“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:11
In my recent sermon on Proverbs 5, we discussed the Bait and Switch tactics inherent in sexual sins. Though such sins seem attractive, they always result in more pain than pleasure. Nonetheless, over and over again, we take the bait.
But the truth is that all sin is essentially Bait and Switch. If you think about it, the serpent’s means of tempting Eve to eat the fruit, “You will be like God,” was nothing more than Bait and Switch. Someone has said that there is a kernel of truth in every lie. This was certainly true of the serpent’s words. For in Genesis 3:22 we read, “And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.’” In the sense of knowing good and evil, they did become more like God. But what the serpent portrayed as positive, empowering and beneficial actually resulted in their expulsion from the Garden and from the intimate fellowship they had experienced with their Creator.
In reality, sin always has this very significant consequence—it alienates us from our God. Even we who have received the “once for all” forgiveness (Heb. 10:10) purchased through Christ’s death on the cross, still alienate ourselves from our God when we choose sin over Him.
It seems a rather stark way to put it, but whenever we choose to embrace sin we are choosing to reject God. To choose sin is to prefer unrighteous desires over our desire to be in fellowship with our Maker. But no matter how attractive sin may seem, any pleasure it provides cannot begin to compare with the pleasure we rob ourselves of that is found in relationship with our God. As the psalmist makes clear above, to choose God is to choose joy in his presence. He is the source of eternal pleasures.
I don’t think Satan wants us to be aware of this. I think he would prefer that we not think of God at all in the face of temptation. It is no mere coincidence that we do not see God’s covenant name, Yahweh, used from the time the serpent begins to speak in Genesis 3 until after this first sin has been committed. We see Yahweh’s name used just before the serpent’s speech and immediately following the sinful act, but it is as if neither the serpent nor Adam and Eve wanted to acknowledge the existence of Yahweh God in the midst of the temptation and sin.
Why? Because to choose to embrace sin is, ultimately, to choose to reject God. It is to embrace a temporary, shallow, and ultimately unfulfilling pleasure over and against the deepest and most meaningful source of pleasure.
Part of the problem is our difficulty in seeing where true pleasure is found. The path that leads to God so often seems dull and difficult, while “things of this world” look so glossy and attractive. But it is like choosing wax fruit over the real thing. The real thing may not look as bright and shiny, but it is so much more nourishing.
Most of us know these things. We know that God is far better than the short term pleasures sin affords. So how do we short-circuit this tendency to choose sin over God?
Well, first, we need to see sin for what it really is—a rejection of God. We need to understand that we are choosing sinful pleasures over the eternal pleasures and joy found in His presence. To see sin this way is to put it in proper perspective.
Second, and most importantly, we must put God back into the equation in the midst of temptation. Rather than battling in our minds with God as a by-stander, we should be bringing Him right into the middle of our temptation. Instead of self-talk in the face of temptation, we need God-talk. Prayer should be our first response to temptation. It is communion with Him, above all else, which enables us to withstand temptation. As we read in Galatians 5:16, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
And so, relationship with God is not only our greatest deterrent from sin, it is our most powerful weapon against sin. May we grow in our relationship with Him so that, in the words of the old hymn, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
In Christ, Pastor Dan