“Oops, I did it again!”
Maybe you’re familiar with Britney Spears’ song from more than twenty years ago (frankly, I’m a little embarrassed to say that I even remember it), “Oops!...I Did It Again.” If you recall, Britney sang of repeatedly misleading a “friend” about her feelings for him. And so, the repeated phrase, “Oops, I did it again.” While the words of the song proclaim a remorse for this repeated mistake, somehow, it seems obvious that the expressed remorse isn’t really genuine at all. The “oops”, in fact, is all too cavalier to be taken seriously.
We, in our walk with the Lord as Christians, will often stumble. We will “oops”, so to speak, again and again. Notice clearly that I say “will” stumble. This is not an unintended misuse of vocabulary on my part. Rather, it is a fact. We will stumble. We will sin.
Simply put, God has removed us from the state, or condition, of sin. He has placed us into a new state, a new condition. That can never change. Never! What He hasn’t done is taken away our free will. We can still choose. Sometimes we simply choose badly. We still make mistakes. We still have the capacity to choose to do the wrong thing and, guess what, we do.
The question becomes, what is our attitude toward that inevitable sin? Do we view those mistakes with a cavalier attitude like that song seems to do? Oh well! Oops! Can’t help myself! Just the way it is! Or even, if I keep sinning God will just keep forgiving me. Should you think this is a new question, that is exactly the question the Apostle Paul answered in the book of Romans. What was his response? “By no means!” (Ro 6:1-2) Our sin is not to be taken lightly. We are called to be different. We don’t continue to live the same way as we did before we called on Jesus’ name. Peter instructs, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” (1 Pet 1:14-15)
As believers we can’t take our sin lightly. The reality is that we are now more aware of what we should do, what God wants us to do, than ever before. We probably are also more aware of how far short we fall. C.S. Lewis says it like this, “When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.”1
This awareness of our falling short, if we aren’t careful, can fester and interfere with the intimate relationship intended with our Savior. We can begin to think that God’s love toward us is hesitant. Sure, we know that He has saved us by His grace and that He loves us but… if we sin again… He loves us just a little bit less. He loves reluctantly. Maybe you are one of the few who has gotten past this sort of thinking. As for me, I can identify with Dane Ortlund when he wrote, “Sure Jesus comes close to us, we agree – but he holds His nose.”2
We need to guard ourselves from this thinking because it leads us to shortchanging God’s grace. We can’t forget what we know to be true, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith –and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph 2:8-9) God’s grace is not only sufficient to save us at the point of conversion but the same grace continues as we walk with Him. Yet, we limit God’s love and grace by thinking that when we fall short His grace falls short. He doesn’t love me as much.
God loves us fully, openly, completely, and without a shred of reluctance. Even when we stumble again and again. He is not hesitant to love us when we fall short, in reality, the opposite is true. He is eager to love us completely if we turn to Him. And our turning is the key. We put up a barrier by our actions and attitudes. Our misunderstanding of the depth of God’s love can cause us to be reluctant to fully turn to Him. Instead, He says, “Come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.” (He 4:16) We receive not only His love, fully and openly, but help. How can we not turn to Him?
Our desire to do the right things, to live righteously before God, is a good thing. That desire is even used by the Holy Spirit to help us grow. As we grow, we mature and do better and better with the Spirit’s help. However, when we fall short, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that our position before God has changed. We never have to wonder if we fall from God’s grace. We don’t need to worry that somehow, when we stumble, even again and again, God will stop loving us. Or even love us a little less. Somehow reluctantly.
The answer then, when we fall short, is simple. We turn to God and ask Him to forgive us, with genuine repentance, and move on. While we can never minimize our sin, we can’t dwell on it or allow it to fester either. We must be confident in the promise that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:9) God does not reject us. He forgave us completely, forever removed us from our condition of sin, and continues to forgive us when we fall short.
(Originally published 2-1-23: https://davefoucar.substack.com/p/oop...)
1C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY, HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), page 93
2 Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly (Wheaton, IL, Crossway Publishers, 2020), page 23
We, in our walk with the Lord as Christians, will often stumble. We will “oops”, so to speak, again and again. Notice clearly that I say “will” stumble. This is not an unintended misuse of vocabulary on my part. Rather, it is a fact. We will stumble. We will sin.
Simply put, God has removed us from the state, or condition, of sin. He has placed us into a new state, a new condition. That can never change. Never! What He hasn’t done is taken away our free will. We can still choose. Sometimes we simply choose badly. We still make mistakes. We still have the capacity to choose to do the wrong thing and, guess what, we do.
The question becomes, what is our attitude toward that inevitable sin? Do we view those mistakes with a cavalier attitude like that song seems to do? Oh well! Oops! Can’t help myself! Just the way it is! Or even, if I keep sinning God will just keep forgiving me. Should you think this is a new question, that is exactly the question the Apostle Paul answered in the book of Romans. What was his response? “By no means!” (Ro 6:1-2) Our sin is not to be taken lightly. We are called to be different. We don’t continue to live the same way as we did before we called on Jesus’ name. Peter instructs, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” (1 Pet 1:14-15)
As believers we can’t take our sin lightly. The reality is that we are now more aware of what we should do, what God wants us to do, than ever before. We probably are also more aware of how far short we fall. C.S. Lewis says it like this, “When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.”1
This awareness of our falling short, if we aren’t careful, can fester and interfere with the intimate relationship intended with our Savior. We can begin to think that God’s love toward us is hesitant. Sure, we know that He has saved us by His grace and that He loves us but… if we sin again… He loves us just a little bit less. He loves reluctantly. Maybe you are one of the few who has gotten past this sort of thinking. As for me, I can identify with Dane Ortlund when he wrote, “Sure Jesus comes close to us, we agree – but he holds His nose.”2
We need to guard ourselves from this thinking because it leads us to shortchanging God’s grace. We can’t forget what we know to be true, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith –and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph 2:8-9) God’s grace is not only sufficient to save us at the point of conversion but the same grace continues as we walk with Him. Yet, we limit God’s love and grace by thinking that when we fall short His grace falls short. He doesn’t love me as much.
God loves us fully, openly, completely, and without a shred of reluctance. Even when we stumble again and again. He is not hesitant to love us when we fall short, in reality, the opposite is true. He is eager to love us completely if we turn to Him. And our turning is the key. We put up a barrier by our actions and attitudes. Our misunderstanding of the depth of God’s love can cause us to be reluctant to fully turn to Him. Instead, He says, “Come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.” (He 4:16) We receive not only His love, fully and openly, but help. How can we not turn to Him?
Our desire to do the right things, to live righteously before God, is a good thing. That desire is even used by the Holy Spirit to help us grow. As we grow, we mature and do better and better with the Spirit’s help. However, when we fall short, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that our position before God has changed. We never have to wonder if we fall from God’s grace. We don’t need to worry that somehow, when we stumble, even again and again, God will stop loving us. Or even love us a little less. Somehow reluctantly.
The answer then, when we fall short, is simple. We turn to God and ask Him to forgive us, with genuine repentance, and move on. While we can never minimize our sin, we can’t dwell on it or allow it to fester either. We must be confident in the promise that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:9) God does not reject us. He forgave us completely, forever removed us from our condition of sin, and continues to forgive us when we fall short.
(Originally published 2-1-23: https://davefoucar.substack.com/p/oop...)
1C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY, HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), page 93
2 Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly (Wheaton, IL, Crossway Publishers, 2020), page 23
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