God’s Love Is High­er Even Than My Sins

Excerpt from Spiritual Classics

Sins of Infirmity

There is no con­dem­na­tion for ​“sins of infir­mi­ty,” as they are some­times called, result­ing from invol­un­tary defects of our human fini­tude. Per­haps it is bet­ter instead to call them sim­ply ​“infir­mi­ties,” or ​“human frail­ties,” in order that we may not seem to lend legit­i­ma­cy to sin, or to excuse it in any way by cou­pling it

too direct­ly with human fini­tude. Although ​“sin of infir­mi­ty” remains an ambigu­ous and some­what dan­ger­ous expres­sion, by it I mean pri­mar­i­ly in vol­un­tary fail­ings. One exam­ple would be say­ing some­thing we believe to be true, though in fact it lat­er proves to be false. Anoth­er exam­ple: hurt­ing our neigh­bor with­out know­ing or intend­ing it, or even when we intend­ed to do good. Although these are devi­a­tions from the holy, accept­able, and per­fect will of God, ye they should not prop­er­ly be called sins because they lack the ele­ment of being willed. Thus they do not add any guilt to the con­science of ​“those who are in Christ Jesus.” They cause no alien­ation or breach between God and the faith­ful. They do not cloud the light of God’s shin­ing. They are in no way incon­sis­tent with the gen­er­al char­ac­ter of one who ​“walks not after the low­er nature, but after the Spirit.”

Unpre­ventable Sins

There is no con­dem­na­tion to believ­ers for any­thing con­ceiv­able that is beyond their pow­er to pre­vent. This refers both to inward atti­tudes and out­ward actions, both to doing some­thing and to leav­ing some­thing undone. For exam­ple, sup pose the Lord’s Sup­per is cel­e­brat­ed but you do not par­take of it because of sick ness-an omis­sion indeed, but one you can­not help. There is here no con­dem­na­tion and no guilt, because there is no choice. Paul writes: ​“Pro­vid­ed there is an eager desire to give, God accepts what a man has; he does not ask for what he has not” (2 Cor. 8:12).…

Sins of Surprise

Then there are so-called sins of sur­prise; for exam­ple, when one who is usu­al­ly patient speaks or acts in a way that vio­lates the com­mand to love the neigh­bor due to some sud­den or vio­lent temp­ta­tion. These cas­es are far more dif­fi­cult to ana­lyze. It is not easy to fix a gen­er­al rule con­cern­ing mis­deeds of this sort. We can­not flat­ly say either that per­sons are or are not con­demned for these types of high­ly unchar­ac­ter­is­tic behav­ior. When­ev­er a believ­er is over­tak­en in a fault by sur­prise, how­ev­er, there must be some degree of guilt pro­por­tion­al to the degree of con­cur­rence of the will. In pro­por­tion as a sin­ful desire, word, or action is more or less vol­un­tary, so we may sup­pose that God is more or less dis­pleased; and there is more or less of a bur­den of guilt to bear.

If so, then there may be some ​“sins of sur­prise” that right­ly elic­it a sense of guilt and con­dem­na­tion. Admit­ted­ly, in some instances our being sur­prised is due to some wil­ful and cul­pa­ble neglect. Per­haps we could have been atten­tive to some thing that could have been pre­vent­ed or shak­en off before the temp­ta­tion came. We might have been ade­quate­ly fore­warned that tri­als and dan­gers were at hand and yet have said in our hearts: ​“A lit­tle more slum­ber, a lit­tle more fold­ing of the hands in rest.” Sup­pose one lat­er falls unaware into a trap that might eas­i­ly have been avoid­ed. Inat­ten­tive­ness is hard­ly an excuse, for one might have fore­seen and avert­ed the dan­ger. Falling, even by sur­prise, in such an instance as this is, in effect, a wil­ful sin and, as such, must expose the sin­ner to con­dem­na­tion, both from God and from one’s own conscience.

Sins of Disobedience

On the oth­er hand, there may be sud­den assaults, either from the world or the god of this world, and fre­quent­ly from our own dis­tort­ed imag­in­ings, which we did not, and hard­ly could have, fore­seen. Believ­ers who are weak in faith may be over­come by these assaults; they may become inor­di­nate­ly angry or think bad­ly of oth­ers with only a very slight con­cur­rence of the will. In such a case, God-who jeal­ous­ly cares for their souls-would undoubt­ed­ly show them that they have act­ed fool­ish­ly, in order to con­vince them that they had swerved away from the per­fect law, from the mind which was in Christ. Con­se­quent­ly, they would feel griev­ed with a god­ly sor­row and lov­ing­ly ashamed before God. But they do not need to feel con­demned. God does not charge them with fol­ly, but has com­pas­sion, even ​“as a father has com­pas­sion on his chil­dren” (Ps. 103:12). This is why their hearts do not con­demn them. For even in the midst of that sor­row and shame they can still say:

God is indeed my deliv­er­er.
I am con­fi­dent and unafraid;
for the LORD is my refuge and defense
and has shown him­self my deliv­er­er.
And so you shall draw water with joy
from the springs of deliv­er­ance (Isa. 12:2).

You of lit­tle faith

It is fit­ting that we try to draw some prac­ti­cal infer­ences from all this.

Why are you afraid of your past? For there is now no con­dem­na­tion of past sins ​“for those who are unit­ed with Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:I ), when the ​“law of the Spir­it has set you free ” (Rom. 8:I ). O you of lit­tle faith! Even though your sins were once more in num­ber than the sand, so what? You are now in Christ Jesus! ​“Who will be the accuser of God’s cho­sen ones? It is God who pro­nounces acquit­tal; then who can con­demn?” (Rom. 8:33).

All the sins you have com­mit­ted from your child­hood right up to the moment when you were ​“accept­ed as his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:5) are dri­ven away as chaff. They are gone. They are lost. They are swal­lowed up. They are remem­bered no more. You are now ​“born” from spir­it (John 3:6). Why are you afraid? Wh y be trou­bled even about what hap­pened before you were born? Throw away your fears! ” For the spir­it that God gave us is no craven spir­it, but one to inspire strength, love, and self-dis­ci­pline” (2 Tim. 1:7). Know your call­ing! Rejoice in God your Sav­ior and give thanks to God your Father through Him.

How Christ Frees Us

Some will say, ​“But I have once again done seri­ous wrongs, even after receiv­ing this redemp­tion. I seem like a lost cause. I still feel deep remorse.” It is fit­ting that you feel a pro­por­tion­al remorse after doing wrong. For it is God who has awak­ened this very feel­ing in you. But you are now invit­ed to tran­scend it in trust. Has­n’t the Spir­it also enabled you to say, ” But in my heart I know that my vin­di­ca­tor lives, and that he will rise last to speak in court” (Job 19:25); and ​“the life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me; and my present bod­i­ly life is lived by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). It is that faith that can­cels all that is past, and in it there is no con­dem­na­tion. At what­ev­er time you tru­ly believe in the name of the Son of God, all your sins pri­or to that time van­ish like the morn­ing dew. ​“Christ set us free, to be free men. Stand firm, then, and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slav­ery again” (Gal. 5:1). Christ has once again made you free from the pow­er of sin, as well as from its guilt and pun­ish­ment. So do not become entan­gled again in the yoke of bondage — its twist­ed desires, dis­tort­ed emo­tions, its vile words and works, the most des­per­ate bondage this side of hell. Refuse to be caught again in bondage to slav­ish, tor­ment­ing fear or self-con­demn­ing guilt.…

Look inward, honestly

There is no con­dem­na­tion for any inward sin still remain­ing in those who ​“walk by the Spir­it.” Even though sin may seem to cling tena­cious­ly to every­thing we do, we are not guilty as long as we do not give way to it. So do not be dis­turbed because some ungod­ly imag­i­na­tions remain in your heart. Do not feel dejec­tion because you still come short of the glo­ri­ous image of God; or because pride, self will or unbe­lief cling to all your words and works. Do not be afraid to face can­did­ly all these dis­tor­tions of your heart. Know your­self as you are known. Desire fer­vent­ly of God that you may not think more high­ly of your­self than you ought to think. Let your con­tin­u­ous prayer be:

Show me, as my soul can bear,
The depth of inbred sin;
All the unbe­lief declare,
The pride that lurks within.

As God hears your prayer, he will let you see your heart. Then he will show you in entire­ty the spir­it to which you belong. Then take care that your faith does not fail you, or that your pro­tec­tion is not torn from you. Now you are free to see your­self quite open­ly even at your low­est, to be hum­bled in the dust, to see your­self as noth­ing, less than noth­ing, and emp­ty. At that very moment you may still ​“set your trou­bled hearts at rest, and ban­ish your fears” (John 14:27). Remem­ber that you, even you, have an Advo­cate ​“with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is just” (1 John 2:1). Hold fast to the rec­ol­lec­tion that ​“as the heav­en stands high above the earth” (Ps. 103:11), so is God’s love high­er even than my sins.

God is Merciful

God is mer­ci­ful to you, a sin­ner! Pre­cise­ly the sin­ner you are! God is love, and Christ has died! That means: the Father him­self loves you! You are his child! God will not with­hold from you any­thing that is for your good. Is it not good that the whole body of sin, which is now cru­ci­fied in you, should be destroyed? It shall be done! You shall be cleansed ​“from all that can defile flesh or spir­it” (2 Cor. 7:1). ls it not good that noth­ing should remain in your heart but the pure love of God alone? Take joy in all of this. ​“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”; and ​“love your neigh­bor as your­self’ (Mark 12:30, 31). Stand firm in the ​“con­vic­tion of his pow­er to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:21). It is your part patient­ly to con­tin­ue in the work of faith and the labor of love, in cheer­ful peace, hum­ble con­fi­dence and with calm and accept­ing, but fer­vent, expec­ta­tion, to wait until the zeal of Lord of hosts shall per­form this work in you.

Leap and Walk

If those who are ​“in Christ” and ​“walk in the Spir­it” are not con­demned for sins of infir­mi­ty or for invol­un­tary fail­ings or for any­thing they are unable to pre­vent, then take care, all you who have new­ly born faith in God’s mer­cy, that you do not just at this point give the dev­il a huge advan­tage. You are still unformed and weak, lack­ing in clear insight and deep knowl­edge. You are more vul­ner­a­ble than words can express, more prone to error than you can imag­ine. For you do not yet under stand faith as ful­ly as you intend. So do not let this weak­ness and untest­ed judg­ment, or any of its fruits which you are not yet able to avoid, shake your basic faith, your fil­ial trust in God, or dis­turb your peace or joy in the Lord. The very idea that sin must be willed can itself be dan­ger­ous­ly mis­ap­plied, so it is wis­er and safer if it is applied only to the case of weak­ness and infirmities.

If you have stum­bled, O seek­er of God, do not just lie there fret­ting and bemoan­ing your weak­ness! Patient­ly pray: ​“Lord, I acknowl­edge that every moment l would be stum­bling if you were not uphold­ing me.” And then get up! Leap! Walk! Go on your way!” Run with res­o­lu­tion the race ​“in which you are entered (Heb. 12:1 ).

Just Love God

My last point: Even if you find your­self for a moment to your amaze­ment doing exact­ly what your soul oth­er­wise detests, this is still not rea­son to feel over­bur­den­ing guilt. Let us hope that your being sur­prised is not due to your own care­less ness or wil­ful neglect. If, while you believe, you are sud­den­ly over­tak­en in a fault, then let the Lord imme­di­ate­ly hear your cry of grief. It will then be felt by you as a heal­ing oint­ment. Pour out your heart before God. Declare your trou­ble. Pray with all your might to God who is ful­ly able ​“to sym­pa­thize with our weak­ness­es” (Heb. 4:15). God wants to estab­lish, strength­en, and set­tle your soul and not allow you to fall again; but, mean­while, God is not harsh­ly dis­ap­prov­ing of you. So why should you be afraid? You have no rea­son to fall into the grip of the fear that ​“brings with it the pains of judg­ment” (I John 4:18).

Just love God who loves you. That is suf­fi­cient. The more deeply you love, the stronger you will feel. And as soon as you have learned to love God with all your heart, ​“if you give for­ti­tude full play you will go on to com­plete a bal­anced char­ac­ter that will fall short in noth­ing” (James l :4). Wait in peace for that hour when ​“God him­self, the God of peace,” will ​“make you holy in every part, and keep you sound in spir­it, soul, and body, with­out fault when Our Lord Jesus Christ comes” (1 Thess. 5:23)!

Con­sid­er doing the fol­low­ing in pri­vate, at a white board or black­board. Write a brief descrip­tion of the wor­ri­some sin or sins, and then erase the board vig­or­ous­ly. Thank God for sins for­giv­en, and make a fresh start.

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Reflec­tions from Richard J. Foster

It is so refresh­ing to read some­one who takes sin seri­ous­ly as a sub­ject about which we can actu­al­ly have knowl­edge. Most today, even among reli­gious lead­ers, avoid the sub­ject like the plague. And those who do talk about it usu­al­ly do so only to rail against it. Here we have some­one who deals with sin as a body of knowl­edge and who fur­ther believes that guid­ance can be giv­en on how to deal with both the sin nature and the habits of sin.

The dis­tinc­tion Wes­ley is mak­ing between ​“sins of infir­mi­ty,” ​“sins of sur­prise,” ​“sins of dis­obe­di­ence,” and so forth has to do with gra­da­tions of inten­tion, human will, and vol­un­tary choice. This is an ancient dis­tinc­tion but one that is lit­tle under stood today. It is not under­stood for two rea­sons: first, we today lack a prop­er ontol­ogy of the human per­son, hence we do not know how the will fits into the over­all make­up of per­son­al­i­ty, and, sec­ond, we den y voli­tion on all sides. The last thing we want today is to be respon­si­ble for our intents and actions, and so we mere­ly den y the func­tion of the will and our abil­i­ty to take up a freely cho­sen course of action for our lives. I think Wes­ley’s option holds out more promise for suc­cess­ful living.

Did you notice the great pas­toral care Wes­ley gives through­out this selec­tion? He helps peo­ple under­stand the fail­ures and short­com­ings that should not be con­sid­ered sin prop­er and relieves peo­ple of exces­sive guilt over those mat­ters. And even in areas where sin is rec­og­nized for what it is and dealt with, he is so very pas­toral: ​“God wants to estab­lish, strength­en, and set­tle your soul and not allow you to fall again; but, mean­while, God is not harsh­ly dis­ap­prov­ing of you. So why should you be afraid? You have no rea­son to fall into the grip of the fear that ​‘brings with it the pains of judg­ment’ (1 John 4:18).”