The Car Wash - Pt 3

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:5-10 ESV).

Mary and I try to visit with our youngest son, Aaron, at least once a year in Washington DC. He actually lives in Georgetown. That part of DC is an old, quaint part of the capital. One of our “must visit” places when we go is not far from his apartment. On the main street through Georgetown is a bakery, Ladurée, specializing in French pastries. My favorites are the macaroons. They are very expensive, a dozen costing more than $30.00! And, I promise, you cannot eat just one! Sweets are one of my besetting sins! Knowing that brings me to a third principle concerning the grace of change. It is a grace to understand the concept of indwelling sin. One of the most tempting fallacies for us, and for every human being in this fallen world, is to believe that our greatest problems exist outside us rather than inside us. Despite this, the Bible calls us to humbly confess that the greatest, deepest, most abiding problem each of us faces is inside of us, not outside. The Bible names that problem "sin." Because sin is self-focused and self-serving, it is antisocial and destructive to our relationships. Let me be more specific. You know that you have been gifted with grace when you are able to say, “My greatest relationship problems are because of what's inside of me not outside of me.” Many relationships travel a one-way road in the wrong direction, the direction of a hardened heart. In the early days of the relationship we’re concerned with winning the other person, being loving, kind, serving, respectful, giving, forgiving, and patient. But before long we let down our guard. We quit being so solicitous. Selfishness replaces service. We do and say things we would have never thought of at the relationship’s beginning. We become progressively less giving, patient, and forgiving. We look out for ourselves more than for the other person. At first, our conscience bothers us. Eventually our heart hardens and our conscience doesn’t bother us anymore. It’s a perverse ability that all sinners have: becoming progressively comfortable with things that should shock, grieve, and embarrass us. It’s a sign of God’s grace when our consciences are sensitive and our hearts are grieved, focusing not on what the other person’s wrongs, but at what we have become. This sensitivity is the doorway to real and lasting change. It is then that we can simply agree with the Spirit’s prompting and begin the change with our confession and repentance.