Freedom from Vice through Christ
This note is adapted from a series of text messages written to a friend who was about to enter a rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse.
We have all become addicted to sin (turning away from what is right in order to do what is wrong). That addiction manifests in different ways for different people. I became addicted to porn, and it took me years to break free. Do you know what gave me victory? I finally realized that I was not fighting against a porn addiction. I was fighting against a sin addiction.
Earlier in the day, I would overindulge in junk food. I knew it was wrong. Then, later in the day, when I felt the craving to look at porn, I couldn’t resist. Porn was a different instance of the same pattern. When I started practicing temperance with food earlier in the day, I had more strength to win the fight with porn later in the day. (Junk food is only one example. I was doing wrong in many ways throughout my days.)
Here is the essential pattern of sin:
I knew what was right.
I wanted to do something else.
I did what I wanted.
After practicing this pattern all day, how could I resist my porn cravings? I had practiced failure all day.
You’re an athlete, so you know the importance of practice. Can an athlete do things wrong during practice and then do them right during the game?
John Wooden said:
“Essentially, I was always more of a practice coach than a game coach. This is because of my conviction that a player who practices well plays well,”
and:
“I believe in learning by repetition to the point that everything becomes automatic.”
If we practice sin, it becomes automatic. If sin has become automatic, then we cannot turn it off like a light switch. We have to practice a new habit. That new habit is righteousness (right-ness, doing what is right instead of what is wrong).
Here is the essential pattern of righteousness:
I know what is right.
I want to do something else.
I do the right thing.
Here is the problem: If sin has become automatic, then overcoming that habit feels like death. When the porn cravings came, if I resisted, I suffered. I tried to resist, but I gave in to escape the suffering.
Do you know how I achieved victory after so many years? I stopped trying to escape the suffering. I said, “I will feel however I must feel.” At first, the suffering was so bad that I could not function. All I could do was kneel by my bedside, close my eyes, and suffer.
I wasn’t able to do that before. What changed?
I gave my life to Christ.
What does that mean?
The spirit of Christ is the spirit of righteousness. The spirit of Christ is the spirit that does the right thing even when the body wants to do the wrong thing. The spirit of Christ is the spirit with the strength to bear suffering - the strength to bear death.
Christ does not achieve victory with dirty fuel. The victory of Christ is not powered by anger. The victory of Christ is powered by love. Love for who? First of all, love for the Father.
Who is the Father?
The Father is Goodness Itself. The Father is Purity and Holiness.
How do I love the Father?
Don’t you love goodness? Don’t you love purity and holiness? I think that you do. But you don’t seriously approach the purity and holiness of the Father because of your sin. You would feel ashamed to admit that, in the depth of your heart, you adore holiness and purity because you are so unholy and impure.
This is why we need the sacrifice of Christ. Somehow - I still do not completely understand - the sacrifice of Christ washes away our unholiness and impurity.
When we accept the sacrifice of Christ, then we can adore the holiness and purity of the Father without shame. When I love the Father, then I am filled with the spirit of Christ. When I am filled with the spirit of Christ, then I have the strength to bear suffering (in love, not anger). When I can bear suffering (in love), then I can die to my sin and practice a new habit of righteousness. And when I do that, I can be free.
About 2,000 years ago, Paul wrote this to the church in Galatia (part of modern-day Turkey):
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
In his letter to the church in Rome, he wrote:
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.”
In the same letter, Paul wrote:
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”
There is one addiction that causes all the rest, and that addiction is sin.
There is only one freedom, and it is slavery to God, who is Perfect Goodness.
The only path to freedom is utter surrender to God, and the spirit of utter surrender to God is the spirit of Christ.