New Morning Mercies #334

Your world is dramatically broken and you are still riddled with flaws, but Jesus is present, gracious, and faithful.

You and I have two big problems. First, we live in a dramatically broken world that does not function the way God intended. You will not live in this fallen world without suffering in some way. Perhaps it will be a situation of heart-breaking injustice. Maybe you’ll be the victim of an act of violence. Perhaps you’ll suffer a divorce or the betrayal of a friend. Maybe you’ll be robbed or mugged. Perhaps, like many, you’ll suffer under the weight of corrupt government. Maybe a disease will infect and weaken your body. But even if none of these things comes your way, you’ll suffer the hardship and toil of living in a world where things simply don’t work in the way that God designed. But that’s not all. You’ll also be required to deal with the endless temptations that wait for you around every corner. What God says is ugly will be presented to you as beautiful. Seductive voices will whisper untruths in your ears. You’ll be tempted to desire things that are outside God’s plan for you. If you don’t take the fallenness of your world seriously, you’ll live with unrealistic expectations and be naive to temptation.

But we have a second and even more fundamental problem. It is far more troublesome than the evil that is outside us. It’s the evil inside us. If you’re God’s child, the power of sin has been broken in God’s justifying grace, but the presence of sin still remains and is being progressively eradicated by sanctifying grace. This means sin still lives inside you. Your trouble is never just environmental, it is always also internal. If you were completely pure in heart, life in this fallen world would be infinitely easier. But if you embrace the theology of the heart that is in Scripture, you know that sin is first a heart problem before it is ever a behavior problem.

Here’s what you and I need to understand and never forget: it is only ever the evil inside us that hooks us to the evil outside us. Sin makes me susceptible to the lure of temptation. Temptation plays to the evil desires and idolatrous cravings that still live in my heart. Temptation appeals to my selfishness and greed. Temptation targets my laziness and impatience. Temptation hooks my materialism and discontent. Temptation goes after my desire to have my own way and write my own rules.

But in his grace, Jesus is present to help us overcome both of these problems: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). Isn’t it good to know that “as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 21)?

For further study and encouragement: Romans 8:1–17