By Pastor Greg
I’ve got rats in the cellar (I
know, you also want to add that I have bats in the bell tower as well). Seriously, there is something deep inside of
me that doesn’t belong. I am shocked at
how sinful I really am … something C.S. Lewis observed in his own life.
In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis says, “We begin to
notice besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be
alarmed not only about what we do, but
about what we are. This may sound rather difficult,
so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening
prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the
most obvious one is some sin against charity [against kindness,
compassion, generosity, sympathy, etc.]; I have sulked or snapped or
sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately
springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I
was caught off my guard, I had not time
to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance
as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they
had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what
a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of
a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise
is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar
you are most likely to see them if you go in very
suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only
prevents them from hiding. In the same way
the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it
only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats
are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily
they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”
This is where the journey of
Salvation begins. It begins when someone
admits they are a sinful person; they have rat’s in the cellar. The question is, what do they do about
them. How does someone eliminate what
doesn’t belong? How do they change who they
are? Again, Lewis observes, “But I cannot, by direct moral effort, give
myself new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life we realize that everything which really
needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.” This means we must allow Jesus to place
himself in harm’s way: something not as easy as it sounds.
In John 18:1-11 we read, After saying these
things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove
of olive trees. 2 Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with
his disciples. 3 The leading
priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple
guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they
arrived at the olive grove.
4 Jesus fully realized all
that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are
you looking for?” he asked. 5 “Jesus the Nazarene,” they
replied. “I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with
them.) 6 As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell
to the ground! (“Ego eimi”, says Jesus. “I AM”.
The word “he” is not present in the Greek, meaning that Jesus asserts
His deity at this moment). 7 Once
more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus
the Nazarene.” 8 “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And
since I am the one you want, let these others go.” 9 He did
this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you
have given me.”
10 Then Simon Peter drew a
sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. 11 But
Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink
from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” [1]
Did you notice what Jesus does
here? He steps forward; He protects His
followers. Although most of them had
fallen asleep during His prayer (Luke 22:45-46), Jesus places Himself in harm’s
way, so the apostles are spared (verse
9). And I think this is a lesson we
sometimes forget.
Too many of us are like
Peter. We want to take matters into our
own hands. We want to wrestle sin into submission with our own might
and determination. We think that our sin can be overcome by some action on
our part. However, our actions
accomplish nothing. Only Jesus can
overcome our sin. The Lord places Himself
in harm’s way, and He did this on the cross.
What did God say about the
Messiah? How did He describe Jesus? “It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that
weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a
punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our
rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was
whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have
strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on
him the sins of us all” [2]
(Isaiah 53:4-6).
We cannot overcome our sin because
we are sinful people. We are prone to do
what is wrong [“Sin” is doing something that God said we should not do]. This isn’t an issue about eliminating bad
behaviors in our life, but a matter of
who we are. We are people who have rats
in the cellar – things deep inside us that do not belong. Those attitudes and
behaviors will always be present because we just
cannot change who we are. However, we
can turn to Jesus who has promised to take the punishment for our
sinfulness. His broken body pays the
penalty for our broken behavior. His
bruises compensate for the bruises we
inflict on others. He is pierced for our
hurtful words which pierce the hearts of others.
In Romans chapter 10, Paul says, If you confess with
your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in
your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your
mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone
who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
[3]
(Romans 10:9-11,13). Paul could say
these things with confidence because
Jesus had put Himself in harm’s way.
This is why a Christian is not someone who confidently proclaims they
have cleaned up their life. Rather, they
are someone who admits they can’t but Jesus can.
[1] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2007). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (3rd ed.) (Jn 18:1–11). Carol Stream, IL.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2007). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (3rd ed.) (Is 53:4–6). Carol Stream, IL.
[3] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2007). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (3rd ed.) (Ro 10:9-11,13). Carol Stream, IL
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