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This book is
written only for those who know what they’re supposed to
do but sometimes don’t do it. It’s written for those who
think that their own particular weakness keeps God from
completely liking them. It’s written for those who just
can’t shake a bad habit. This book is written for the
wretched souls who totter between their passion life and
their desire for God, not realizing that in order to
have a desire for God they must also be dogged by
at least one detestable/wonderful passion that keeps
them humble and needing Him.
* * *
The Pharisees of
Jesus’ day tried hard to stamp sin from their lives. The
result? They sinned like crazy people. What a paradox.
But you’ve proven it in your own life: the more you try
not to do the thing you hate, the more you think about
the thing you hate, and the more you do it. God is quite
aware of this principle and—if you can believe it—He
invented it.
* * *
George Bernard
Shaw was a genius. It was he who said: "Virtue is
insufficient temptation." Many times, those who appear
virtuous have not been sufficiently tempted. Their
virtue is Hollywood-wall virtue, propped up with half a
dozen two-by-fours and a New Year’s resolution. It’s
self-control untested. The world can spot phony
Christian virtue ten miles away. Christians can’t see it
because they are too busy admiring themselves in the
mirror.
* * *
Real human virtue
is being broken by trial and lying like a pile of lumber
in the wake of a hurricane. That’s when the good stuff
starts; it’s when God goes to work. Real human virtue is
helplessness before God. Helplessness before God is the
beginning of a true spirituality that stands strong when
the wind blows. Well, it has no place to go but up.
* * *
All humanity boils
down to two individuals: Adam and Christ. If you want to
comprehend the race, you need only comprehend these two,
for they represent the whole. No need wasting time
studying anthropology, mankindology, or whatever other "ology"
they’re offering at universities these days. Read the
next few paragraphs and you’ll have mankind in the bag.
Everyone besides Adam and Christ can clear out of the
ring, buy popcorn and sit down.
* * *
Your church
assumes that the kind of freedom we’re uncovering
here—even if they did believe it—will inspire more sin.
Christian leaders don’t trust grace, and they certainly
don’t trust you with it. So they prop up grace with law,
make themselves the administrators of it, and send you
on a guilt trip every time you miss church or break one
of their rules.
* * *
Are we warring
with our flesh? Then we are miserable, for this is
captivity. To be constantly worrying about, wrestling
against, and warring with the flesh is the worst kind of
bondage. So many people assume that a vast moral
struggle must accompany a Christian walk. Christianity
itself has taught this. But no. This is horrible
bondage. Struggling against flesh is the essence of
religion and it’s why religion frustrates people and
makes them crazy. It’s why religious people become
incensed that the rest of the world isn’t as concerned
with sin as they are. The truth is that the rest of the
world trusts God more with its sin than Christians do
with theirs.
* * *
You can be free
from Sin while sinning, and you can be a slave of Sin
while refraining from it. How can this be? I can’t wait
to tell you.
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