There is a program that recently aired entitled “Dirty Jobs”; I can’t think of too many worse than cleaning out a cesspool. Yet since Adam bit down on forbidden fruit, our lives have continued to degenerate until the point where we just seem mired in evil, a spiritual cesspool if you will, that has the characteristics of quicksand, and the holding power of superglue. To think to clean this kind of a mess is not something most of would be willing to do were it less of an analogy and more of a reality. But just because we find ourselves in a pit of despair, is no reason to remain here. We must begin by realizing it is time to get clean.
But how does one see their own lives move from a veritable cesspool to a clean mountain spring? Christianity has traditionally offered only one response – will power. In by gone days the topic of temperance was taught with vigor. Self-denial is a major tenant of most other world religions, and even in Christianity it has fought hard to remain prominent. But to accept the idea that it “is” possible for me to clean myself up; is then to admit that apparently I must not have chosen to do so. Moreover, no one else I know has chosen to get clean either, if this choice is really up to us. Christians have long quoted scripture to back up their ideas on this topic. Familiar quotes such as … “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” or “you will never be tempted above what you are able” or “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” or “if you love Me, keep my commandments”.
At first brush, all of these texts seem to indicate we are supposed to be doing something with our religion. In short, we are supposed to be “living right”. Yet despite the seemingly countless admonitions, everyone seems to be STILL sinning. This failure on our part, to live as the texts indicate we should be living, has led some to believe that it is simply impossible to do so. Therefore Christ died to make up for our inability to follow His counsel. Given this, we are free to do whatever, because we are already forgiven, and God knows we cannot keep his laws anyway. Whole point of a savior right; to save us from the punishment of our evil? But this thinking does nothing but cheapen grace to no effect.
So what is the disconnect between what scripture says we are supposed to be doing, and our apparent inability to do it? The answer is that we have put the focus in the wrong place on HOW to accomplish the admonitions that have been written. Take the words of Christ first when He says … “deny yourself”. This is not about self-restraint, this is about putting self in its place – dead last. He tells us to deny that we are the savior of our souls, as is the basis in every other religion on earth. You are NOT your own savior, you must realize you are in NEED of a savior, and thus only Christ can fill this role. You must deny that you can do it. Christ is saying … you need to be saved from evil, start by realizing it is NOT you who will do the work. He continues … “take up your cross and follow me”. He means … realize your carnal nature must be killed, in order for Him to re-create you into the new creature you were meant to be. Like Paul says … “I die daily”. This is how we achieve, through submission, not control.
When you grasp this concept properly, it is then easier to understand HOW we resist the devil so that he will flee from us. Rightly understood, Satan never flees from you and I because we are easy prey when left to our own strength. But, introduce submission of our will to Christ, and it is no longer we who he is left to fight with, it is Christ. Christ has already beaten him, and the devil knows he cannot defeat Christ, so he then flees as the text suggests. Never being tempted above what we are able is better understood when human limitations are removed from the equation. When submitting to Christ, it is no longer our strength against temptation that is put to the test, but rather the divine strength of our Savior, which is able to overcome even the most severely addicting habits we have formed. A sign of loving Christ is the keeping of His commandments, but this can again only be done if we remove ourselves and our will from the process, and allow His will to be created in us. Then the keeping of his laws becomes as natural as our breathing, both in spirit, motive, and in action. Not because of any great work or effort, or prayer that we have prayed – but only because it is His will to Give us this great Gift – our salvation.
Adam lost dominion of this world to Satan so many years ago in the garden. In so doing, he predestined us to a carnal nature we would all be born to. We were held slaves of an evil tyrant, until our redeemer came and freed us from bondage. Christ did not free us so that we could indulge in the pain of evil to an even greater extent by letting go; rather He freed us to remove the pain of evil from out of our lives as the greatest gift He could offer. We are now freed from the bondage of sin, and liberated from the evil slave master to a benevolent Father who has redeemed us with the purchase of His own flesh and blood. You will notice that nowhere in this scenario was man ever to reclaim his own dominion. Christ did not come to put “us” back in charge of our world. He came and took charge on our behalf. Man owning his own dominion is not a choice on the table, only to whom he will serve. We are faced with the freedom of love that removes the pain in our lives, or the terrible addictive destructive slavery to pain that was born in our nature and can only come from the self-service of evil and its leader.
Those who accept the gift our Savior offers find an escape from the nature of our birth. It is literally to be born again, dying to self, and being resurrected in His image and likeness. Our nature and inclination to want and do evil does not die by accident, nor does it go down without a tremendous fight. Once we know the truth of victory, the devil fights hard to keep us from claiming it. He insinuates that there is always time later to submit, time now to live for number one. He distracts us with the need to work for our survival, and the constant barrage of “necessary” things that must be accomplished in the day before we can rest or think about God. He buries us in “busy-ness”. All of this designed to impede our daily surrender to Christ. Without this submission of our will, we are easy prey to fall back into old habits designed for our destruction. Remember we are born with a desire for evil. It takes a rebirth to remove this desire. It takes a willingness to allow God to change what we want, what we think we need, and what we think we like.
It is the equivalent of turning the thing we most love over to Christ at the risk of losing it. This was the dilemma Adam faced and failed. Adam so loved Eve he could not conceive of risking her separation or loss. He forgot that as much as he loved Eve, so much more did her Creator. Had Adam stayed faithful to God, Christ would have come if only to save Eve and restore her to Himself, and to Adam. But Adam would not trust God with the Salvation of the thing he loved most. Instead he willed to die with her. If we are to change, we must face and pass the same challenge. How many are willing now to submit their marriages to God, and to His will, even if that will is to see them ended for His purposes. Most believe that God would not ever put asunder a marriage when vows have been exchanged in His name. But this is not the point. God never asks for human sacrifice to show loyalty to Him ,,, unless you happen to be Abraham who was asked this exact test. It is not whether God breaks us up or not that is important, it is our willingness to follow Him if that is His will despite how we feel right now.
Humans are funny creatures. We can have a romantic love that we could not imagine life without one minute, and over time come to so disdain this person, that we cannot imagine how we ever felt that way in the first place. Teenagers go through this rollercoaster regularly. Adults do too, but fail to admit it. The simple fact is that feelings can change over time. Given this, it is only in our own best interest to submit even how feel to the correction God may require. Giving up our desires is the key to begin to understand what He desires for us. We must get our untrustworthy notions out of the way of His leadership before we can figure out what He wants. Our desires are inherently evil, and often in our own worst effect. Unlike Adam, we must be willing to part with the thing we love the most, in order to know if it truly comes from God or not. It could be a spouse, or a child, or a parent, or a career, or a possession – but whatever it is that we believe we cannot live without, must be submitted at the foot of the cross, even if it means we lose it.
Holding on to a cherished sin, has already demonstrated what it can do to mankind. There was nothing wrong with Adam loving Eve, the error came from loving her more than he trusted in God to save her. We are the way we are, because Adam would not risk letting go of Eve. He simply did not trust God enough to find a way. Abraham did. He took his most precious possession to a hill top and began to slay that which he loved without measure, and God was faithful to stop him from doing so. It was not God’s intent to take Isaac, rather Isaac would lead a blessed life of communion with his father’s God. It was God’s intent to see if Abraham would do what Adam would not. Adam failed. Abraham did not. What will we do?
Are we to trust the process of saving us from evil? Are we to take the Lord at His word, and believe that only through submission can we reach the perfection of Enoch? Or will we, like Adam, hold on to that which we love the most? Will we like Judas, reject the gift of saving grace, choosing rather to obtain it through our own efforts and merits, believing ourselves to be in partnership with God? Our lives are cesspools of pain and evil. We have no cleaning tools, or desire to perform the work. We must accept the charity of our God in the cleanup that is to be performed. We must stay out of His way, allowing Him to clean every single spot up. There is nothing we can hold back from God in the cleaning process. But the beauty that is found in a life cleaned up by God, is a pure mountain spring, untouched by the corruption of pollution and evil decay. It is based in the river of life that flows from the throne of our Father God Himself. This water can flow through us and make us whole, or we can turn away to the filth and sludge we have created. This is the great choice we must all face and make every day of our lives. If there is a work for us to perform, it is to be the work of submission, but even in this, our God is faithful. We must turn to both the author (or originator) and the finisher of our faith, and trust in His never failing promise to save us from the evil of our lives.
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