An Incorrect Response to Sin

If we think we can live our life without God, He will let us try. Without God, we are left to our devices. Our own devices leave us helpless, at the mercy of our sin for we cannot break sin’s hold on our lives by our own power.

Think of Benjamin Franklin. He catalogued his sins and methodologically attempted to quit them all. Years later he gave up on this endeavor, frustrated and defeated. As long as a man broods over his wrongs, he will always continue in them.

Sin begets sin. Focusing on sin perpetuates sin. Why is this? I don’t know. Maybe it is because in focusing on sin a person is living in pride, making himself the center of his life. With time his pride grows and demands of him more sins. Or maybe it is not true that a man who focuses on his sins inevitably sins more. Maybe an honest examination of self continually reveals sins that were hidden. That man is not becoming more evil, but only realizing how evil he is. If this examination leads him to the conclusion that he is evil beyond his ability to redeem himself, that man has nearly found the truth. Or maybe this is merely a fact that we can only observe but not explained because it is controlled by spiritual laws beyond our comprehension.

Similarly, in our sin we often perpetuate the very wrongs done against us. Hurt people hurt other people; wronged people wrong others. If one is without God one is without forgiveness. If one is without forgiveness why should one forgive another? And if one is in pain, why should others live in peace? Hurting others then becomes an easy substitution for the peace and forgiveness one needs.

When I consider a man trapped in his sin I picture of a man being swarmed by bugs. If he stands still and tries to swat them one by one he will never be free of them. They are so great he alone cannot defeat them. So long as he focuses on himself and those bugs he will continually be bitten by them.

Some tell us that these bugs themselves constitute enjoyment (hedonists), so we should not worry about them. Our inherited traditions tell us that bugs are bad; once we transcend our mere human conventions we will be able to enjoy these bugs (Nietzsche). Others tell us that bugs are an illusion (Buddhism). In recognizing that they are an illusion, we will be free.

Only Christianity allows a man to escape this swarm of bugs. And there is only one way to escape a swarm of bugs: to move. One must walk or run away from them. As one does this they soon fall away. One can never defeat them, one must leave them. Similarly Christianity tells a man to take his focus off of himself and his sins and put it on God. As he grows closer to God his sins will drop away and his self will be sanctified.

The incorrect response to sin is to focus on sin and try to overcome it on one’s own. That struggle is futile and it will only end in frustration and defeat. Only at looking at something beyond himself (God) can man overcome the struggles raging within himself.