My sin seems an abyss yawning to devour the whole universe. The heavens, they are finite; but my sin comes against the infinite God, and is therefore an immeasurably expansive evil stretching like the elastic jaws of a snake. I shudder and tremble, but then I behold the crucifix spanning even further, resting firmly as a joist sits over a well. From this cross Jesus descended into the watery depths, down and down. Yes, and at the bottom of this pit he left an empty tomb opening like a drain to receive and seal away all my sins, swallowing them into a still larger abyss, a vast and fathomless ocean of mercy. In the resurrection I discover a vacuum stronger than death.
Faith knows God is in our corner even in rounds where we feel ourselves taking a beating; that Christ declares our victory before the bell has even rung.
The next time you feel hopeless and helpless in your war with sin, remember that Jesus Christ is on your side, and His Spirit will never forsake His post within you.
Getting Up After We Sin
New article on struggling with sin. Excerpt: “The next time you feel hopeless and helpless in your war with sin, remember that Jesus Christ is on your side, and His Spirit will never forsake His post within you.”
There is more treachery in doubting the grace of God to restore a sinner than there is in the sin itself, by which he fell.
Christians are often grieved and troubled by backward glances at their temptations and failures, but ought to look even further back, before the foundation of the world, to see Christ from eternity plotting their redemption, restoration, and glorification.
Q&A#3: “Whence Do You Know Your Misery” — SWHC
This is the third post in a series of studies with the Heidelberg Catechism.
Question 3. Whence do you know your misery?
Answer. Out of the law of God.
Against the grain of fashionable, chipper religion the Catechism asserts that apart from Christ, mankind is in nothing short of a miserable condition. Part of the reason why such a statement is uncommon is that it is unpleasant; most prefer to be optimistic even in the face of hard facts. More importantly, to many the claim seems absurd. They don’t feel miserable. They aren’t suffering as much calamity as they could, nor do they all feel burdened by a pressing sense of guilt. Yet, in this division of the Catechism we now consider the prerequisite to repentance and faith, which is knowing the misery from which we need redemption.
The acceptable context for discussing sin is in the repudiation of it.
Let our hearts admit, “I am poor and weak. Satan is too subtle, too cunning, too powerful; he watches constantly for advantages over my soul. The world presses in upon me with all sorts of pressures, pleas, and pretenses. My own corruption is violent, tumultuous, enticing, and entangling… Therefore, on God alone will I rely for my keeping. I will continually look to Him.
From Adam to the present it has always been a battle of faith, either to have faith in God’s word or faith in the word of the Serpent.
