VICTORY OVER SIN —HOW?

Part 1

By Dennis Priebe

On September 5, 1974 the editorial page of the Re- view and Herald addressed one of the most important problems facing Christians in a secular world. Kenneth Wood’s comments deserve our thoughtful attention.

Perhaps the most serious danger that threatens the church is that it will lose its uniqueness, that it will become like the world around it, that its schools, its medical institutions, its methods of promotion, its literature, its standards of measuring success, will be scarcely distinguishable from those of the secular world.

Yet few people in the church seem concerned about this danger. Too many measure success merely by gains in tithe and membership. They are confident that all is well with our educational institutions as long as enrollments are increasing and accrediting bodies are pleased. They seem satisfied with our hospitals so long as their bed-occupancy rate is high and their budgets are balanced. They are content with our literature so long as it sells well and is appreciated by readers.

When anyone raises questions as to whether spiritual values are being given sufficient emphasis, whether our literature is distinctively Adventist, or whether an institution is being operated in harmony with God’s revealed will, often he is considered a gad-fly, a negative influence, or a fanatic. Few people in the church welcome criticism, even though it be con- structive. Most would rather be told that everything is going well, that conditions may not be perfect but they are the best they have ever been.

How right the True Witness was when He charged Laodicea with feeling self satisfied and in need of nothing. But it is important to keep in mind that the church may operate institutions that meet worldly standards but not God’s standards. The church may give the appearance of being enormously successful and still be a failure. Burgeoning financial and membership statistics may be accompanied by a sharp decline in spirituality. Employees in denominational institutions may be efficient but not spiritual.

Some time ago we were startled by several passages in a book entitled Keys to the Deeper Life, by A. W. Tozer, a consecrated non-Adventist Christian. In the book the author declared: “The separating line between the church and the world has been all but obliterated. Aside from a few of the grosser sins, the sins of the unregenerated world are now approved by a shocking number of professedly ‘born-again’ Christians and copied eagerly. Young Christians take as their models the rankest kind of worldlings and try to be as much like them as possible. Religious leaders have adopted the techniques of the advertisers; boasting, baiting and shameless exaggerating are now carried on as a normal procedure in church work. The moral climate is not that of the New Testament, but that of Hollywood and Broadway. Most evangelicals no longer initiate; they imitate, and the world is their model.” p. 16.

Is this indictment too harsh? We think not. Too many Christians are aping the world in appearance and conduct. They imitate rather than initiate. They bring secular techniques into the church to carry forward the work of God.

Perhaps Mr. Tozer described Laodicea best when he said: “Religious work can be done by natural men without the gifts of the Spirit, and it can be done well and skillfully. But work designed for eternity can only be done by the eternal Spirit. No work has eternity in it unless it is done by the Spirit through gifts He has Himself implanted in the souls of redeemed men... Spiritually gifted persons are ominously few among us. When we so desperately need leaders with the gift of discernment, for instance, we do not have them and are compelled to fall back upon the techniques of the world. This frightening hour calls aloud for men with the gift of prophetic insight. Instead we have men who conduct surveys, polls, and panel discussions.” —Ibid., p. 40, 41.

Can religious work be done skillfully and well by natural men? Yes. Physicians can treat diseases. Sur- geons can perform operations. Teacher’s can teach. Promoters can promote. Pressmen can run presses. Nurses can care for the sick. Secretaries can manage offices. Editors can edit. Layout artists can create clever designs for magazines. Administrators can manage and direct. Treasurers can handle finances. And on, and on. All of these activities may be carried forward by natural men.

The difference between a “natural” man and a “spiritual” man is made quite clear in 1 Corinthians 2:11-16 (also in Rom. 8:1-14). “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” 1 Cor. 2:14.

The natural man sees no necessity for yielding to and following implicitly the counsel from God’s Spirit as set forth in the Bible or in the writings of Ellen White. The natural man sees no great danger in deviating slightly from the express will of God. By contrast, the spiritual man distrusts self, and seeks earnestly to do God’s work in God’s way. Thus, if natural men are in positions of leadership in God’s work, the church is in peril.

What, then, is one need of Laodicea? That all leaders, all workers, all employees of the remnant church shall be spiritual men, not natural men.... What will be our response? Will we continue to excuse our deficiencies, and proclaim our lack of any need? Or will we repent? While we make up our minds, Jesus stands at the door and waits. This editorial gets right to the heart of the spiritual problems we face as end-time Christians. We have become very adept at being natural men and women. We have learned how to get a job, how to pass tests, and how to get things done in a natural world using natural methods. I am afraid that we have also become quite proficient in being religious and running a church using natural methods. Today our desperate need is to know how to be spiritual men and women. Not only is this the key to the kingdom of heaven, but it is the key to success in God’s church on earth.

We are all born natural men and women. We must be reborn spiritual men and women. The only question that should matter to us is, How can we be spiritual men and women? We know what we should be, but our focus needs to be on the simple question, How? There are three principles we must remember if we want to really become spiritual men and women.

Principle #1 — God Is On Our Side

The following story was told by Dick Winn in 1984 in a Weimar Institute newspaper. Even though we were all too young to drive, we found the car to be too enticing to leave alone. Tom’s dad had gotten it for him—a 1930 Chevrolet Coupe with a Jackrabbit clutch—to keep him working under the hood and out

a 1930 Chevrolet Coupe with a Jackrabbit cluch—to keep him working out of mischief. . .

of mischief until he was legally licensed to drive it on the roads. But when my brother, Larry, and I got together with our boyhood buddy, Tom, there wasn’t much that could keep us out of mischief. And although we hardly knew which end of the wrench to hold, we managed, one idle Sunday afternoon, to bring the old Chevy to life. That sturdy cast-iron “Blue Flame 6” snorted and popped, then settled into a smooth rumble that shot fire into our blood. We literally danced around the open hood, thumping each other on the back, and grinning an unspoken agreement that we would not shut it off until we felt its power from behind the wheel.

We eyed Tom’s long gravel driveway, and the plan went into action. Tom, of course, had first dibs on the driver’s seat. His neighbor jumped in next to him. Larry and I took up stations on the running boards. Tom found reverse, and—scattering gravel against the rear fenders—bolted down the driveway backwards. We took turns behind the wheel: one trip down the drive in reverse, then returning in low gear. As we became more bold, we graduated to second gear halfway up the drive. By late afternoon, this straight-line reciprocal travel was losing its thrill. And we concluded that, since Tom lived off a country road, it [would be more thrilling for] us further down the road with faster turns into the driveway. And we found that the best passenger ride was enjoyed on the running boards.

On the fateful last ride, Tom’s neighbor was behind the wheel, determined to outdo the rest of us in negotiating a high-speed, 90-degree turn up the gravel drive. Tom and Larry rode the right running board, so they could catch the full thrill of a sharp left turn. I took the safest spot on the left running board. But Neighbor overdid it. As the Chevy careened around the corner, almost swiping the fence on the right side of the car, Tom and Larry leaped off the running board, over the fence, and rolled through the cow pasture. From my safe position on the inside of the curve, I roared with laughter at their plight.

But only for a second. Neighbor overcorrected his turn, and plowed into the fence on my side of the car. My hip did contest with a large fence post and though the post broke off at the ground, it knocked me off the running board and my ankle went under the rear wheel. As the dust began to settle, I noticed that everyone was running. Tom’s dad was out of the house, across the porch, and headed down the steps. Tom, Neighbor and Larry got to me first. “Pretend you’re not hurt,” they pleaded in loud whispers, “or we’ll really get in trouble!” Too stunned yet to know what was happening, I was eager to comply.“Try to walk!” they urged. “Tom’s dad looks really mad.” I tried to get up and walk, but there was something about my left ankle that wouldn’t support me.“Hurry up!” they pleaded.“He’s almost here! Boy, we’re in trouble.”

I finally got a look at my ankle. It was turned inward at a right angle. Because the pain hadn’t yet hit me, I laughed. Here are these three fellows, worried about “getting in trouble” with Tom’s dad, when the trouble is with my ankle! The ludicrous humor of the situation has amused us all in the years since the event; but it is only recently that I have begun to see a broader insight. None of us needed to fear the anger of Tom’s dad; we needed to fear the destructive results of our own stupidity. And Tom’s dad—with his years of experience and mature judgment—could have helped us avoid doing something so foolish! And my mind recalls the years I have spent worrying that, when I break God’s law, the problem is that “I’m in trouble with the Lawgiver!” Our picture of God is still so much like what we thought of Tom’s dad, leaping across the porch and down the steps. Ignoring the pain and grief we have brought upon ourselves, we tremble in fear at the anticipated anger we are sure He will unleash on us!

We even try pretending, make-believing, bluffing that we’re not hurting, hoping that our bravado will diminish the wrath to come. But we are so sure that the problem with sin is that it upsets the Lawgiver, that we fail to see the pain it has caused us. We do not see that God is coming, not to get us in trouble, but because we are already in trouble. He comes, not to chastise, but to rescue. “For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17. And when He comes close to us, we fail to see the tears in His eyes.

The first thing we must be sure of in our quest to be spiritual men and women is our picture of God.

God is not demanding victory over sin to see if we will measure up. He is enabling our victory. . .

God is not demanding victory over sin to see if we will measure up. He is enabling our victory so that we don’t have to break our spiritual ankles so often. God is not waiting to condemn us, but He is coming to help us—to ease the pain. If we do not see God on our side in all of this, we will try harder and fail, try harder and fail, until we get discouraged and quit. If we know that God really is on our side, sympathizing with us, enabling us, helping us, then we’ve got a chance to experience real victory. 

Part 2 By Dennis Priebe 

In the September 1986 issue of The Inside Report, published by Amazing Facts, was an article by an unknown author which illustrates this principle. [Victory Over Sin - How?]

Drifting off course is one of those great evil influences which affects the believer as much as the unbeliever.... We drift away softly and silently, like a ship floating down the tide. This process is so unconscious because we’re floating on such great currents. The currents are both within us and around us. The currents within are the drives of our natural desires—our love of ease and comfort, our fleshly appetites, and our worldliness of spirit. Around us are other tides set in the same direction—great drifts in life itself, the spirit of the age, social customs and habits, materialistic attitudes in business, literature, and entertainment. All these roll around us ceaselessly, touching us, nestling close to us, eating on us, and finding allies in the soul to which they are kin.

It takes no output of energy to float down a stream or to be carried forward on the crest of a running tide. All that’s necessary for a life of drift is to relax, to do nothing, to submit to the worldly influences within us and around us.

It’s because the life of drift is so seductively easy to follow that every person who has followed Christ for some time feels the necessity to encourage himself to stand up to and firmly resist life’s drifts.... Christ is always urging men to develop personal initiative and determination, and to cease being tossed to and fro like leaves on the stream of life. His condemnation of the men who lived in the days of Noah was not that they were men of violence—but that they lived unexamined lives, drifting on the surface of things, yielding weakly to the infection of social influences, eating and drinking in a day of God’s visitation.

To be saved demands effort, thoughtfulness, and self-discipline. To be lost makes no such demands. All that’s needed is merely to follow the drift... Even when we are conscious that we’re drifting from our charted course and that our spiritual senses are becoming duller, there’s always a false hope in our minds that a little energy and effort on our part can at any time turn the whole situation around. We underestimate the paralyzing influence of drift.

One winter a bird was seen on a piece of wood floating down the river towards Niagara Falls. It was evidently enjoying the movement of the swiftly gliding stream. It had no sense of danger. Why should it be afraid? Didn’t it have wings? Couldn’t it just fly off when the point of danger was reached? So it thought, as it rested free from care on the piece of wood which carried it down near the dizzy edge.

When it reached the point of danger it tried to soar, but alas! it could not. The river’s mist had frozen upon its wings, and so it miserably perished as the waters plunged over. Isn’t there a serious danger that our habits fix us so immovably to the drift of our circumstances that we cannot free ourselves, even when we want to? What can we do to end the terrible consequences of drifting, and stop the influence of these currents in life that threaten to destroy us? The author of Hebrews gives this practical exhortation, “We ought to give the more the earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” (Hebrews. 2:1) “Which we have heard” are just the great Gospel facts, truths, values, and warnings, which make and keep us morally and spiritually healthy.

Read again the story of Christ’s life and reflect on the significance of His Cross which shows His militant protest against a life of drifting. Let the strong resistance of our Lord to all the drifts of His time lay hold upon our minds and saturate our innermost being, until it steels our wills to a similar endurance. There is only one absolute refuge from drifting, and that is to be safely anchored. A ship securely anchored never drifts. And a life anchored to Christ by the four cables of faith, hope, love, and service consciously made and continuously tested will never drift.

The second principle is to actively fight against sleepiness. We can’t just assume that were going to make it through the rivers of life without resisting the currents of the world and the currents of our own hearts, which are lazy and selfish by nature. If we hope to become spiritual men and women we must apply some initiative and effort to the process.

Writing in the Pacific Union College newspaper, Campus Chronicle, on May 24, 1984, Marlan Knittel told this story.

“A tall figure opens my door, walks in and plops himself in the yellow beanbag by the dorm window. ‘How is it going for you?’ ‘Fine.’ His voice is uncertain. I lean back on my chair and tilt my head expecting him to continue. Instead, he picks at a patch on the beanbag. ‘You’re not sure—are you?’ My words come slowly. ‘So what do I do now?’ He blurts it out. ‘There’s something in my life that I want to stop doing. I have asked God, but when the temptation comes, I just can’t stop myself from doing it. Everything is fine until the temptation comes.’ ‘Do you spend time with God in the morning?’ ‘Yes,’ he says hesitantly. ‘But that doesn’t keep me from falling.’ ‘You mean you pray and study your Bible and still have trouble with it?’ ‘Yes.”

What would you tell him? Obviously there is no lack of power on God’s part. God speaks and land erupts from water. He opens His mouth and stars flash into existence. One of His angelic force killed 185,000 men in one night and all of Satan’s army fled from one of His angels on resurrection morning.

The obvious problem is me. Must I try harder? Not again,—not more agony laced only with defeat. I can’t bear the thought of exerting more of my own strength to try to resist temptation. But there is hope. That hope lies in a misunderstood word long kicked around by theologians. The Will.

Our will is like the final switch which ignites the Space Shuttle Challenger’s three main engines. In seconds, nearly 1.1 million pounds of thrust is scorching the launch pad. The 18-story craft, 4.5 million pounds, breaks away from the launch tower and heaves itself into the sky. Two solid-fuel rockets ignite moments later with five times the power of the other engines. Within minutes the craft is traveling so fast it would take us from Angwin to L.A. in 106 seconds. Deadly, explosive power, all started by a human hand: a weak hand flipping an insignificant switch.

Often we lock ourselves in castles built of old habits and fears. We dig a moat and make a drawbridge. Too often instead of letting go of the rope and lowering the bridge, we hang on for dear life—all the while saying, “Come in, Prince Jesus—take this castle!” But we haven’t chosen to let the bridge down. We must choose to let go.

The obvious problem is me. Must I try harder? Not again— not more agony laced only with defeat.

Our lives at temptation often seem like a dark room with ogres of the past screaming from closets, doors just ajar. The darkness is as black as sin and thunders on the brain like waves on the shore. Everything seems lost and hopeless—the dark power is winning—until we remember the power. Though hidden from view, it snakes through the walls with spider like tendrils. Yet its nearness doesn’t bring light. We must do a human action to join the globe on the ceiling with the power in the wall. We must flick the switch.

Faith believes in the power: the will flips the switch; and the power in the walls causes light to flash from the globe. Closets close and ogres squelch their screams. Light and peace result. The battle is over.

“I shared what I had found out about the will with the figure slouched in the yellow beanbag. He hadn’t tried that. Yes, that was it. Of course that was it. He knew that would work. ‘Thanks,’ he said as he left my room. I watched him walk down the hall. There was a spring in his step.”

It is not overstating the case to say that everything about being a spiritual man or woman, about stopping

The Deciding Power

the drift, about overcoming sin, centers in the will. Please note that we are not talking about willpower here. This is not about grit and determination. The will is the decision-making process. This is about how we make our choices. We want to choose to tap into a different power source than the natural man uses. In the book, Messages to Young People, p. 151.1-152.1, we find some of the most important concepts relating to our personal salvation that have ever been written. “Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God, or unto disobedience.” Notice that the will is not our emotions or our fallen nature. It is the deciding power, the switch, that determines which way our thoughts will go.

The statement continues with a warning. “You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises or your faith are of no value until you put your will on the side of faith and action.... But you need not despair. You must be determined to believe. Believe, although nothing seems true or real to you.”

This is precisely where the will is different than the emotions and feelings. When Jesus was dying on the cross, were His feelings positive or negative? One of the most amazing inspired statements I have ever read says, “The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance on the sacrifice. . .” The Desire of Ages, P. 753.2 

Christ felt like He was never going to live again. What did He have to do? He had to turn a switch on in His mind—the switch of His will—which said, I will believe although nothing seems true or real to me. Even though I feel like I will never see My Father’s face again, I choose to trust Him to do the best thing.

Inspiration adds, Messages To Young People, p. 152.2. “You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, but you can control the will.” Until we understand this principle, we truly will be in constant danger, because we will keep hoping and promising and we will continue failing. When everything seems impossible and our feelings are out of control, what are we to do? When we wake up feeling discouraged and down, we must remember that emotions and moods are not reliable. Our business at that point is to turn on the switch of the will. Emotions may not be under control, but the will can be controlled. By steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord’s side, every emotion will be brought into captivity to Christ.

Who can control the emotions and impulses? I simply don’t have that much power. But God can move in both to will and to do. Before that can happen, however, I’ve got to decide that I want His power more than anything else. My will—my determined choice—is the springboard for everything else. Even when I decide—I won’t do anything, I’ll just do whatever comes naturally—that is a decision of the will which will direct what happens next. Everything we do—positive or negative—results from decisions of the will. This is why sin—the sin for which we will be lost—is not just a state of being because of our birth inheritance. Sin is always an act of the will, and I am always responsible for my choices.

When we wake up feeling discouraged and down, we must remember that emotions and moods are not reliable.

God promises, “By steadfastly keeping the will on the Lord’s side, every emotion will be brought into captivity to the will of Jesus.” Messages To Young People, p. 153.1. There is God’s promise to all of us who are hassled constantly by our emotions and impulses. If we surrender the will to Jesus, He will take care of our feelings. “You must remember that your will is the spring of all your actions.” Messages To Young People, p. 153.3.

Jesus says, “Yield yourself up to Me; give Me that will; take it from the control of Satan, and I will take possession of it.” Messages To Young People, p. 154.1. Could it be that many of us are trying to give our will to Christ without realizing that since the fall of our first parents, the will is under the control of Satan? We want to think that we are in control, that we are the captains of our own ships. Do we stop to think that if our will is not in Christ’s hands, then Satan is controlling us? Since none of us can keep our hearts beating and our lungs breathing, then we must acknowledge that we are subject to higher powers. Our will of necessity will be controlled either by Christ or Satan, and our only choice is who will have it. We must first choose to take the will out of Satan’s hands and give it to Christ. We must openly say, I take this will that you have given me out of the hand of Satan. He has no more right to it. I choose to submit my will to the control of Jesus Christ.