All or Nothing
Why do we have to submit our *whole* lives to God for critique and change, not just parts of them?
Why can’t we say, ‘God is allowed to speak into this issue, but that one is off limits’? Why can’t we say, ‘It’s not really a sin. Or if it is, it’s not a big deal’ ?
Theologian Dr. Sinclair Ferguson says it this way: "If you’re not in for killing every manifestation of sin, you’re not in for killing any manifestation of sin. Whatever the sin is in my life, it’s not that specific manifestation of sin that needs to be killed so much as sin itself. [Otherwise] I’m not coming to Christ as my savior but as my fixer-upper – I’m not addressing the root cause."
When I come to God only for help with specific sin issues, but hide parts of my life away from his critique, I’m not coming to him as God. I’m coming to him, as Dr. Ferguson says, as my fixer-upper. I’m coming to him as my vending machine, my servant.
And that, is the root problem of sin: treating God like my servant. Making him my assistant, not my King.
And if I’m not willing to give up that impulse — treating God like a servant and telling him what goes and what stays — then I’m not really open to fighting sin at all. Even if I say I am. Even if I think I am.
Because all I want from God in the sins I am willing to fight, is the ability to make me feel better. To improve my life. To quiet down an uneasy conscience or stop painful consequences that get in the way of things I enjoy. I want something from him. But I don’t really want him. And that’s the problem. That’s the root.
As I know all too well from the vines that try to take over my backyard every Spring and Summer, if you don’t get something out by the root, it just comes back again. The same is true with sin. It’s all or nothing.
If I don’t get out the root impulse to make God my servant out of my heart, then whatever sin I may believe I’m trying to fight today, it will only re-emerge in a new way. If I’m not telling my heart, “You’re not in charge anymore,” then I’m only pulling off the leaves and the branches of sin but leaving the root untouched. I’m not getting at the root problem.
When I do that, I’m only pruning sin, not killing it. And as we also know from gardening, pruning doesn’t kill a plant. It makes only makes it grow. When I’m pruning sin, I’m just fighting the negative symptoms of sin that I don’t like so that it will grow in a way I do like (even though I may not be conscious of that).
As a Christian, it is the difficult choice of all or nothing. I can’t pick and choose because picking and choosing is the root problem itself. Picking and choosing reflects a heart that still wants to be King — not a heart that loves God and wants him to be King. It’s all or nothing because the very essence of sin is to bargain for something — to hold some part back in resistance to the God who loves us so much he would die rather than let sin take us to the grave (i.e., John 3:16ff; Heb. 12:1-2; Isa. 53:4-12, etc.).
I’m not pretending (nor does Scripture pretend) that the ‘all or nothing’ approach is easy. Nor am I saying “just try harder.” In fact, as Christians we believe that God and God alone is the one who can truly root out sin in our hearts.
But consider this:
Sin is deceitful. It numbs and destroys your moral senses so you don’t feel the pain as it slowly takes you over like a virus takes a host. Just because you don’t think it’s a problem doesn’t mean it isn’t one. Just like not seeing a vine growing doesn’t mean the root isn’t there.
Knowing that, could part of the way God wants to root out sin in your heart be opening your eyes to the ways you’ve just been pulling off leaves and branches but leaving the root (making God your servant) untouched? Could part of the way he gets at the root be telling you that you haven’t really been attacking it?
Finding out that you haven’t been attacking the root doesn’t mean your lost. It actually means you’ve just been found. You’ve just woken up. Because then you know you need a savior and then your need meets God’s ability and he does in you what you can’t do (and didn’t want to do) by yourself. He doesn’t just prune your old heart. He gives you a new one.
With God toward us it’s all or nothing too. He won’t settle for you only having a little help, because that’s just pulling off the leaves and branches, but leaving the deadly root there to take your life away. He doesn’t want to help you manage a disease (sin) that will eventually kill you. He wants to kill the disease so that you will live.
That’s the kind of all or nothing God we have. And this is the kind of all or nothing life to which he calls us.