Treating Symptoms: The Gospel of Sin Management

During my junior year of college, I started having chest pains. I didn't think much of it at first. I was 21 years old and healthy by all standards. The pain went on for several weeks until I decided to google my symptoms (something you should never do). Of course, this resulted in me being WebMD’d into a frenzy. I went to the emergency room and was immediately admitted because they thought I was having heart problems. I spent a day or so in the hospital and had every conceivable test run on me, only to be told there was nothing wrong with me. I was sent home. The problem went away for a while, but a couple of years later it returned. This time, instead of paying the insane amount of money the ER would ask for, I decided to find a doctor. I went to several doctors over the next few years. One thought it might be a heart condition, others believed I had ulcers, still, others thought it was something else. I received several different medications trying to relieve the symptoms, many of which had worse side effects than the symptoms. Eventually, after several years, I found a Doctor that, rather than prescribing another medication, decided to run a new set of tests. Unlike the other doctors who were just treating symptoms, she wasn’t interested in merely the symptoms, she wanted to find out what was going on. It was refreshing to encounter someone who was committed to discovering and dealing with the problem, not just someone who wanted to treat my symptoms. 

I share this because, in my observation, when it comes to our spiritual lives we are frequently guilty of simply treating symptoms. When you just treat symptoms, it works for a short while, but the underlying cause of your problem is still there. We live in a society that often teaches us to simply manage our problems. The Church, as Dallas Willard famously said, often preaches a gospel of “Sin Management.” We have often traded real transformation through Jesus for a gospel of Sin management. 

To put it another way, our focus is In the wrong place. Our focus is too often on our bad habits, our sins, our hangs ups, and our quirks. As a Christian, When your focus is to "stop sinning", there’s a lot to manage. This approach becomes overwhelming and inevitably leads to prioritization. So we “prioritize” the big sins like lust and murder and stealing while ignoring gossip, anger, greed, pettiness, and insecurity. We simply don't have the energy to deal with it all. This results in millions of wonderful churchgoing people who won’t lust or murder, but have the emotional intelligence of my 5yr old daughter, gossip about their neighbor, and think more money is the answer to all their problems.

The answer, I believe, is to shift our focus from Sin-Management to Jesus. I know this gets said often and if you're like me, you hear it and think, “What does that even mean?” Centering our lives around Jesus is too often this abstract concept that we all know how to say but no one seems to be able to tell us how to flesh out in the real world. 

Instead of managing sin, create space for Jesus. 

Most of us think if we try harder we can bring an end to our bad habits. I would argue, instead of trying harder, crowd them out. It’s difficult to look at sin when you’re looking at Jesus. 

This shift of focus has traditionally happened through what we would call the Spiritual Disciplines. Spiritual Disciplines are simply habits or rhythms of life that create space, time, and opportunity for the Holy Spirit to act in our lives. Here are some examples:

1. Start and end your day with Prayer  
2. Read your Bible BEFORE you pick up your phone 
3. Turn off your phone for one hour each day 
4. Spend 5min during your lunch break in silence simply thinking about the goodness of God. 
5. Share a meal with friends and be reminded that God is present at the table
6. Attend Church 
7. Fast 

The goal is this: How can I make space for Jesus throughout my day? How can I turn my mind and spirit towards him when I’m walking the dog, spending time with my kids, at the little league game, watching a movie, etc. What distracts me from Him? What do I need to let go of? What do I need to embrace? The point of all of this is to turn my heart and mind towards Jesus as often as possible. The goal is not to “do devotionals” each day, but to live a devoted life. 

This isn’t being legalistic, it’s simply recognizing that my habits and daily routines shape and form who I am and determine who I will become. We can, as most people do, simply let life happen to us and hope that somehow we will become more like Jesus, or we can intentionally place habits and rhythms in our lives that allow God the time, space, and opportunity to shape us into the image of Jesus. 

God is constantly present. This is the beauty of God’s omnipresence - 100% of God is present 100% of the time. The problem is that we live our lives oblivious to this fact. Instead of trying to manage your sin, crowd it out with the presence, goodness, grace, love, and power of Jesus. Live your life today overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus is present in every moment. Wake up to this reality. As the old song goes, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”