Holding On

I’ve been wrestling with several Scriptures lately (ESV):

• Jude 24-25- Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.
• 1 Corinthians 10:13- No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
• Romans 6:14- For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
• 1 John 3:9- No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

Those verses, along with others, seem to present a dilemma for the believer. If these promises are true, why do we continue to struggle with sin day after day and year after year? You would think that if God can keep us from falling He would do so. But even when we pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13), victory over sin begins to sound like a pipe dream.

As I was trying to make sense of this for myself, I started reading Max Lucado’s A Gentle Thunder and, big surprise, found an answer I can grasp—literally! He talks about climbing a simulated rock wall and losing his grip. He fell just a short distance because he was harnessed in and his spotter was doing his job. After dangling a few seconds he was able to resume his climb and get to the top of the wall. What might have happened if he had fallen all the way to the ground? What if he gave up and refused to try again? Can you picture a grown man hanging there and crying to be let down?

That presents a good mental image of the consequences of sin for the believer. Yes, we lose our grip on truth and our feet slip. But we don’t go crashing to the ground, never to climb again. We may fall a few feet, but we’re not back where we started because we’re secured to the Rock of Ages. The fact is that God does keep us from falling as far or as often as we would without Him, but I think we tend to lose sight of that. We get discouraged because we aren’t completely free from all the old temptations, but we don’t stop to think where we’d be if we weren’t Christians. For myself, that picture of the alternate life is pretty ugly, which should make me even more thankful that God has brought freedom and growth into my life by His grace.

We have to be careful that we don’t think about the climbing wall as our path to salvation though. Salvation is more like the harness that we allow God to strap on while we’re still standing on the ground. Without the harness we can’t even begin to climb, but with it we are secure regardless of how far or how well we may climb. The wall itself shows our growth in obedience, and each step requires faith that we’ll be safe in His hands even if we do make a mistake.

“If the Lord delights in a man’s way, He makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand” (Psalm 27:23-24 NIV). This verse is a reminder that even when we desire to live in obedience we will stumble, but God has a grip on us and won’t let go. The next time you fall, remember Who holds your hand!