Besetting Sins

I'm not sure this is a very good idea, but bear with me. Have you ever thanked God for besetting sins?

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. - Hebrews 12:1

When it speaks of sins that ensnare or beset us it is reminiscent of Genesis 4 when God warned Cain that sin was crouching at his door, ready to pounce. We all have these kinds of sin. We all struggle with all kinds of sin. In fact, I'd say we all struggle with all sins to one degree or another. But there are particular sins which seem to beset us more forcefully than others. This, so it turns out, might actually be a good thing.

Lewis wrote, "If you are a nice person - if Virtue comes easily to you - beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God's gifts to you through naure, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.

But if you are a poor creature - poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels - saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion - nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complext that makes you snap at your best friends - do not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it on the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all - not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school."

Switch the analogy of driving that Lewis made for the one made by the author of Hebrews (who was not, I believe, Saint Paul), the one about the race. Interestingly enough Lewis writes about himself in the second paragraph. His upbringing was filled with jealousies and quarrels. He was indeed saddled with a sexual perversion and often felt an inferiority complex around others. Yet look now at how he ran. Look at the legacy he left behind. Paul, though probably not the author of Hebrews, also ran an incredible race even with a thorn in his flesh.

Here is the wonderful news about our sin, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him. Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness (Micah 7:9). I'm glad, in a way, to have these sins. They help me become more Christ-like. I am even more glad to have Him as my Advocate. He pleads my case, and does so successfully because He pleads with His own righteousness. If I were to plead my own case all I'd have to show would be filthy rags! I'd be doomed to failure even before beginning. Our sins, even those besetting ones, have all been forgiven because of His righteousness.

His righteousness puts my sin in proper perspective. It also puts His grace in proper perspective. It doesn't matter what your besetting sin might be. John Piper wrote a post titled, Missions and Masturbation and at one point wrote in it, "Periodic failure in this area [masturbation] no more disqualifies you from ministry than periodic failures of impatience (which is also a sin)." The sin doesn't matter, the grace does. The grace of God covers it all. Praise God for His grace!