Walking looks like the simplest thing in the world, unless and until.
Walking is something we do without even thinking about it, unless and until.
Unless you are a toddler, just learning to use your legs; then walking becomes a matter of holding on to the coffee table for dear life, taking two tentative steps out into nothing, and finding out how effective your Pampers padding is. At least, when you walk like this, everyone applauds and laughs, and makes it a real achievement.
Walking is easy and simple. Unless and until. Until you become a stroke victim, and teeter over the slightest barrier. Then people no longer applaud you. They baby you and tell you to take it easy.
Unless you are blind, and are never sure what is out there to stop you. Then they neither applaud you nor baby you, they just try to get out of your way. Walking is a piece of cake, unless and until.
Until you get a little farther along in years and a bit too heavy and find that it’s a lot more work than it used to be. Then they neither applaud you nor baby you nor get out of your way; they make caustic comments about your weight and tell you to power walk a little faster.
Walking is easy, simple, something you don’t give a second thought to unless and until. Unless and until the obstacles in the path are more than you expected and our abilities are impaired.
Suppose, for example, that I approach these platform stairs and take them one at a time. No real problem. Easy enough to do for a normally able-bodied person.
But, you know, as obvious and clear as these steps are, they are still obstacles. It is still possible to trip on them. All kinds of things could happen. I might get distracted and forget to watch where I’m going; I still remember the night my father was rushing into the ice cream shop to get us all a treat, and managed to walk right through a plate glass window. Never did get that ice cream! Or I might have a shoelace come untied and make me stumble and fall. And since a few years ago my eye doctor said I had something called "presbyopia", which is not a religious denomination but means "old eyes", I have been awarded bifocal lenses. Bifocals occasionally put things where they aren’t. And that could cause me to stumble and fall.
Walking is easy, simple, obvious, unless and until the obstacles get in the way. And then we stumble and fall.
I
The Bible, in fact, says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That means that every one of us has tripped and fallen, and we know it. We know it. We are fully aware that in our rushing through life, even though we know what is right, we don’t always do it. We’ve deliberately and with full knowledge violated God’s will. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Paul says too, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one." Every last one of us has tripped and will trip on the obstacle of sins.
Sins, plural, acts that are wrong and we know they are wrong. Sins are those things which we do, in full and conscious violation of God’s will. I will not waste breath and time this morning proving to you that all have sinned and fall short; I need not list for you the specifics to demonstrate that "There is no one who is righteous, not even one." We already know that that is true.
Sins are acts of defiance. Acts of disobedience, willful neglect. All have sinned and fall short; all will trip over that obstacle.
II
But that’s not the biggest obstacle on the course. Dealing with sins would be easy; anybody who goes to church is at least trying to do that. Dealing with sins committed on purpose is not too hard. And so just as in order to take this single step down I practice being careful, or I tie my shoelaces in double knots, or I figure out which part of my bifocal lenses to look through ... in the same way most of us learn to handle the normal, garden-variety, everyday sins in our lives. Dealing with sins committed on purpose is not too difficult.
But there is another level. And that is the level of sin. Not sins, plural, but sin, singular. Sin is an attitude. Sin is a life-stance. Sin is defying God but rationalizing it away. Sin is being so self-absorbed that we don’t even admit to seeing ourselves for what we are. Deeper far and much more difficult than sins is sin; worse than what we purposefully do is the attitude of sin, the stance of sin, permeating our very hearts.
Look. Taking one step was not too hard. It is an obstacle, yes, but one which I can anticipate and can deal with rather well on my own.
But suppose I try to take two steps. Suppose, for some reason, that I think I am capable of taking these steps two at a time. That’s a bigger obstacle, isn’t it? That’s not going to be so easy. In fact, I’ll really have to look carefully at that and will have to think about it a bit before I take the plunge. Well, actually, I hope it’s not a plunge, but it might be!
But do you remember our key verse? "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And Paul spells it out a little more. "There is no one who has understanding. " There’s the issue. "There is no one who has understanding."
That means that there is a level of human sinfulness that is rationalizing. It is fooling ourselves. It is pretending. It is making ourselves feel justified and correct. And that is sin. Not just sins, specific acts; but sin, attitude, stance, way down inside where the secrets are kept. And at this level, again, "All have sinned and fall short"; all trip over the obstacle. A bigger obstacle than doing wrong things, bigger because sin involves fooling ourselves. What was that verse again? "There is no one who has understanding."
Maybe I can illustrate. Take anger, for example. We get angry at all the things others do to us. But suppose we don’t retaliate; suppose we never say a harsh word or strike out with our fists. But what we do do is hold on to the anger, nurse the anger, feed it, enjoy it. Then it becomes sin; sin. It may not involve sins, actions. But it is sin; it is an attitude that we don’t want to change and for which we make excuses to ourselves. The Bible again, "there is no one who has understanding."
Another illustration. Think about prejudice. Prejudice is sin. Not necessarily sins, but sin, which is deeper. Maybe there is some kind of person you don’t like. It might be because of the color of their skin; it might be because they are rich or are poor; it might be because they are this or that, whatever. But you don’t do something concrete against them; you do not slander them. After all you live in the nation’s capital, and you know how to be politically correct. You know how to avoid saying or doing the wrong things. No sins committed. But sin itself abounds! The prejudice is still there; the feeling of superiority is still there. You and I are fooling ourselves.
Not sins, step one; but sin, step two. Self-deception. What was it Paul said, again? "There is no one who has understanding."
This is a big obstacle. Two steps down are a good deal harder than one. Maybe a few are able to deal with sins. Maybe a very few of us are able to see enough to handle the sin problem. I doubt it. But this road is getting tougher to travel. "All have sinned and fall short; there is no one who has understanding".
III
But we’re not finished yet. We’ve not yet tripped over the biggest obstacle of all. Let me try something here.
Not just one step. That was easy. Mastering specific sins is not too difficult.
Not just two steps. That is not so easy, but with care and with the help of insightful friends, I might begin to deal with the attitude of sin.
But can I do three steps? Can I stretch all the way from the platform down to the third step without landing on my blessed assurance? Any bets? Proceeds go to the building fund!
My wife asked me this week why I was not wearing my white summer robe. I told her it was because it was too long and too clingy and I always felt I was about to trip in it. So watch out.
Whoa! Quite a stretch! And I was right; this robe makes it even tougher.
You see, there is a level of sin far deeper than anything I’ve talked about thus far. There is a level of sin which is deeper than sins, step one; and which goes down below sin, step two.
This is the level we call evil. Evil. Evil is where you discover that sin is a very big obstacle indeed. This is where you find out that there are forces and powers beyond all human control. And we call that evil. The terrible, awesome reality that sin takes on a life of its own and draws us in, spinning a web around us, and we are out of control.
Paul’s phrase is, "There is no one who seeks God." There is no one who is so in tune with God and God’s goodness that he is able to rise above the quagmire of evil. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ... there is no one who seeks God," leaving evil behind. All are caught, tripped.
And so like this robe wrapping itself around me, the Bible speaks of the sin which so easily besets us. It grasps us, it trips us up, and we cannot get out of its tangles. Some would call that Satan, the devil; others just call it the demonic. I don’t care whether you put horns and a tail on it or not. I only know that evil is a power that is greater than what we can control. Three steps down, sin is evil, getting hold of us, taking us over.
If you really want to know what evil is, just look around at the demonic forces that take over. Addiction; addiction may start out with sins, step one, sipping that first drink or taking that first hit; and it may have proceeded to sin, step two, denial. "Hey, no problem, I can handle this." But when something becomes addictive, it becomes a step three, it becomes evil. And the attraction of addiction is too much for anyone to handle on his own. It’s evil. The biggest obstacle of all. It’s not just sins and it’s not just sin; it’s sin that besets, evil.
My father-in-law, as a young pastor in England, like many other young people in the 1930’s, had taken a vow never to go to war. As children they had seen the massive destruction of the First World War, and wanted that never to happen again. But, as the 1930’s wore on, Adolf Hitler’s armies stormed across the face of Europe. People began to see that there are times when evil is too great, and the obstacles too deep. They had promised not to commit the step one sins of violence and slaughter; they were trying to handle the step two sin of hatred; but when Nazism reared its head, my father-in-law and others like him saw that they were caught in a step three something far greater than their own personal choices. They were caught in evil. And evil had to be destroyed.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one who seeks God," no one who escapes the grip of evil.
IV
Well, Joe, what a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into now! What will you do? What will you do? How will you get up out of this one?
Will someone come take my hand? Is there anyone who will come and help me, come and lift me up? Anyone who is strong enough and stable enough just to lift me up out of this predicament?
"Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith."
Christ Jesus is God coming into our world, taking this road with us, and lifting us up. He has come where we are. And he has done it without sinning. He made it over step one.
Christ Jesus comes and feels what we feel and is tempted in all ways, just as we are, and yet without sin. He made it over step two.
And wonder of wonders, when he comes to step three, there Christ Jesus takes on evil itself, takes on all the powers of death and destruction, and on the cross does battle with them. Battle with evil itself. And can you believe it? Have you heard? He won that battle! He crossed even that third step. Evil did its worst to him and took his life, but he took it back again. Now not even death itself can hold him.
Christ Jesus gives us, out of grace, his hand to lift us up, up out of this thing called sin.
Small wonder that we sing, "In loving-kindness Jesus came, my soul in mercy to reclaim; and from the depths of sin and shame, Thro’ grace He lifted me. From sinking sand He lifted me, with tender hand He lifted me. From shades of night to plains of light, O praise his name, He lifted me!"
