The Inner Canaanites

A Sip

Bonjour blogworms! I hope this blog finds you in the receipt of the Lord’s Grace and peace. The topic for this particular blog is, once again, one of those ones that have lain stagnant in my mind for months now. However, as usual, I recently saw something which reminded me of this often perceivably despondent topic and stirred me to write about it. This topic is something which I’m sure every Christian reading this will identify with. It is something which brings much pain and despair to many and thus, I pray God will bring comfort and hope to you through this blog. It is also something which is very healthy and, as I hope to show, has a purpose. So, with this in mind, on with the blog!

Spring Time!

The stimulus that prompted me to write this blog was a film I watched last night on the life of the famous German Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, lived in Germany during World War II. As a respected man of God, he was often tormented and challenged with how to justly respond to the threat, corruption and horrendous evil of the Nazi regime, and yet still do what is pleasing to God. Bonhoeffer eventually gave in to his growing revulsion for the Nazi brutality and participated in the planning of an assassination attempt on Hitler’s life. Needless to say, the assassination plot failed and Bonheoffer was subsequently arrested, detained and finally executed, sadly, a few months before the end of the War.

But it was these scenes of Bonhoeffer’s inner struggle between murder and justice; between sin and what is good; between the flesh and the Spirit that spurred me to write this blog. For it was in these scenes that I could empathise with Bonhoeffer with my own periods of struggling with sin as a Christian. It is something that we all, as Christians, can identify with. This struggle is a source of much anguish for believers because throughout the New Testament, it is proclaimed that once we are in Christ, our sinfulness has been conquered and we are new creations. For example, in Romans 6:6-14, the Apostle Paul makes one of his typical declarations about our new lives in Christ, explaining that “our old man was crucified with Him [Christ], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin…For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Yet whilst this victory over sin is announced and trusted upon by believers, the reality of sin is still very much present in our lives. This seeming inconsistency and contradiction between what is ‘factual’ and what is ‘actual’ has been frustrating believers ever since Christ died, rose and ascended 2000 years ago.

1) THE PROBLEM – SINNER OR SAINT?

Like Bonhoeffer, we can all as Christians cry out in frustration with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:14-25:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

O how we can relate to this struggle! But believe it or not, some theologians would argue that Paul is here not talking as a Christian, but as a pre-converted Jew. Though I do not agree with this position, I will not go into the arguments as to why this is because John Piper does a great job doing exactly that in his six part sermon series called, “Who is This Divided Man?” If you have the time and are unsatisfied with what I have written here, I would highly recommend either listening to the series or reading it here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/10/57_Who_is_This_Divided_Man_Part_1/

Nevertheless, this passage is repeated and paralleled by Paul in his letter to the Galatians in 5:17 when he says, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusts against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” For arguably the greatest Christian to ever live, this battle against sin was an ever-present reality. Whilst God changes our God-hating and rebellious wills to God-loving and obedient wills through Regeneration by His Spirit, we still sin. Though we may not sin anywhere near as much or as severely as we used to before coming to Christ, we still sin nonetheless. And so there is this inner battle between what we want to do (please God) and what we often actually do (disobey God).

This is also shown by another Apostle – Peter. If any of the Apostles knew what it was like to struggle with sin, it was impetuous Peter. I mean, who else can claim to have chopped off someone’s ear (besides Chopper Reed that is), managed to walk on water and still nearly drown, and disowned the Incarnate and earthly Jesus three times? That said, though we may not have had the privilege of being alive when Christ walked the Earth, I’m sure we are all guilty of having been foolishly impulsive, doubtful and faithless, and embarrassed of Christ at times of weakness (and ‘strength!’). But for those who would rebut that these incidents happened before Christ’s resurrection and the Day of Pentecost, and hence, when the fullness and strength of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit had not yet become manifest, Paul gives us another example of Peter’s remaining ‘old man’ coming out in Galatians 2:11-13:

Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

Though many years had passed since Jesus had first selected him to be a Disciple, and hence experiencing many years of the sanctifying work of the indwelt Spirit, Peter still struggled with that same fear and hypocrisy that he had shown all those years earlier when he first came face to face with his Messiah. You see, no matter how far we progress in our walk with Jesus here on Earth, sin will always be at war in our flesh. Its frequency and severity may be slowly diminished by the ongoing work of the Spirit over time, but this residual sin still rears its ugly head when we least expect or want it.

Although the Apostles Peter and Paul were such great proponents of Christ’s victory over sin, they also knew through their own personal experience that we are not yet glorified and are being sanctified progressively. Though we are positionally declared righteous by God’s Grace through faith in Christ alone, we still have what Paul calls in Romans 7 ‘indwelling sin’, thus being simultaneously both sinner and saint. Though our old sinful self is dead and has been defeated by Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, God chooses to leave a remnant of this ‘old man’ in us until He returns to resurrect the dead and complete the good work He started in us (Phil 1:6).

2) THE REASON – WHY HAS GOD LEFT INDWELLING SIN IN CHRISTIANS?

So, this then begs the question – why has God chosen to leave this remnant of our sinful nature in us? If God could, by His very Word and decree, permanently eradicate sin forever at this very moment in time from all His people, why hasn’t He? For what purpose has He left this sin in us? Well, there is an element of God’s Hidden Will in activity here, and as such, we must respond with what Martin Luther explains as awe, reverence and fear for this sovereign and majestic will (see my earlier blog, “Un-Free Willy [Part 1]”). As Luther says, reiterating Paul in Romans 9:20, as finite and foolish humans, we should not question God’s will but adore it. Nonetheless, after much careful and prayerful contemplation, I have come up with at least three reasons from Scripture that may be reasons God has left this residual sin in us.

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2Co 12:7-10)

The first possible reason I picked up from Paul in this passage. Now, I know that Paul is not exactly clear as to what this ‘thorn in the flesh’ is and there has subsequently been much debate as to its identity, some saying eyesight problems, some saying a certain person, others saying it was a particular sin. Nonetheless, I maintain that the basic principle conveyed by this passage can be applied to the topic of indwelling sin regardless of whether Paul’s ‘thorn’ was actually sin or not. As the reassuring message is universal in its application to anything that causes distress and struggle, indwelt sin certainly falls into this category.

So that said, the first reason that I think God has chosen to leave sin in us is that, like Paul says, it humbles us. Rather than thinking we can do everything on our own and being puffed with pride, indwelt sin prevents us from exalting ourselves and turns us from autonomy, revealing our utter dependence on Christ’s Grace and strength. Further, as it makes us weak, it provides an opportunity for God’s strength and power to be displayed. In this, it also moves and entices us to turn to Christ whose “yoke is easy and…burden is light” (Mt 11:30).

As John Piper says in Part 4 of his series, the reality of indwelling sin conveyed by Romans 7 is purposed “so that you will know your real condition as a Christian and will walk the precarious line between cocky presumption that you are above sin, and hopeless despair because you never live up to the demand for perfection in this life. My goal is to push you away from pride toward humility, and away from despair toward hope. The biblical realism of Romans 7 is meant to save you from moral pride on one side and immoral hopelessness on the other side. Romans 7 is a great help in balancing on this tightrope.”

Now these are the nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it), namely, …all the Canaanites…And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would [keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them – Jdg 2:22]…Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites…And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods. (Jdg 3:1-6)

The final two reasons come from linking this analogy in the Old Testament to the current topic. Generally speaking, whereas much of the Old Testament is concerned with natural and physical matters, the New Testament is more concerned with the spiritual. So whereas this passage is concerned with a physical war over a physical place with physical enemies, I think it is fair to use it (albeit, rather loosely) as an analogy for the Christian’s inner spiritual war. Instead of the land of Canaan, our land is our soul; instead of a physical war with the hostile and evil enemy Canaanites over possession of this land, we war spiritually with the hostile and evil enemy Sin over control of our body (in case you were wondering, this is where I got the idea for the title of this blog from).

So with these correlative parallels distinguished, the first reason gauged from this passage as to why God leaves sin to dwell in us is to test us. Just like when God left a remnant of Canaanites to dwell in Canaan to test the faith of the Israelites, so God leaves a remnant of our sin to dwell in us so “that the genuineness of [our] faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love” (1Pe 1:7-8). The second reason extracted from this Biblical analogy is that by leaving a hostile sin in us, this teaches us through practice how to fight and war against it, inciting us to ardent spiritual warfare. Rather than leaving us to a potential spiritual lethargy, by letting a portion of our sin remain in us this stirs and provokes us into a spiritual fervor and zeal for God, hoping for, praying for and depending on His victory.

3) THE SOLUTION – HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO THIS INDWELLING SIN?

Therefore, with these two questions answered comes the most important and practical based question – what do we, as Christians, do when we are struggling with our indwelt sin? What do we do when our ‘old man’ crops up again?

So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…Therefore…the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, [and] the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them. (Jdg 3:7-9)

The first and most important thing, like the Israelites here did when they had sinned against God through idolatry, is to cry out to God and turn to Him. God has promised to deliver us from our sin and we must trust in this promise. However, unlike the Israelites who had a human deliverer, we have the greater fulfillment of this promise in the divine person of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is our great Deliverer, Redeemer and Saviour and we must turn to Him in times of spiritual struggle!

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1Jn 1:5-2:2)

The second thing we should do after turning to God is to, like John says here, confess all our sins before God. Rather than ignore them, we must repent of any indwelling sin and take full responsibility for it. As John says, we all have sin and if we deny this basic yet crucial truth, we make Jesus to be a liar and I put to you, possibly worse than this, we make him to be obsolete. For if we have no sin as Christians, what does Christ save us from and thus what use is His death? Coming to Jesus is not a one-off vaccination shot against sin, but a lifelong journey and relationship of repentance.

We should also not let this indwelt sin cast dangerous doubts on of our salvation. It’s not whether we sin, but how we respond to that sin which characterises a Christian. As Piper says in Part 3 of his series on what indwelt sin means to our salvation, “This does not mean we are not Christian. The test is, Do we love the law? Do we hate our failure? Do we cry out in dismay over our sinful condition? Do we look to Christ and his righteousness? Do we fly to the cross? Do we confess and repent and renounce Satan and set our faces to go forward with Jesus on the Calvary road? Do that! Let us pray for each other that we do that.”

“The point of this text [Romans 7] is not that we should make peace with sin, but that we should make war on sin in our own lives and know how to understand ourselves and how to respond when we suffer tactical defeats in the war. Chapter six makes clear that we will win the war against sin (see Ro 6:14). Chapter seven makes clear that this will not be without tactical defeats that will make us love our Saviour all the more. It’s the earnestness of the war and the response to defeat that show your Christianity, not perfection.” (John Piper from “Who Is This Divided Man? - Part 3”)

Finally, we as Christians should not be content with indwelt sin once we become convicted of it. Rather than ignore or this sin, we should instead wage war against it, taking up “the whole armour of God, that [we] may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph 6:13). The war has already been won; we are merely living and playing it out to its rightful conclusion in time. So with this in mind, let us advance in confidence and faith in the victory of Christ.

To finish, Piper sums this all up in Part 4 of his series:

“I am not saying that Christians live only in defeat. But I am saying that no Christian lives only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:14-25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond. We should say:

i) I love the law of God (verse 22);
ii) I hate what I just did (verse 15);
iii) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (verse 24)?;
iv) Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord (verse 25)

…No Christian settles to live this way. But if we do live this way for a time, we shouldn’t lie about it. No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality. God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others. God help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others. God give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text!”

As one of my favourite Christian bands, Casting Crowns, says in their song “East to West”:

“I start the day, the war begins, endless reminding of my sin.
Time and time again Your truth is drowned out by the storm I’m in.
Today I feel like I’m just one mistake from you leaving me this way

…I know You’ve washed me white, turned my darkness into light.
I need Your peace to get me through…this night.
I can’t live by what I feel, but by the truth Your word reveals.
I’m not holding on to You, but You’re holding on to me. You’re holding on to me.

Jesus, You know just how far the east is from the west.
I don’t have to see the man I’ve been come rising up in me again.
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest.
‘Cause You know just how far the east is from the west, from one scarred hand to the other.”

Waves

Well, there you have it. I pray that this has spurred you on to not be either self-righteous and proud, nor desperate and hopeless, but full of hope and humility; that you will “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Ro 13:14). But if your indwelt sin does rear its ugly head (and I’m betting it does), don’t run away in fear, but turn unto the Lord and fight it by the strength of Christ so that you can one day say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2Ti 4:7). As John Piper said in Part 4 of his series, “There is a difference between the divided man of Romans 7 and a sellout. Don’t sell out. Trust Christ and fight sin.” So until next time, put that in your cloud and rain it (Jude 12).

Christus Regnat,

MAXi