been, and it took God himself to do it.
That said, sin is not just a cosmic problem; it’s my problem, which, as a Christian . . .
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