We don’t talk about sanctification and the struggle against habitual sin enough. In this world, we are left, though saved, with the old nature and habits we need to expunge. There is old growth that needs to be pruned away.

If we say that we are without sin we lie.

If we claim to be righteous we lie.

And yet, we fear to discuss this in case we trigger people, or decrease their self-esteem. Well, the older theologians called that pleasing man not God, Pride, and Vanity. This happens in the church.

This happens indeed in the church. So, like Paul, we find ourselves as hypocrites. And not merely in the church: those who advocate anti corruption laws are often the most corrupt, and the number of stressed out, burnt out and bitter people in health psychology is far too high. Including, every second week, this blogger.

The Law is good. The advice we give is good. We know this, and yet we struggle to keep our word.

	Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

	So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

(Romans 7:13-25 ESV)

But, some say, Chris, this is because you are bleak, you are a Calvinist, and the followers of Geneva have more guilt than the followers of Rome. If we do not allow you to talk about this, if we silence you, and give you no platform, we can have pride in our habits, and celebrate our evil. It is you who are evil, for you do not see these things as good.

However, this denies the reality. If I eat too much, I get fat: there are people my age on mobility scooters because of this. I’d rather lift weights and walk up hills. If I am sexually fluid I will destroy my children, including in the womb, ablate my ability to pair-bond and love, and be alone.

And if I silence those who speak the will of a people from a fair referendum I will be mocked, regardless of how I censor.

Our actions have consequences. Our habits make our lives and define who we are, to the point where our neuro-anatomy changes.

And we will continue to struggle. You can argue there is biology here: that this is addiction. This is taking ethics and morals and assuming there is pill that can make us righteous, or if we all meditate and we regulate our mood with apps or restrict our vocaublary we will be holy.

But we will not be holy. Instead we will celebrate our evil, our hatred, our filth and our envy.

Only in Christ and his completed work do we have hope. Christ has completed this work, and it is his doing alone. For we are incapable of holding to righteousness, even the best of us.

And thus God alone deserves praise. He alone we should follow. We all stumble and have errors, and the gentleness we use to encourage our brother to continue to follow even though it hurts and he struggles should not be seen as us acceding to evil. For the regulations of this world would enslave us, though Christ died so we could be free, and so we could, reconciled with God, approach him not in fear, but joy.