Good News for Repeat Offenders

In the category of "Why Don't We Ever Learn?", someone sent us a sorry little story over the Internet. If things are about this brilliant at the place where you take YOUR car, at least you've got plenty of company.

"When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership," this lady writes, "to pick up our car, we were told that the keys had been accidentally locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger's side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered it was open. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'it's open!' 'I know,' answered the young man, 'I already got THAT side.'"

It kind of reminds me of the old, old sitcom, Get Smart!, where Max and Agent 99 drive his little red CONVERTIBLE right into a car wash. "Quick, 99," he says as sheets of soapy water cascade down on both of them. "Roll up the windows!" I can see where they got the title: "GET Smart!"

Christian pastors were recently passing around an anecdote where two men sitting in a bar are watching the TV news, and a story comes on about a jumper: a guy on a rooftop looking like he's about to leap off. Beer drinker #1 says to the other: "Betcha ten bucks he jumps." "You're on," the other guy says, and they shake hands on it. A couple minutes later, sure enough, the man on the ledge jumps.

So the first man at the bar kind of laughs and confesses. "Aaaah, I can't take your money. I saw the same report on the news two hours ago. So I already knew he jumped."

But the second man pushes the ten dollars at him. "No, take the money. I saw the same 6:00 o'clock report you did . . . but I sure never thought he'd do it again!"

Well, it reminds me of the saying by F. P. Jones:

"Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again."

And how many of us have looked up from a very familiar ditch, where we've crashed our spiritual cars, and we say in frustration: "You know, Lord, this landscape is getting AWFULLY familiar! I'm tired of being down here in the no-learning zone!"

If you want to get a clear look at the human trend of being spiritually "Dumb and Dumber," look no further than some of the Old Testament accounts of the Children of Israel. There's an almost relentless pattern of "never learning." Here's just one verse from the battle-scarred book of Second Kings:

"Like his ancestor Jeroboam, Jehoahaz did evil in the sight of the Lord and CONTINUED to lead Israel into sin. He never DID change his ways."

The New International Version text notes for the books of Kings rightly observe:

"The guiding thesis of the book is that the welfare of Israel and her kings DEPENDED on their obedience to their obligations as defined in the Mosaic covenant."

Meaning: as long as they obeyed God, they would succeed. "If you obey My laws, I will bless you." If God said that to them once, He said it 40 million times. The plan was plain, it was clear, it was clean, it was obviously stated, and right in front of them. They couldn't miss. And yet, generation after generation, king after king, simply forfeited all those blessings. They went straight out the side door, built temples to false idols, and slid into the abyss of sin. Probably the most well-known "I don't ever learn my lesson" king was Saul himself, the first king of Israel. You can read in I Samuel chapter 24 the well-known story where his enemy David comes across Saul, who is defenseless, having a little pit stop in a cave. He's alone, unarmed, but David very nobly refused to kill "(quote) the Lord's anointed." Later, when the king emerges, David — from a good safe distance — shouts at him: "My lord the king! I could have killed you, but I didn't. Why can't there be peace between us?" And Saul confesses: "You're right; I was wrong. I really blew it. David, you're a better man than I am."

Okay, that's a nice story. But go down just TWO CHAPTERS, down to I Samuel 26, and Saul is chasing his enemy AGAIN, with 3000 men. And really, the same scenario is played out a second time. David and Abishai sneak into Saul's camp at midnight, where the defenseless king is sleeping. But David doesn't touch a hair on the head of "the Lord's anointed." He just takes his spear and water jug. Then at dawn, from across the valley, he calls out again: "My lord the king! I could have killed you again . . . and didn't. What's the deal? Why do you keep chasing me?" And once again, Saul, who never learns, admits: "I was wrong. You were right. Woe is me." Etc. Etc. Just five chapters later, King Saul is dead — essentially because he was a man who never could learn. Over and over, the inspired Word of God uses the word "foolish" to describe his performance as king.

Well, friend, to the extent that we find OURSELVES in this same camp of "not learning," what comfort is there for us in the Bible? Back in 1996, a book came out in my own Adventist denomination by a young woman, Hyveth Williams, who is one of the best and brightest pastors in our church. And with the book title she chose, probably most of us could push her out of line and autograph it in her stead: Will I Ever Learn? And her story IS one of ups and downs, of repeated mistakes. Why does it have to be like that, and is there any hope for us when one lifetime doesn't seem to be enough of an education?

I mentioned the other day that God is on this bumpy road we call "Life," and He patiently picks us up and nurses our wounds when we make mistakes. He never runs out of bandages. And yet it's His PURPOSE, His INTENTION, that we should become good drivers. He doesn't WANT us to fail and fall all the time. Here's a telling soundbite from a Christian pioneer, Dr. John Stott, in his book, The Contemporary Christian:

"A full, balanced and mature Christian discipleship is impossible whenever disciples do not SUBMIT to their Lord's teaching authority as it is mediated through Scripture."

In other words, the Bible tells us, "There's a bridge out up ahead. A quarter mile down the road, there are some huge boulders along the right shoulder. There's a sharp, 15 m.p.h. curve right over there." The Bible's in plain English we can understand; there's no mistaking its directives. But God can't FORCE us to slow down for the washed-out bridge, to steer clear of the boulders.

There's one verse in the Bible — and it's just one verse, just 36 words long. It expresses in its entirety what God's will for us is on this bumpy road of life. Here it is, found in First John chapter 2, verse 1:

"My dear children," John writes, "I write this to you so that you WILL NOT SIN."

Well, that's half of the verse, and let's not miss these clear words. It's heaven's intention that we should not sin, that we should NOT keep falling and failing. I mentioned on Tuesday a marvelous C. S. Lewis quote where he describes how God intends to take us all the way to perfection — and not just perfection, but ABSOLUTE perfection. Perfection by HEAVEN'S standards, which are infinitely beyond our own. Again, this is the blueprint; this is what God wants to do for us and in us. Lewis writes:

"We may be content to remain what we call 'ordinary people': but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience."

So that's God's plan for us: obedience and perfection and a shining forth among the nations like the brightest of heaven's stars. John says so here in his first epistle. "I write this to you so that you will not sin." But what's the second half of the verse?

"BUT . . . if anybody DOES sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."

So friend, here's good news, parts one AND two. It's God's desire and plan that we should NOT sin. It's God's desire and plan that we should grow and learn and glorify heaven by our improving, increasingly holy lives. For a million good reasons, we should WANT to obey . . . mostly because Jesus Himself says that those who love Him will want to do that.

But when we fail, when we fall, when we do NOT learn, when we DO hit all the bumps and boulders — and look back on "threescore and ten years" of bumps and boulders, I thank God for the second half of that verse.

"We have One who speaks to the Father in our defense."

The Christian writer Louis Smedes has this reaction to the living reality of God's everlasting love and acceptance of us: bruises and all.

"What I needed more than pardon was a sense that God accepted me, held me, affirmed me, and would never let go of me even if He was not too much impressed with what He had on His hands."

Well, I like that, but thank heaven God WAS impressed enough to spend the necessary Calvary dollars to KEEP me "on His hands."

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