Failing versus Falling Short (Part 3)

There is more than one garden in the early chapters of Genesis, and there is more than one fall of humankind. There is Eden, which Adam was to rule by tending and cultivating the garden. But then he and Eve listened to and obeyed the tempter, with the resulting curses and barring from the entrance to the garden. Then there is Cain and Abel, and at the rejection of Cain’s offering God has counsel for Cain. Cain’s heart is also a garden, and he must tend and cultivate it. Like Eden, Cain’s heart has an entryway, and another tempter of the same kind is lying in wait for the opportune time to enslave Cain. To which God says to Cain regarding sin, “Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7, ESV).

Sin’s desire is for Cain to act on its behalf so that Cain would be sin’s agent in the world. Just like a parasite takes over a host. God’s counsel to Cain works the other way: Cain has moral agency and must engage in the struggle against sin. Note that God did not tell Cain to eradicate sin or eliminate sin altogether. Rather, God tells Cain to “rule over it.” For this post, I will limit my observation to the obvious: Cain did not master his unrighteous desire any more than his parents did. It was another sin of the same kind. Eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is to exalt oneself by taking on the robe of judgment. And Cain certainly did that as the judge and executioner of his brother.

Take that brief analysis of Genesis 1-4 and apply it to fictional John. After we last checked in with John, he and his wife, Elaine, needed to run some Saturday errands. Even though they knew the roads would be heavily trafficked, even though they knew the stores would be crowded, there were some must-haves to get for the coming week.

John rounded the far end of a parking lot aisle and noticed an elderly driver getting into his car at the store end of the aisle. John turned on his left blinker and inched forward in his lifted F-150. Slowly, the senior driver began backing out facing away from John. Out of John’s peripheral vision he could see another car quickly approaching from the right, perpendicular to them. Before either John or the car that was backing out could move forward, the Mini Cooper from the right drove directly into the freshly opened parking spot.

John was ticked. He had waited his turn. As John pulled up to the now-filled spot, John lowered his driver’s window even though Elaine protested. Elaine had been through this kind of thing before with John, and she wanted no part of it. John was seriously tempted to wait until the driver who took that spot stepped out of the car. Man or woman, young or old, it didn’t matter to John. He had something to say.

And then John caught himself. He recognized this impulse to rage. He was learning to identify the warning signs. He really didn’t want to hurt anyone, especially his wife. John humbled himself and silently prayed, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” John then raised his window and went looking for another parking spot. Elaine continued silently trembling. While she wasn’t happy that John had stopped and rolled his window down, Elaine internally acknowledged John’s checking himself was an improvement over what that moment would have looked like a year earlier.

This is what learning to rule a sin in your life looks like. Aware. Engaged. Dependent. Imperfect.

When I insert the two columns of possible responses (see my previous two posts) in this scenario, John and Elaine can now either focus on and emphasize John’s sin or God’s grace. John, and possibly Elaine, could either require John to go into a period of penance to pay for his falling short, or turn instead to a place of repentance. When I charted this on the white board in my office last time, it looked like this:

SIN                              GRACE

PENANCE                   REPENTANCE

If John or Elaine continue in the left column and take this latest offense as John proving once again what a failure he is, then the next step down is to passively agree to enslavement to sin. But John is seeing more clearly than ever that he wants to be free of the compulsion to make others pay for his unmet expectations and loss of control. John is also better understanding that his heart is a garden, and that the Holy Spirit moves in there much like God did in Eden. That very Spirit is there to help John at moments like this, to choose life and not death, to practice ruling over the sin that desires to enslave John.

I now write the word ENSLAVED under the word PENANCE, and I write the word FREED under the word REPENTANCE.   

There’s an old saying that goes, “You become what you repeat.” For too many years, John had mindlessly, foolishly, and repeatedly let sinful anger rule him. Doing so resulted in many fractured and even broken relationships at home, at work, and with friends. However, John was waking up to God’s counsel. John did believe in the Spirit’s promise to help and enable, even if there were times when John’s belief faltered.  

I sum up my white board illustration by writing the word DEFEATED under the word ENSLAVED. This is nothing more than worldly sorrow, a cycle repeated unchanged that leads to relational and spiritual death. I then write the word VICTORIOUS under the word FREED. Victorious does not mean perfect, and it does not mean complete. In this case, victorious means Godly sorrow that translates into ongoing transformation of one’s entire life from the bottom up.

My white board now looks like this:

FAIL                            FALL SHORT

FINAL                          RECOVERY

FAILURE                     CHILD

SHAME                       HONOR

SIN                              GRACE

PENANCE                   REPENTANCE

ENSLAVED                  FREED

DEFEATED                  VICTORIOUS

Because “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6, NLT).