Give It Up
It’s Lent. In the past three days I have talked to someone who has “given up” going out to dinner, someone who has “given up” all sweets, and today, someone who has “given up” all chocolate. Today’s encounter was the most interesting.
I was in the presence of this woman for about a half an hour. She seems to be a nominal Christian with an interest in spiritual things. She uses the Lord’s name in vain; not so much deliberately anti-God as just a bad habit. After doing so today a couple of times she told me that she had just ordered several pounds of homemade Easter candy from a local church and she wouldn’t be able to touch any of it until Easter Day because she had “given up” all chocolate for Lent. She followed that with telling me that this was a real sacrifice for her and she wasn’t sure how she would even get home with the smell of all that chocolate in the car!
Because we were in a business setting with others, the timing didn’t seem appropriate for a discussion of Biblical sacrifice or the sin of taking the Lord’s name in vain. But as I thought about the hypocrisy of making a sacrifice while continuing to sin I realized that I was hoping, even praying, for an opportunity to talk to her again. I felt like I had completely neglected an opening to share the Gospel. Then, I wondered if God had silenced me with her because she isn’t the only one with this sin/sacrifice issue. Isn’t this an issue we all face?
Even as born again Christians we struggle with this same hypocrisy, perhaps not taking the Lord’s name in vain, but we sin and we try to make it up to God with some lame sacrifice that He isn’t even interested in. We “give up” something and say it is for God, hoping that will in some way get us back in His good graces after we’ve sinned.
After David had sinned and been confronted by Nathan, David said to God,
God would so much rather see hearts broken over the fact that we have sinned against Him than with any “sacrifice” that we might offer Him. (Are chocolate or sweets that great a sacrifice anyway?) To sin by taking His name in vain, or mistreating husbands or children, or failing to trust Him, overeating everything we did not give up, or gossiping about co-workers, (or whatever happens to be the sin of choice for you or me), while, at the same time, “sacrificing” a food or some treat “for God” is nothing but hypocrisy. It’s an outward act we can tell others about without confronting the sin in the heart. It’s why Jesus said to the Pharisees
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:28
It’s Lent, a time to prepare ourselves to remember the death and resurrection of Christ. His death was for our sin; His true sacrifice paid the penalty (the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23) for your sin and mine. His resurrection is what gives us life. Because He lives, when we believe that His sacrifice was for our sin, we will live with Him.
At Lent many faithful Christians “give up” something so as to sacrifice because Christ did. If you are one of them, that’s fine but don’t think that it will atone for your sin –not even a little bit. Confession of sin and recognition of Christ as the Lord of our lives are the fruit of giving up ourselves to God and the best preparation for Easter that we could offer Him.