“….let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:1-2 NKJV).
So many Christians aren’t taking responsibility for their sin nowadays. This attitude has been fostered by some Christian groups and individuals who, instead of teaching repentance from sin, are encouraging sinners to have demons cast out. Pentecostal and Charismatic groups readily lay hands on people caught up in sin to cast out the demon of anger, the demon of lust, the demon of pride, and so on. In doing so they classify demons in a way that scripture does not. But more importantly they take away the sinner’s responsibility and deceive him/her into thinking their sin is not their fault. And if it’s not their fault then they’re not likely to take any action other than to have somebody pray over them to be delivered from their demon. And if the demon refuses to leave, the person who laid hands on the “victim” can blame him for his lack of faith, while the “victim” can blame God for not answering their prayer. It’s a convenient but unbiblical cop-out.
Some books give examples of people caught up in various sins and say they need to be delivered from the demon that is harassing them. In fact, there are now ministries and books dedicated to this idea and practice of demonic deliverance.
Then there is the recent fad of accusing controlling women or women with strong personalities, of having a “Jezebel spirit”. This, too, requires exorcism, according to the proponents of the idea.
No! This fiction of casting out demons to get rid of sin is unknown to scripture; nowhere does it tell us to do this. Of course, there are examples in the bible of people who had evil spirits (demons, devils) cast out e.g. the Gadarene demoniac (Mk 5:1-20) – this poor man was so controlled by them – thousands of them – that he lived among the tombs, walking around naked and out of his mind, and cutting himself with stones (self-harming). And Jesus set him free. And when he was delivered, we’re told he was “sitting and clothed and in his right mind” (Mk 5:15). His problem wasn’t that he had been caught up in a sinful practice; he was possessed by thousands of demons crammed into his emaciated body.
There is also the example of the woman who came to Jesus, her body permanently bent forward so that she couldn’t stand up straight; she had been in this condition for eighteen years (Lk 13:10-17). Jesus identified her condition as having a “spirit of infirmity”, and he cast it out. She was one of his people, for he called her “a daughter of Abraham”.
Again, there is the “dumb and deaf spirit” (NKJV) which Jesus cast out of a child after he and the disciples had come down from the Mount of Transfiguration (Mk 9:14-29). This, and the previously mentioned spirits, had power to afflict people physically and mentally, but there are none identified as being uniquely responsible for specific sins, as the Pentecostals like to believe.
I’m not saying that demons which afflict people don’t tempt or provoke people to sin in various ways; what I mean is that we need to distinguish between the two. The Gadarene demoniac, for instance, went around naked and was very violent. Sin requires repentance; demonic affliction and possession needs payer.
The role and condition of the heart
I don’t mean to understate a person’s difficulty in dealing with their sin; I realise that some sins are harder to deal with than others; but in the end, sin is still sin and the only remedy is repentance. This requires the sinner’s effort, not lazily doing nothing while praying to be delivered from the power and persistence of their sin. If we really want to be free from the bondage of sin, we need to focus our efforts. The bible tells us that temptation comes from our own hearts: “…each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (Jas 1:14-15).
Some people even blame God for their sin. They reason that if God is in control of everything, why doesn’t he deliver me from the power of my sin? Why won’t he take away the desire to sin? Why won’t he remove the temptation? They feel so ensnared in their sinful practice, and have tried so many times to stop, and failed the same number of times, that they get angry at God and hold him responsible.
But God will have none of this. He clearly states: ”God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (Jas 1:13). Instead he puts the responsibility right back where it belongs, saying that people are tempted by their own lust (Jas 1:14). Their fallen condition and their own sinful hearts are their tempters and their undoing. Jeremiah says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer 17:9). Jesus reiterated this when he said: “…out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt 15:19).
The deception within our hearts and its capacity to deceive reveal it to be the most deceitful and most wicked of all things, except for Satan and his host of fallen angels. We not only deceive other people, we deceive ourselves, and we even lie to God by trying to evade our responsibility for our sin. We try to deflect our responsibility for our sin onto someone or something else. This trait, this tactic, we inherited from Adam and Eve when God discovered their sin (Gen 3:12-13). But puts his finger on our deceitfulness, exposing it for what it is: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8).
God – help me
Another way we dodge responsibility for our sins is to pray that God will help us overcome them. This is a good and right prayer when prayed with the right attitude, and is also essential – how could we possibly hope to resist Satan and temptation without first seeking God’s help? But most times when we pray this, we’re really putting off dealing with it ourselves and putting the onus on God; and if he doesn’t appear to be doing anything, then we hold him responsible and we think we’re free of guilt. One man told me he’s been praying for years that God would help him overcome his addictions to pornography, alcohol, and tobacco, but that God doesn’t seem to be interested. But this man isn’t making any effort of his own; in a way, he expects God to just pick him up and whisk him away from his temptations and set him down where he won’t be troubled by them anymore.
But that’s not the way things work. God tells us to repent of our sins. When Jesus began his ministry, he didn’t preach: “Ask God to help you stop sinning”. Far from it. He said, rather: “Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15). He put the onus on the people to do it. When the Jews asked Peter what they should do after they had been convicted of their sin in putting Jesus to death, he didn’t say, “Ask God to help you”; he said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2:38).
There is truth in the aphorism, “The Lord helps those who help themselves” because it tells us that we have to do our part if we wish to receive God’s help. It actually reflects what the bible says: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” (Jas 4:7-8). The writer of Hebrews says: “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin” (Heb 12:4). This verse alone tells us that overcoming sin can be a desperate struggle, but a struggle that must be carried on. It can require great effort on our behalf. And Jesus doesn’t let us off the hook either. He says: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mk 8:34).
The thing is that we must exercise faith. Without trials and temptations we become secure and feel we don’t need God. We subconsciously think we don’t need to exercise faith because we usually buy or manipulate out of any difficult situation. It’s only when we’re out of our depth, our usual props are taken from us, and we’re out of our comfort zone where we can usually take care of things ourselves, that we must turn to God. Sadly, he’s our last resort. But when we’re faced with an impossible situation, we have no alternative but to deal with it through faith – and when we do, we not only have a wonderful sense of victory and achievement which leaves us stronger for the next trial, but we also experience God’s help; resisting temptation and repenting of sin turns us from wimps into men, from children to adults (1 Cor 16:13). It’s not until we take the necessary action to resist and overcome sin that we grow; it is both faith-building and character-building. It’s not until we make a stand and fight that we experience God’s presence and receive his help. We don’t need to ask him to strengthen us, he already has. We just need to trust him and take a step of faith by doing what he requires of us.
Even if we try but fail, we’re still ahead because we haven’t given in; we haven’t given up the fight. We fell but we get up again. As long as we keep fighting, keep resisting, God is there with us and for us. We must keep getting back up every time we fall because we never know whether the next time is the time we gain the victory. And by our constant resistance even when we fall, we demonstrate that we hate the sin and will not surrender the fight.
And in case you’re wondering why you do find it so difficult and why you do keep falling, Paul tells us: “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal 5:17).
One important reason that ancient Rome was so successful was that they never gave up, never surrendered. Where the armies of other nations would sue for peace when faced with military defeat, Rome steadfastly refused to yield and only ever accepted the idea of victory; surrender was never an option for them. There is also the humorous example of Pepe le Pew, the happy French skunk in the brilliant Looney Tunes cartoons; no matter how many times he was flattened by the poor cat he pursued, he kept getting back up, filled with romantic ardour, and continued after her, the thought of failure never crossing his mind.
So we conclude that we’re tempted, drawn away and enticed, by our own lust. God didn’t tempt us; the devil didn’t “make me do it”; we are solely responsible for the sins we commit. I’m not saying there aren’t factors at work which might weaken us and make us more prone to sin; but in the end, whatever the circumstances, there is always the moment, that point in time, when we make the decision, and we choose to sin. As long as we’re being tempted that’s all it is – temptation. And that’s all it can ever be – until we make the decision to yield to the temptation – and that’s when the sin is committed.
How to deal with Temptation and Sin
The good news is that every temptation contains a built-in escape (1 Cor 10:13). We do not have to sin. The temptation is never more than we can bear – God makes sure of this. But when we do sin, we can bring ourselves into bondage; but that is not demon possession; it’s bondage to sin. Jesus told the Pharisees, “Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34).
So, how did Jesus deal with temptation? He was tempted but he didn’t yield to it. With each of the temptations, he opposed it with an appropriate passage of scripture. Each time Satan presented a temptation, Jesus met it with “It is written….” Matt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-3).
The thing NOT to do is exorcism. The bible NEVER tells us to do this. If we are to have victory over sin, we must do things God’s way. The simplest and most basic thing to do, the best place to start, is simply read to the bible regularly. By persistently and daily reading the bible, a change begins within us and the sinful things we once thought desirable start to look odious to us, and the desire for them wanes, withers, and we marvel at how we ever thought them attractive.
We can support this by familiarising ourselves with verses or passages which are relevant to our particular weaknesses. We don’t necessarily need to memorise them although it’s great if we can do this. And sometimes we can’t even point to a verse which convicts us or helps us; just the regular input of scripture into our minds begins to strengthen us, and the Holy Spirit quietly and secretly works in our hearts. We start to have a greater desire for Jesus and to walk with him. Paul wrote to the Colossians: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-3). When we do this, when we set our minds, our desires, on Jesus, something strange but wonderful happens in our hearts. In the words of the hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace” (Helen Howarth Lemmel).
We also need to remember that we’re never alone in our struggle against sin. God didn’t just issue instructions and then withdraw himself, leaving us to ourselves; he is with us in every struggle. Paul wrote: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13).
All scripture references in this article are taken from the New King James Version, online at BibleGateway.
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