Specificity is the difference between the condemnation of the enemy and
the conviction of the Spirit. It
requires little contemplation or courage to confront one’s own shortcomings in
the most general terms, because generality is only a pretense for
transparency. But no life change ever
resulted from a man recognizing a tendency in himself toward ‘lust’ or ‘pride’
or ‘anger.’ Rather, something distinct
and substantial begins to happen only when a person chooses to repent of
thinking on that woman, or deriding that brother, or condemning that colleague. We have made no progress in our walk with
Christ until we confront our sins as they are, in the particular, and not in
the abstract. Christ died not only to
accomplish the removal of sin in general and as a concept, but the removal of the
sins of real life, the ones with real effects, in need of real forgiveness.
Satan has no interest in bringing you face to face with the reality of
your particular sins, unless he can also convince you that they have removed
you beyond the reach of the grace of God.
His tactics alternate between alienation and approximation: he will use
either your particular sins to drive you from the Savior or your lack of specificity
to keep you from Him. Satan will call
you an angry person, but he will never point out an angry word; he will call
you lazy, but will never lead you to action.
The result is that we become discouraged with our lack of progress and
confused over how to change. The enemy’s
lies always involve a kernel of truth: our sins do prevent us from fellowship with the Lord, and the general can always be drawn from the
particular. But if the blood of Christ
is not sufficient to cleanse even the deepest sins, then it is not adequate to
eliminate any of them. And just as
scrubbing the kitchen floor does not merely consist in purchasing bleach but
also in applying it to that spot by
the stove, so victory over habitual sins does not consist only in the
discussion of principles, but in repentance from that offense and restitution to that
offended person.
The antidote is the rough and uncomfortable work of detailed honesty. The difference between principles and
repentance is the difference between morality and obedience. And obedience is not simply the rejection of
extremes or the discovery of a balance between them; it is a series of
choices. Take a moment and think back
through your day (or week). What words
did you speak in anger? When did you
look at a woman with lust for her in your heart? When did you act in selfishness instead of
love? Spend some time in Galatians
5:16-26, and allow the Spirit of God to apply the principles of His Word to the
particular choices of your life.
