Can't get rid of that fat?

Does this old fogey have anything to say to us today?

As one of my friends recently put it, “Sin is like my fat, I’m on the beach, rollover and it is right there….my sin just like my fat goes with me wherever I go.” Yes, it is a beautiful and a manly analogy all at the same time. And just what Paul tells us in Romans 7.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no , the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I get sick of my sin. Lately, I’ve been learning more and more how I just can’t seem to get away from the darkness of my own heart. I mask it and make it look ok to the outsider, but I can’t get away from it. I then came across a letter written by the ole pastor and hymn-writer John Newton (1725-1807). Sometimes I think old Christians of the past are either somehow not relevant and understandable today, or have some sort of super holiness that makes their writing less applicable. However, as usual, I was reminded again of how fallacious my thinking can be. Here is John Newton’s thoughts on a believer’s inability on account of remaining sin.

The Lord has given his people a desire and will aiming at great things; without this they would be unworthy the name of Christians; but they cannot do as they would: their best desires are weak and ineffectual, not absolutely so (for he who works in them to will, enables them in a measure to do likewise), but in comparison with the mark at which they aim.

He then goes on to describe a constant struggle of a Christian not excluding himself. I bet this 18th century writer hits you square on the nose like he did me.

(A Christian) would willingly enjoy God in prayer; he knows that prayer is his duty, but, in his judgement, he considers it likewise as his greatest honour and privelege. In this light he can recommend it to others, and can tell them of the wonderful condescension of the great God….that he should stoop so much lower, to afford his gracious ear to the supplications of sinful worms upon earth….By prayer he can say, You have liberty to cast all your cares upon him that careth for you. By one hour’s intimate access to the throne of grace, where the Lord causes his glory to pass before the soul that seeks him, you may acquire more true spiritual knowledge and comfort, than by a day or a week’s converse with the best of men…. But alas! How seldom can he do as he would! How often does he find this privilege a mere task, which he would be glad of a just excuse to omit? And the chief pleasure he derives from the performance is to think that his task is unfinished: - he has been drawing near to God with his lips, while his heart was far from him. Surely this is not doing as he would when he is dragged before God like a slave, and comes away like a thief.

I am now raising my hand and agreeing with his common assessment of at least myself. As Christians, we should never grow tired of growing tired of our nagging sin. But, to end this blog and to wrap it up with some encouragement…we return to Newton:

But blessed be God, we are not under law, but under grace. And even these distressing effects of the remnants of indwelling sin are over-ruled for good. By these experiences the believer is weaned more from self, and taught more highly to prize and more absolutely to rely on Him…The more vile we are in our own eyes, the more precious he will be to us; and a deep repeated sense of the evil of our hearts is necessary to preclude all boasting, and to make us willing to give the whole glory of our salvation where it is due. Again, a sense of these evils will reconcile us to the thoughts of death; yea, make us desirous to depart that we may sin no more, since we find depravity so deep rooted in our nature, that (like the leprous house) the whole fabric must be taken down before we can be freed from its defilement. Then, and not till then, we shall be able to do the thing that we would: when we see Jesus, we shall be transformed into his image, and have done with sin and sorrow forever.

I think Mr. Newton pretty much covered. One day, our sin will be no more. Do we long for that day?