How We Deal With Sin

When I first saw this video, I’ll be honest, I laughed. I didn’t laugh because I thought it was funny that the man was attacked by his own lion. I laughed because I thought that the concept of anyone owning an apex predator, such as a lion, and expecting a different result was just crazy. IT’S A LION! Outside of human hunters, there isn’t anything in nature that hunts the lion. It can and will eat anything, and do so by nature just because it’s hungry.

Then a very tragic thought occurred: in most circumstances, this is how we deal with our sin. We try to tame it, control and manage it, or minimize it. We think that if we only give into that habitual sin once a month, that it’s ok because it’s better than the way we used to be. We think that because our sin isn’t as bad as someone else’s, that we’re safe. One person commits murder, and another lies habitually, so the liar isn’t so bad, right? Yeah, the person who murders owns a lion, and the liar owns a grizzly bear. That’s much safer.

There’s a couple of issues with this. The first, is that in trying to manage or minimize our sin, we show that we know it’s dangerous. Just as the lion tamer uses a whip and chair when taming the lion, he does so because he realizes the lion is dangerous. We aren’t oblivious to the dangers, we just think that if we can manage our sin, that we can prevent any really dangerous outcomes. We contradict ourselves in this because just as any normal person who sees a lion has the impulse to run as far away as possible, we see other people’s sin and think “man, they really need to stop doing that”.

This brings us to the second issue, we can’t stop sinning by ourselves. Just like the lion tamer in this video had to have someone spray the lion with pepper spray so that he could break the grip of the lion’s jaw, we have to have help to break free from sin. Even after we break free, there is still work to be done. We still have to clean out the infection that sin causes in our lives, and it affects our lives afterward. Whether it is a white lie, adultery, or murder, we aren’t the same afterward. All sin says that we really don’t care what God wants, and that we think that we are more important. All sin is rooted in idolatry, all sin is treason against the King.

What does the Bible tell us about sin? Let’s take a look:

Hebrews 12:1-2

¹ Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Romans 12:1-2

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Colossians 3:1-11

¹ If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
⁵Therefore put to death what is earthly in you*: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
⁸ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, ¹¹ where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Scripture tells us to not be conformed to the sinful world around us, to throw off the sin that so easily traps us, and to PUT SIN TO DEATH! Mark Driscoll said that many times, we don’t take our sin seriously enough; sin needs to die because sin killed Jesus. Think about it, God sent His only Son to DIE to buy back the world from sin. How dare we treat sin as anything other than deadly serious???

At this point, we will respond in one of three ways.

First, we could just ignore this and go about life. Either because we don’t care, or we think we don’t sin. In either case, that person is a fool, and an idolater, and the one who thinks he doesn’t sin is a LIAR (1 John 1:8).

Second, we could fall on our knees and because we love God, do everything we can to resist sin. We may keep ourselves busy with church and work and anything else to help us avoid temptation. We may simply will ourselves to resist the urges to sin, and yeah…good luck with that. This method is doomed to fail, and only serves to make you an idolater and full of arrogance. But, I’m resisting sin because I love God, how is that arrogant, and how am I an idolater?

This brings us to our third response. We come to the realization that not only do we love God, but that…and this is deeply, deeply Theological…God loves us! For those who thought I was being sarcastic, I wasn’t at all. Countless Christians go throughout life without grasping this concept: God loves us not because of who we are, but DESPITE who we are! Even while we were actively at war against God, committing treason against the King in everything that we did, God sent His Son to buy us back and set us free from the slavery to sin.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

This is where the second response becomes arrogance and idolatry. God says that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation and that He does not declare us guilty for our sins. If we try to resist sin on our own, by whatever method, then we are firstly saying that the price Christ paid on the cross wasn’t enough, and that the God who declares us “not guilty” doesn’t have enough authority, because WE have to clean ourselves before we present ourselves to God. Secondly, if we do manage to somehow avoid certain sin by resisting on our own efforts, afterward we go before God and say, “Look at me! I cleaned myself up for You!” This is foolish, arrogant, and idolatrous, and God’s reply is, “Yeah, ummm…you missed the spot in the hard to reach place on your back.”

The ONLY way that we can combat sin is realizing that God LOVES us despite ourselves, and trusting in Him when He says that He has paid the price, cleaned us up, and made us like Him. But, you just said that the Bible says to take action, right? We’re supposed to throw off sin, kill it even, aren’t we? Yes, we absolutely are. We can’t do this without God’s grace, and without trusting in Him. Because if we try to do it on our own, we are fighting desperately to become something that we don’t believe we are. When we rely on God’s grace and trust Him, we then fight alongside God against our sin, and become who God has already declared us to be.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

So the only way to please God is through faith. One of the “heroes of faith” that the writer of Hebrews mentions is Abraham, in verses 8-11. Let’s look in Genesis to see what happened here.

Genesis 12:1-3

¹ Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
² I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So God told Abraham to go to a foreign country, and that God would make him a great nation. Abraham believed God would do as He said, and relying on God, he went forward to become that which God declared he would be.

Like Abraham, when we talk of having faith in God, we are talking about believing we are who God says we are: holy and righteous in Christ. We are traitors and deserve death, but in Christ God has made us a new creation, one that is free from the bondage of sin, and justified in God’s eyes.

While I’m not saying that our response to apex predators like lions and bear should be to hunt them down and kill them, that should absolutely be our response to sin in our lives. We MUST trust and rely on God so that we may begin the process of killing sin in our lives. Sin destroys our relationship with God, and with other people. Sin is relentless in its attack, and much like the lion, it’s worse when you don’t see it there, because you’re going along thinking everything is ok, and then you get attacked and killed or seriously injured.

What sin do you need to rely on God to help you kill in your life?

*Phrase adapted from the ESV, the rest is NKJV.