Wanted: Holiness
Getting off the Merry-Go-Round
Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Which means that the power of sin’s promise is broken by the power of God’s. All that God promises to be for us in Jesus stands over against what sin promises to be for us without him. This great prospect of the glory of God is what I call future grace. Being satisfied with that is what I call faith.
JOHN PIPER1
Thought it may seem like common sense for you, for me, today, the above passage is like fireworks to my soul: a revelation! Last night (or rather, early this morning) I laid on my pillow after a thought-provoking instant messenger conversation with a far away friend thinking, “I guess it comes down to needing to desire holiness more than sin, desiring what God offers more than the temporal pleasures of sin.”
The promise sin offered had kept me on the gaudy plastic merry-go-round for so long that I had forgotten how to get off or why I would want to. Though the tinny music kept giving me headaches, and I knew there was something I should get off for, the rush of spinning around on the ride was enough to entice me to stay for another round, then another, then another.
And now, it hits me: “That [promise of happiness] enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself.” I’ve been a slave to the plastic horses when God is offering me a warrior’s stallion if only I’d choose him, desire him, and accept his promise.
God, give me the quotidian faith to hold out for future grace, especially when the fireworks fizzle out and I can hear the merry-go-round in the distance. I choose the stallion. I choose the stallion.
1. His Promises: Devotions for Every Day of the Year. 2005: Integrity Publishing.
