Provision for Sin

Matt. 19:26  But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Back when I used to smoke, I tried several times to quit.  My problem was that I kept a pack or two around just in case I failed.  As a result, I didn’t actually quit until I threw five packs of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter into a dumpster after coughing all the way to work one day.  I couldn’t reach for that reserve pack I normally had stored away. So, I was able to quit.

We do this with sin, too.  The drug addict keeps a few pills tucked behind the bathroom mirror “just in case.”  The porn addict keeps a few pictures hidden somewhere “just in case.”  The serial adulteress keeps her address book just in case she needs to get a hold of one of those men.  Not all these provisions are quite so damning.  The gossip refuses to stop hanging around with other gossips, and so on.

We say we’re going to clean up an area of our lives, but we leave something that leads us back into the pit. Satan tells us it’s better to “taper off,” to “leave a little in case you can’t really overcome this temptation.” We fall for that again and again.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

There is a progression to sin.  Temptation is not a sin.  Giving in to temptation is.  So, why keep temptations around when you want to quit cold turkey.  Rather than not trusting your self-control, trust in God’s power to fill you and help you break the addiction to sin no matter what form that sin takes.

In Matt. 9:43-47, Jesus says “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.”

Of course cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye is a little hyperbolic, but we get the point.  We have no business preparing to fail.  God is a God of miracles.  He can give us the strength to overcome the sin Setting aside seeds for temptation is only going to drag us back into our failure once again. 

Why is this important?

I heard a story once of a little boy who used to fall out of bed several times a night.  His loving father would always come, comfort him, then tuck him back into bed.  One night the father asked the boy, where in his bed he was sleeping.  The boy said he was sleeping on the edge to which his father told him to sleep as far from the edge as possible, back against the wall, then he would be less likely to fall.

As Christians we need to spend time examining ourselves.  Are we living life so near the edge, so close to temptation and sin it’s easy to fall?  Or, are we willing to move away from the edge and trust God?

Provision for sin is planning to fail.  As Christians, we should be looking to shed the old man and take on the new life Christ has promised.  Let’s set aside the provision for sin and place our eyes on the race.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.  (Heb. 12:1)