MAY 17
- “I can handle this; it will be okay.”
- “I’ll only do it this once.”
- “I really didn’t have much of a choice.”
- “It’s not really such a big deal.”
- “Other people do it all the time.”
- “It’s not really clearly forbidden by the Bible.”
- “What else could I do?’
- “I just chose the lesser of two evils.”
- “God is good; he’ll forgive me.”
- “It’s not like I do this all the time.”
- “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?”
Each statement is designed to relieve the burden of conviction. Each is meant to mask the reality that we have chosen to be disloyal to God, rebellious to his authority, and resistant to his call. Each is meant to cover the true allegiance of our hearts. Each is designed to enable us to feel okay about what God clearly says is not okay. Each is meant to make sin look not so sinful after all. Each is meant to ease our fear that sin really is destructive and that it really does lead to death.
There are moments when we are all tempted to give in to the delusional logic of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (see Genesis 3). In the mundane moments of our daily lives, we buy into the fallacy that we can step over God’s loving and wise moral boundaries without consequences. In myriad little moments, we’re morally disloyal to the One who is our wisdom, righteousness, and hope. And what’s important about this is that the character of a life isn’t set in three or four big moments of life, but in ten thousand little, virtually unnoticed moments. These acts of disloyalty expose the war that still rages for the rulership of our hearts and the depth of our ongoing need for rescuing and forgiving grace. Isn’t it good to know that that grace is ours in Christ Jesus?
For further study and encouragement: Romans 6:15–23
Taken from New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul Tripp, © 2014, pp. 132-162. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
