Step Two
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” —Psalm 51:5
The first step in battling sin is knowing God. Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer, was once approached by his wife, Biddy, who was lamenting about someone in their church who was sick and dying. She said, “What do you think God is going to do?” Oswald, who was painting at a canvas, paused and said, “I don’t care about what God’s going to do, it’s who He is that I am concerned with.” The story illustrates what it means to know God. It’s not about what He does that is primarily important, but who He is. Or as A.W. Tozer said, “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.” In order to battle sin, we must not begin with ourselves. The ancient Greek saying “Know Thyself” is a poor place to begin in battling sin. We must begin with “Know Thy God” because it is in knowing who God is that we know who we are. Or as Tozer said, "The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God”—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 1.
When we know who God is, His perfections, how He interacts with us His creation, as well as what He expects from us, we can know ourselves. For the past several weeks we have been examining who He is; we now turn to who we are. And in order for us to understand who we are, we must begin at the very beginning—creation.
God created man and woman and He created them in His image. But, this image was marred through their first act of disobedience, when they took and ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. After that, man experienced what is known as “The Fall.” Man became broken, or dented, looking for wholeness. We can see the effects of the Fall in our own lives—we can die, experience pain, loss, and hardship. Before, man existed in a perfect state with God, not able to die, unaware of evil or sin, living in a beautiful love relationship with God. But after the Fall, death became a reality, evil became known, and man became well acquainted with shame. We are broken models, coming with viruses preinstalled on our spiritual hardware. We are broken, faulty, and prone to all sorts of viruses (evils). And that was not limited to Adam, either. He transmitted that to every one of his descendants. Every person who is a descendant of Adam and Eve has a disease called sin that they can’t shake. For years, scientists, philosophers and poets have debated whether we were born evil or born good. Is it nature or is it nurture? The reality is, biblically speaking, it’s both. We are sinners by nature and by choice. We were born with sinful natures, as our passage for today attests. When David said that he was “brought forth in iniquity,” he meant that he had sinned from birth! And when he writes, “in sin my mother conceived me,” he wasn’t meaning that he was the spawn of fornication or adultery. No, he meant that he inherited sin from his parents. He was born into it, just like the rest of us.
What about those who say, “If I sin by nature, then how can I be held responsible for my action? After all, I was born that way.” The Bible says that we sin not only by nature, but by choice, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—Romans 3:23. We sinned in Adam, and we presently fall short because of the sinful choices we make.
If we begin with our understanding of God, and then move to us, we will understand that we are sinners. Which is great! Because it is once we see ourselves as sinners that we understand our need of a Savior! As Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance"—Luke 5:32. Jesus came to seek us! Paul understood the weight of this truth when he wrote, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”—1 Timothy 1:5.
When we see ourselves as sinners in need of a Savior, we experience a new reality, for we begin to see how desperate our condition, how dire our situation. And it is only when we understand how dire the situation is, that we are ready to listen and respond. After all, we don’t pull the fire alarm until we know there is a fire.
God has given us His Word to help us know God, ourselves, and how to battle sin. May we battle sin by His Spirit, and through the knowledge of His Word. May we rest in His promises and provision, knowing that He has not and will not abandon us, or as the Scripture says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”—Psalm 46:1. He is our refuge and He will help us in our battle with sin. May we rest in the knowledge of who He is, claiming the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). Amen.
The first step in battling sin is knowing God. Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer, was once approached by his wife, Biddy, who was lamenting about someone in their church who was sick and dying. She said, “What do you think God is going to do?” Oswald, who was painting at a canvas, paused and said, “I don’t care about what God’s going to do, it’s who He is that I am concerned with.” The story illustrates what it means to know God. It’s not about what He does that is primarily important, but who He is. Or as A.W. Tozer said, “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.” In order to battle sin, we must not begin with ourselves. The ancient Greek saying “Know Thyself” is a poor place to begin in battling sin. We must begin with “Know Thy God” because it is in knowing who God is that we know who we are. Or as Tozer said, "The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God”—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 1.
When we know who God is, His perfections, how He interacts with us His creation, as well as what He expects from us, we can know ourselves. For the past several weeks we have been examining who He is; we now turn to who we are. And in order for us to understand who we are, we must begin at the very beginning—creation.
God created man and woman and He created them in His image. But, this image was marred through their first act of disobedience, when they took and ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. After that, man experienced what is known as “The Fall.” Man became broken, or dented, looking for wholeness. We can see the effects of the Fall in our own lives—we can die, experience pain, loss, and hardship. Before, man existed in a perfect state with God, not able to die, unaware of evil or sin, living in a beautiful love relationship with God. But after the Fall, death became a reality, evil became known, and man became well acquainted with shame. We are broken models, coming with viruses preinstalled on our spiritual hardware. We are broken, faulty, and prone to all sorts of viruses (evils). And that was not limited to Adam, either. He transmitted that to every one of his descendants. Every person who is a descendant of Adam and Eve has a disease called sin that they can’t shake. For years, scientists, philosophers and poets have debated whether we were born evil or born good. Is it nature or is it nurture? The reality is, biblically speaking, it’s both. We are sinners by nature and by choice. We were born with sinful natures, as our passage for today attests. When David said that he was “brought forth in iniquity,” he meant that he had sinned from birth! And when he writes, “in sin my mother conceived me,” he wasn’t meaning that he was the spawn of fornication or adultery. No, he meant that he inherited sin from his parents. He was born into it, just like the rest of us.
What about those who say, “If I sin by nature, then how can I be held responsible for my action? After all, I was born that way.” The Bible says that we sin not only by nature, but by choice, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—Romans 3:23. We sinned in Adam, and we presently fall short because of the sinful choices we make.
If we begin with our understanding of God, and then move to us, we will understand that we are sinners. Which is great! Because it is once we see ourselves as sinners that we understand our need of a Savior! As Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance"—Luke 5:32. Jesus came to seek us! Paul understood the weight of this truth when he wrote, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”—1 Timothy 1:5.
When we see ourselves as sinners in need of a Savior, we experience a new reality, for we begin to see how desperate our condition, how dire our situation. And it is only when we understand how dire the situation is, that we are ready to listen and respond. After all, we don’t pull the fire alarm until we know there is a fire.
God has given us His Word to help us know God, ourselves, and how to battle sin. May we battle sin by His Spirit, and through the knowledge of His Word. May we rest in His promises and provision, knowing that He has not and will not abandon us, or as the Scripture says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”—Psalm 46:1. He is our refuge and He will help us in our battle with sin. May we rest in the knowledge of who He is, claiming the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Matthew 28:20). Amen.
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