Sin overpromises and underdelivers

"Sin overpromises and underdelievers everytime." I just heard this brief snippet on the radio today, and it really struck me how absolutely true that is. On the front end, sin always overpromises: happiness, success, satisfaction, reward--all with minimal cost and little or no downside. We have an enemy whose daily delight is to deceive and destroy. "No one will ever know." "You deserve this." "Just this once." "It's time you finally enjoyed a little happiness." "This won't hurt anyone else." "Everybody else is doing it (or enjoying it or possesses it).

And then every single time, that sin gives birth to pain and disappointment and regret. When we choose to sin, we choose to suffer, for our enemy will always always always underdeliver. I cannot help but see the various sexual scandals swirling around right now, and can just about guarantee that those individuals never imagined the heartache and humiliation and betrayal their actions would eventually reap.

But lest I grow self-righteous, there but by the grace of God go I. The Lord knows the selfishness and pride and envy and ugliness that festers in my own soul. When I pass along that morsel of gossip or talk harshly to my husband or indulge my desires at the expense of someone else, I am giving in to sin just as putrid in the eyes of a holy God as that of the most hardened criminal. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me...Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!.." Rom. 7:18-20,24.

What excuse do I have for having a complaining, ungrateful, self-pitying heart when I have been not only forgiven so much, but enabled to live a life of righteousness through Christ?! I who deserve condemnation and instead receive mercy and commendation through the righteousness of Christ? I who am so unworthy have been declared more than worthy all because of my Savior?

I cannot help but reminded of Charles Colson's account of visiting a Brazilian prison several years ago that had been handed over to 2 Christian layman who planned to run it by Christian principles. The prison has only 2 full time staff and all the rest of the work is done by the inmates. Each prisoner must either join the chapel program or take a course in character development. Here are Colson's words:

"When I visited the prison I found the inmates smiling--particularly the murderer who held the keys and opened the gates to let me in. Wherever I walked, I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas. I saw people working industriously. The walls were decorated with biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs. The prison has an astonishing record. The recidivism rate is 4 percent, compared to 75 percent in the rest of Brazil and the U.S. How is that possible? I saw it with my own eyes. When my inmate guide escorted me to the notorious punishment cell once used for torture, he told me that today it houses only a single inmate. We walked down a long cell block, a long corridor of steel doors, and came to the end and he peeked in. He paused. 'Yes, he's in there,' he said. Then he turned to me and asked, 'Are you sure you want to go in, Mr. Colson?'

'Of course,' I replied impatiently. 'I've been in punishment cells in 600 prisons all over the world.' Slowly the inmate swung open the door and I saw the prisoner in the punishment cell. I walked in and turned to the right and there on the wall, beautifully carved by the inmates, was a crucifix. The prisoner Jesus was hanging on the cross. 'He,' said the inmate, 'is doing time for all the rest of us.'"

Thank You Jesus for doing my time and taking my sin and my punishment. O might I live a life of gratitude and grace in response to what You have done and are doing. You are in that cell in Brazil and in those flattened buildings in Haiti. You are doing time in slums and palaces. Wherever there is sin and hopelessness and despair and death and defeat, You are there doing time, offering hope and redemption and renewal. In the darkest corners of the earth and the darkest recesses of my heart, You are there, ready to turn wretchedness into righteousness. What more can this overwhelmed and grateful heart declare than "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Sin might overpromise and underdeliver but our Savior does abundantly more than all we could ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20) Lord, to You be all the glory!!