Believing in logic.
Apr 14th by Jon- Tagged in:
- serious wednesdays
Long before Napoleon Dynamite made the offspring of lions and tigers popular, I knew all about ligers. An outdoor mall in Myrtle Beach used to have a few huge ones on display outside in case you wanted to look at deadly jungle cats while shopping for braided leather belts.
Behind a small fenced in wooden enclosure were three massive ligers. Easily eight feet long and weighing hundreds of pounds, these beasts were terrifying. Normally, the ligers just laid there, looking like killing machines on pause. But one night, they moved. Having taken our normal watching spots, my brothers and I stood there looking as the biggest liger stood up suddenly. With a burning, Rob Lowe intensity in his eyes, the liger stretched and then walked toward us. I was thinking about using one of my brothers as a “meat shield” if it came to that, but it didn’t.
The liger calmly stood up on its hind legs, towering high above our heads. He stared at something behind us. We turned and in the dark saw a small purse dog walking by with a woman who was shopping. We looked back and that liger looked kind of like people who have walked by the Cinnabon store at the mall. I don’t speak liger but I felt like his eyes were telling me, “I want to eat that dog like the KFC Double Down bunless bacon sandwich.” (This liger had very specific eyes and I’m a little like the Beastmaster.)
I’ll admit, that night wasn’t that dangerous. The truth is that I don’t live that dangerous of a life. I’ve never sky dived, I don’t run with bulls and sometimes I floss. Overall, it’s a pretty danger free life, but every now and then, someone will say something to me that feels dangerous. Something that seems risky and as a guy who spends a lot of his days wrestling with words, sometimes I can’t help but wonder about the dangerous things we all secretly believe.
In response to something I wrote, a friend revealed one of the most dangerous things Christians struggle with.
The post I had written was about porn. It was pretty straight forward and my friend had some good thoughts to share, but one of them revealed something incredibly dangerous that Christians often miss. And I don’t like to think that everything I write is just me having random thoughts. I think it’s good to respond to real issues, real people are talking about. Here is the gist of what was said:
“If Christian men knew what porn does to the women in their life there would be no more Christian men addicted.”
On the surface, that’s not a big deal, but what it really says can be pretty dangerous. Here is the core of that thought:
“If men knew how they hurt people with porn, they logically would choose not to look at porn.”
Or stripped down even further:
“Logic can beat sin.”
I wish that were true. I wish that in the battle of sin vs. logic or sin vs. rational action, sin always lost. That would make life so much easier. When faced with a dilemma, you could just pull out some algorithm and avoid sin altogether. “Should I gossip about my friend? That might get back to her and really hurt her feelings. Logically, I should avoid the drama that would come with that. I won’t gossip.” Or, “Should I cheat on my wife? The minutes of pleasure are certainly not going to be worth the possible years of hurt that causes. The value of cheating is far less than the value of growing my marriage over the long run, I’m not going to cheat.”
But life doesn’t work that way, does it? Men across the planet know their wives will be hurt by alcoholism. Dads around the world know ignoring their kids through workaholism is wounding them. People everywhere know that buying things they can’t afford with money they don’t have isn’t the smartest financial decision in the long run. But we still do it, don’t we?
Why? Because sin is bigger than logic.
I can’t think my way to a pure heart. I can’t logic my way toward sanctification. I can’t will myself to redemption. Sin is bigger and meaner and more powerful than everything in the world except one thing, grace. Only grace can beat sin. Only God’s love and power can defeat it. Porn or gossip or lying or anything else sin entices you with will crush you if you put your trust in your logic.
When we try to beat sin with logic, sin says “That’s adorable.” On the other hand, when we surrender, and admit like Paul that we keep doing the things we don’t want to do, grace has room to step in. And grace can win.
Grace and grace alone.
Comments
When logic seems to lose to sin what is really going on is that a lack of logic (reason) is losing to sin. That is, because we are human, we often reason poorly. Or, we know the good through our reason and choose to do otherwise because of some distorted good we see in the bad we are choosing. So it's not that sin beats logic, but that we're weak. Reason does indeed point to truth.
This reminds me of a tiny yet powerful sentence I read in James 4:6 not too long ago.
"But he gives us more grace."
Thanks, for the reminder.
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
James 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
The tongue speaks the thoughts of a heart that is deceitful above all else. Only the grace overcomes this kind of self-deceit and is the remedy for this kind of poison.
Good post.
I was just thinking today, "GOD! I'm trying so hard, here. What does it take for me to give myself completely to you and for you to transform me?" I think this is my answer: grace.
Wow, I'm pretty sure most men addicted to porn have at least a hint of how much it hurts the women (actually, that should probably read woman) in their lives. I wonder if this person has ever watched the show Intervention. All of the addicts in this show know how much their behavior hurts the people in their lives, but they often feel powerless to stop. Unfortunately, it takes much more than knowing how much it hurts someone to stop. Thanks for this great post – one that should have a lot of us thinking.
Wow, wow, wow! I LOVE this post. SO true – hadn't thought of it that way but it is true. Thank you, Jon!
Just what I needed today!!!!!!!
I haven’t read all the comments and I am sure this has been mentioned, but the first sentence of the last full paragraph is so pithy and hits the nail so squarely on the head, it’s ridiculous.
New to it, but definitely enjoying the blog.
Grace! Wow! I'm blown away by this entry. Grace is the great, underappreciated aspect of our everyday walk. Lewis Sperry Chafer's book on Grace has this exhortation for all believers:
"The exact and discriminate meaning of Grace should be crystal clear to every child of God. With such insight only can he feed his soul on the inexhaustible riches which it unfolds; and with such understanding only can he be enabled to clearly pass on to others it's wonderful, transforming theme."
Chafer, "Grace an Exposition of God's Marvelous Gift"
This is a great post, John. (Aren't they all?) But honestly? Logic HAS stopped me from doing sinful stuff before. Thinking through the consequences has stopped me. I guess it was the Holy Spirit using logic, but the tool was logic.
But then, I'm practically a Vulcan, so…
Jon freakin' Acuff…why can't you just be my dad or something equally as cool…
[...] than sin is the shed blood of Jesus available to us only by the grace of God. Read the article by clicking here. [...]
Awesome post! We often forget the power of grace.
This post makes absolutely no sense. What Scripture is this idea based on? And porn addiction? Where did that come from? Do you have any idea how staggeringly few men in the world are addicted to porn by a medical definition? If by "addicted," you mean, "I look at porn a lot," that's not the same thing, dude. I have friends who have a glass of wine at dinner. That does not make them alcoholics.
I do not understand the connect to Jesus Christ.
Also, let's go to grace and grace, alone. Yes, I agree with that statement. But homeboy, it sounds like you're just saying, "Well, sin is pretty powerful. Guess I should just cheat on my wife! Grace and grace alone!"
NO!!!
Yes, we are all human. Yes, we all sin. But, yes, we all have a CHOICE. Cheating on your wife or neglecting your kids is a CHOICE. That is what makes it sinful. And by recognizing that something is sinful and realizing that we have choices, we can work toward healing. This is very much a fundamental part of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We are called to glorify God, and by acknowledging that yes, we are human, and we are sinful, and we will always make mistakes, but choosing to take responsibility for our sinfulness and work towards making choices, we offer in our own small, human way, glory to God.
I'm so glad someone wrote this. I, too, struggle with similar addictions. Everytime someone leaves and empty bag of cookies open, I find it harder and harder to help myself. Cookies. Telephones. Occasionally pieces of automobiles. I just lose control and ravenously consume it. Actually, it's probably more like throwing it all over my face rather than actually eating them.
Oh, I tried other things. Fruits. Vegetables. All the stuff they told me I should be doing. But let's be honest here. This is a safe space.
Logically, I know that cookies are not good for me (they're a sometimes food). I know that fruits and veggies are healthier. But I can't help it. One empty bag of Oreos, and suddenly, "Did someone say, 'COOKIEEEE?!?!"
C is for cookie. That's good enough for me.
Sincerely,
An honest celebrity
what a great reminder, Jon!
What an incredible God we serve… one who gives us unending grace.
Thanks Jon.
Yeah you did. The thesis of the article is that logic and rationality are powerless against sin in our pursuit of holiness and that only grace can grant us that ability (to fight sin, etc.). It's poor thinking, really.
I'm not sure anyone, however logical or illogical in their thinking, tries to "beat sin with logic" — anyone with an understanding of reason in the context of the Christian experience knows its place is not to replace grace or anything like that. They are complimentary. Without logic and rationality you cannot, for example, gain one bit of knowledge from the Scriptures or know what grace even is.
The transforming work of grace in our lives is a thinking transformation as much as and more than it is a transformation of our actions. The Scriptures speak to this over and over:
Ro. 6:10-11 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Ro. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
1 Cor. 2:12 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
2 Cor. 4:3-4 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Col. 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
The reason we can't "think our way to a pure heart" is because our reasoning is fallen in the first place; the noetic affect of sin. Adam and Eve thought illogically about Satan's temptation and plunged humanity into ignorance and slavery. Grace restores us to God's image, of which logical thinking is a part. Logic is how God thinks, and Christianity is the training of the mind to think God's thoughts after him.
And apart from logical thinking, you can't even begin to read the Scriptures or believe the gospel. Faith is not where logic ends — the two are entirely complimentary.
I'm not sure anyone, however logical or illogical in their thinking, tries to "beat sin with logic" — anyone with an understanding of reason in the context of the Christian experience knows its place is not to replace grace or anything like that. They are complimentary. Without logic and rationality you cannot, for example, gain one bit of knowledge from the Scriptures or know what grace even is.
The transforming work of grace in our lives is a thinking transformation as much as and more than it is a transformation of our actions. The Scriptures speak to this over and over:
Ro. 6:10-11 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Ro. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
1 Cor. 2:12 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
2 Cor. 4:3-4 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Col. 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
The reason we can't "think our way to a pure heart" is because our reasoning is fallen in the first place; the noetic affect of sin. Adam and Eve thought illogically about Satan's temptation and plunged humanity into ignorance and slavery. Grace restores us to God's image, of which logical thinking is a part. Logic is how God thinks; Christianity is the training of the mind to think God's thoughts after him.
And apart from logical thinking, you can't even begin to read the Scriptures or believe the gospel. Faith is not where logic ends — the two are entirely complimentary.