The strongest of men turn into cowards and the noblest into degenerates when, without faith, they try to withstand the powers of Wrath, Sin, Law and Death. For these forces, like an unholy virus, spread Abandonment, Helplessness, Condemnation and Despair through all the pathways of the unenlightened mind until, prostrate, it is unable to rise above its own malaise. Without Christ, not a soul on earth can withstand the onslaught.
Options appear multitudinous but boil down to a dismal duo: manipulate the mind to reinvent a world without God at fantastic psychological price, or plunge into sinful oblivion where the pain from these forces is masked for a while, only to return with redoubtable force, until the heart cries out, My God, my God, Why hast Thou forsaken me? Yet our God leaves not a stone unturned in His work of being our Divine Helper against these dark forces of the mind.
“For I, the LORD your God, take you by the right hand; I say to you, Do not fear; it is I Who help you” (Isa. 41:13 NEB). Not only has He saved us for Eternity by the sacrifice of His Son but He has also provided through His Spirit the weapon of faith in Christ’s Victory for us, by which we overpower every tendency of the mind to fall back under the reach of these four forces. And so we see a Christian man like young, brave David, gathering his tiny stones of faith, and preparing to take his first shot at the Goliathan powers of Wrath, Sin, Law and Death that otherwise stalk unchallenged through the corridors of his frightened mind. Yet as he approaches and raises the swirling sling over his head, he is stopped dead in his tracks by a stunning uncertainty.
Is he about to cast stones at God? Remember, Paul tells us that these Four Powers belong to the old order of things from which Christ has delivered us (Rom. 5:9, 10; 6:10, 11; 7:4, 6; 8:2, 38, 39), and he urges us not to fall back into doubt by treating these powers as if they still had dominion over us (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 3:2, 3, 5; 5:1, 4; Rom. 4:15; 6:12; Col. 2:8–3:5). But notice: only two of these powers belong to Satan (Sin and Death): the other two belong to God (Wrath and Law)! Is our man faced, then, with doing battle with God, faced with resisting Him?
To grasp the vital importance of this question for our Christian man struggling with addiction, we must set up a typical scene, one that in varying forms, he is confronted with daily.
He is sitting in his apartment by the television after supper, feeling alone and a bit depressed. The thought of taking off, and cruising some of his old haunts comes to mind. Anxiety builds. He struggles to resist the temptation but feels driven. Within a short time he is on the road, anticipating and dreading that he’s likely to end up where he’s going. And that is precisely what happens. What is going on here?
The conventional interpretation runs something like this: Our man was overcome by a particular moral weakness. He struggled to resist, and he fought for a while, but the desire was too strong and it overwhelmed him. But this interpretation, though the obvious one, is far off the mark and fails to understand the soul’s war.
Think back to the moment the temptation began. Anxiety began to build. Why? In a flash, buried in the recesses of a man’s mind, is the fear of God’s displeasure, of His pulling away from him because he is tempted. Though the temptation was not a sinful act, it flowed from his sinful nature (James 1:14; Mark 7:20–23), and there is within all men a hidden sense of shame that it should arise at all (cf. Luke 5:8; Isa. 6:5). Unformed words spread across his fearful heart: How can a holy God look upon this? (cf. Hab. 1:13).
At that moment he senses beyond sensing what he believes to be the heart of the Abandoning God (cf. Ps. 22:1). A hardly discernable, dull stab of pain and anger at being left alone when he is most in need is followed by a reaction so common to the ways of the human heart that it is rarely defined: our man abandons the Abandoning God (cf. Zeph. 1:12; Isa. 40:27; Jer. 2:13; Rom. 1:22, 23).
Now, without God, he is without his real Self, for to know God is to know who we are (cf. Jer. 10:23 KJV). There remains within only the protracted cry of the vacant soul as it aches for connection (cf. Deut. 28:65–67). And since connection with God has been abandoned, our man now no longer present even to himself, is sucked in to a whirlpool of frenzied desires which drag him down toward the awful darkness (cf. Eph. 2:2, 3). Here, then, is the real account of events. This man sinned, not because he was overwhelmed by temptation but because he was overwhelmed by God. Can this possibly be Biblical…or is it closer to blasphemy?
It is not merely Biblical: it is central to the meaning of the Gospel and our recovery from addictions. Without a faith-understanding of it, a man’s spiritual guts will be knocked out of him in seconds. In the book of Romans Paul states that “sinful passions [are] aroused by the Law” (Rom. 7:5 NIV, cf. 1 Cor. 15:55, 56). Here is an astounding revelation of the nature of evil, unique to the Christian faith. In this fallen world the holy Law of God now operates, not in the service of good, but in the service of evil (Rom. 7:13). When our man’s sinful passions arose, they were not stirred up of themselves only to be pulled up short by the Law while they were on their way somewhere. These passions of his were normal though fallen passions (Rom. 7:9) until they were suddenly brought face to face with the Law, and the moment these two met there was a hullabaloo, fur flying, and out of the foray, passions rose up with a voracious appetite (Rom. 7:8). Why this spasmic reaction to the Law?
Paul affirms what most philosophers know (and we all know where they got it), that the mind has an internal law which is a reflection of the Law of God (Rom. 2:14) and that it alternately accuses us or defends us (v. 15). That there is a law inside us reflecting the Law of God so that we are “a law unto ourselves” (Rom. 2:14) would be a nice thing if the Law told us how good we all are. But, on the contrary, it declares the very opposite and creates a major controversy over it. Three definitive statements about the crushing function of the Law on the mind stand out like neon lights: it first brings a consciousness of sin (Rom. 3:20); fast on the heels of the consciousness of sin, the Law brings a strong sense of God’s wrath because of our sins (Rom. 4:15). Our spirit now crushed, there follows a convulsive reaction of sinful passions (Rom. 7:5). Thus the Law, which cries out for goodness, triggers only an eruption of evil. But, for goodness’ sake, why doesn’t our struggling Christian man see this, when it is so clearly laid out in Scripture? Ah, but there’s the rub. Inside his mind things appear quite different.
“For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me” (Rom. 7:11 NASB) and “produced in me coveting of every kind” (v. 8). Here the Holy Spirit leads Paul into a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree, mind-bending turn. The problem is not the Law of God in itself (“The Law is holy…righteous and good” Rom. 7:12). It is the power of Evil taking advantage of the Law to produce sin in him. Here is Evil’s master stroke.
Though we often think of temptation’s appeal coming from Satan’s ability to make sin look good, Scripture says Satan takes opportunity of the Law, not of Sin. That is to say, he dangles temptation in front of our man’s eyes then heats it up by applying the demands of the Law to his conscience: You must shun evil. You must not touch this. You are not obedient enough as it is. You’re falling far too short of the standard. You need more repentance, more dedication, more Bible-reading to be pure and holy. You must develop more discipline. Jesus will help you. Thus, it is not that Satan makes sin look good: he makes himself look good; so good that, to our Christian man’s mind, he appears as—the Holy Spirit in his conscience. And without faith this becomes impossible to resist. “For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” (2 Cor. 11:14).
Now our Christian man, responding to what he thinks is the weighty authority of the Holy Spirit, enters an arena where he is about to be mauled. Forgetful of faith in his stress and unmindful that the Law produces only a consciousness of sin and wrath, he tries to respond to the demands of the Law on his conscience (albeit “with the help of Jesus”) by setting it before him as his goal to aspire to. He switches the TV to a more uplifting channel. He busies himself about the house. He gets his Bible out. He tries to repent more. He calls a friend. But the more he tries to conform to the Law, the more it bears down upon him with a consciousness of sin and wrath. Your best is not good enough. God is not pleased with you. How can you possibly think you are converted with these vile desires in you still? You are not worthy to be a servant for God. His spirit now stressed to the limit, the tension cannot hold…
Our Christian man goes down.
Acutely aware of his imperfection by the very nature of temptation to sin, and forgetting his righteousness that he had by faith in Christ, he was drawn off by Satan into the temptation of the Law where God becomes as instrument of intimidation and God’s holiness becomes a threat instead of a protection. Our man was seduced by the Law’s bright darkness, and presumed its call was the voice of the Holy Spirit. Evil now posing as Good, our man was induced to reach for a Christless goodness which bit him with merciless accusations of conscience at the slightest shortcoming. His faith in Christ no longer defining his security in God, his conscience was now denying any mention of it. The end came with the inevitable, slow crush of his spirit until it caved, having no counterforce of faith in Christ to shore up his hope of the tender mercies of God towards him. There remained only the perception of Wrath, and the pitiless folds of Gloom. Thus, our man went down when his spirit was overwhelmed by a vision of God without a Cross.
But it is a different story when faith holds out, for a man’s history is not defined by his fortunes, but by his faith’s response to them. Look at him. In the panic, his faith argues God’s Gift: Christ, “Who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
Lord, You have given me Christ! He paid for my sins. I feel my corruption, the pull of my flesh. I hear only Your judgment, but I will not let You condemn me, Lord, for You reckon Christ to me as righteousness (Rom. 4:3, 22–24). My imperfections are known to You, Father, but I am counted innocent because Christ took them on Him. I’m afraid You are frowning on me, but I will not let You abandon me. Christ was abandoned for me. I want to sin but You’ve told me that it’s all counted dead in Christ (Rom. 6:6, 11). So I don’t care how much this temptation feels like it’s the real “me”, O God. I tell You what You have told me: It is not “me”, because You said that “I” am dead in Christ’s death (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:2; 7:17, 20). You cannot condemn me, no matter how much I feel You do, because Christ justifies me and You gave Him to me. My conscience bears down on me, Lord, and tells me I am insincere, that I really want what I claim I don’t want. And it’s probably true. But, Father, I will not be put off (Luke 18:1–8). Your Spirit points me to Christ, Father, not to the Law (John 16:8, 9). There is a Law higher than my conscience, Father. Christ is my Law (Rom. 8:2; Gal. 2:19; Rom. 10:4). He is my new, innocent conscience (Rom. 5:1; Heb. 9:14). He is greater than my natural conscience, and knows all (1 John 3:19, 20). God, You surely do not appeal to me about how good I should be without the Cross, do You? I will remind You of it, Lord (cf. Exod. 32:11–14). You gave me the Cross, and You must not forget it, Father. Remember me in the Cross! You know that without it I have nothing. I cannot stand in myself, nor listen to the demands of the Law, not even the Law in Christ, without the Cross. Father, You appear stern to me when I see your Law, but I know Your heart. You have shown it to me in Jesus. You do not reject me. Behind the cloud I see your merciful face.
Here our Christian man is approved by his faith (Heb. 11:39 REB) in which God delights (Heb. 11:6). In his soul-war three vital realities broke through:
First: Faith kept our man’s spirit alive in Christ. He was therefore present with himself in God and not overwhelmed by Him.
Second: He was dealing directly with God through Christ. No time was wasted rebuking and “binding” Satan, even though he knew that Satan was behind the attempt to overwhelm him with Law and Wrath. He was not about to repeat the work Christ had already done for him. (Col. 2:15; Matt. 12:28, 29). Further, he knew the temptation was a decoy. The real issue was whether God was still for him, so he argued his case with God, and thus faced his dark doubts of Him. To argue with Satan about his condition would have been to court defeat: Satan is in a win-lose conflict. To argue with God about it was to win, for God was in a win-win conflict with our man.
Third: Whether our man resisted the temptation or yielded to it, he would inwardly sense that the temptation had lost its power. For temptation’s power flows from the forces of Wrath, Sin, Law and Death overwhelming the spirit and crushing it under their weight. When faith brings mind-freedom from these powers through Christ, addictions progressively lose their grip.
So our Christian man, stopped dead in his tracks for a moment over the stunning uncertainly that he might be casting stones of faith at God Himself, nevertheless, believing God as merciful while fearing God as judgment, hurled his faith right between the piercing eyes of the Goliathan powers of Law and Wrath. Thus, he, like another man long ago, “in manhood…strove with God…and prevailed” (Hos. 12:3, 4; Gen. 32:28).