Unmasking Temptation: A Conversation About Resisting Sin and Finding Hope

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Christine Gordon
Ladies, it’s so great to be here with you today, and I’m glad that you’re all able to join us. This is unmasking temptation, a conversation about resisting sin and finding hope, and that is really our desire here. That both that we would unmask the things that are dangerous, but also that we would give you hope for the things that are good and that the Lord offers. So let’s just get started by figuring out who you are. Chris, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I can. Whoa! Hello, that’s hot. Hey, everybody. I really wanted to start by saying we’re going to go around the room and talk about your biggest temptation, just warm us up, but that would be cruel. I’m Christine Gordon. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and I’m one of the co-founders of At His Feet Studies with Hope Blanton, who’s a therapist. And I’m so happy to be here. I’ve gotten to do a few things with Megan, and this is very fun because Megan thinks deeply and hard about things, and so you’re going to enjoy listening to her. I am married. I have three children: two in college, one still in high school, and two dogs who are never allowed to die ever. And I live. I teach at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis.

Megan Hill
Yes. And I’m Megan Hill. I actually work for the Gospel Coalition, I’m the managing editor, and then I do some writing projects as well, and have some books that I’ve written. And I live in Massachusetts, so any New England girlies in here, yay! And my husband is a pastor in Western Massachusetts, and we have four children. And I’m just so delighted to be here, Chris is great, fun to talk to, and really wise and wonderful. And so I just am glad that you’re all here to hear this conversation. So we’re going to talk about two things today. The first thing we’re going to talk about is why do we give in to sin when we don’t want to? You know, why do we sin? Because nobody in this room is going to say, “Oh, I really want to sin. So, why do we give in to sin when we don’t want to? And then, second, we’re going to talk about how do we fight it and how do we make real progress in holiness. So, first of all, why do we give in so easily to sin? And I think in order to answer that question, we sort of have to back up a little bit and answer another one first, and that is, what is the Christian’s relationship to sin? You know, if you are here and you are someone who has trusted in Christ for your salvation and you are seeking to walk by faith in Him, what is your relationship to sin? Chris, why don’t you start us off?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, I think so. The gist of it, I would say, is though you still sin, you are no longer a slave to sin. So you, you, it’s not the thing that is the truest about you. Though at one time, before you knew Jesus, it was that is no longer what’s true. And I think the bit, the best picture I have found is this. And maybe some of you have heard this before. In World War II, you know there was Victory Day in 1945. I think it was in was it in May? Yeah, it was in May. It was declared. Millions of people celebrated. The war is over. Victory has happened, right? But then you know that in Asia in the Pacific, the war was not actually over. There were still battles happening until August. Have you heard this before? Okay, so we live between May and August, right? Christ is actually King. He has won the battle, but there are still like rogue armies running around in our hearts, fighting these battles, wanting to not be snuffed out. And we are between these two things. We will eventually get to August, where all has been defeated, but we’re living here now. So though we’re not enslaved by it, it it is still we’re still living in that place.

Megan Hill
And maybe explain a little bit how the battle was won.

Christine Gordon
Yeah. So it’s actually you know we think about victory, we think about Jesus’ resurrection, but if you study, so when he died on the cross, atoned for all of our sins, we are made pure by his blood. And his victory parade actually started in before he was even resurrected. He preaches to the spirits. If you remember this part of the Gospels, that’s where he starts his victory parade. Then he comes, appears to everyone. The ascension happens, and he is crowned king. So this is how it’s been won. And if you are in Christ, then everything that he has, including his righteousness, is yours. So that’s what makes it true about you that you have won the victory, though we live in the already not yet of that kingdom. Yeah. So if you were going to give us some categories to think about this, what or like a grid, how would you talk about it?

Megan Hill
Yeah, so Chris and I both have sort of personal experiences of what has helped each of us to understand our relationship to sin, and I think that’s what makes a conversation like this helpful because there are. Certain things that have been really helpful to me, certain things that have been helpful to Chris. So, we’re both going to talk a little bit about some of those categories that have helped us. And I think it’s important for us to remember that Christ’s work on the cross frees us from both the penalty and the power of sin. And I think we’re most often used to thinking of Christ as freeing us from the penalty of sin, right? We’re not guilty for our sin. We don’t have to face God’s wrath for our sin because of what Christ did on the cross, and that is very important. But also, we need to remember that Christ’s work on the cross frees us from the power of sin. So, those of us who are in Christ, we don’t have to sin anymore. We’re not, as Chris was saying, we’re not slaves to sin. Augustine had this thing that he called the fourfold state, which is has been very helpful to me. I once heard, watched an old video, probably on VHS, to tell you how old I am, of R.C. Sproul explaining this, and it has stuck with me ever since. And there are some Latin words that go with it. I’m not going to give you the Latin words, but the first is Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall, and they were able to sin and also able not to sin. So they were in this state where they could do one or the other, they could not sin or they could sin. But then, of course, the fall happened, right? And so then we move into the second state where people are not able not to sin. That’s where you’re a slave to sin. So Adam and Eve started out; they were able to sin, they were able not to sin. Now, since the fall, all of humanity has been not able not to sin. We can’t help ourselves, you know. We just sin, and so then that’s why we need Jesus, right? And when Jesus comes, then we move into the third state, which is able not to sin. Christ, by His death and resurrection and the indwelling power of His Spirit, He gives us the power to not sin, and we can, as believers, say no to sin. We don’t have to sin, so we’re able not to sin. And then one day, thank you, Jesus. One day we will be in glory with Him, and there we will be in the fourth state, and we will be unable to sin. We couldn’t sin if we wanted to. Not that we’re going to want to, but we will be unable to sin, and that will be our final glorious state. So those four states were super helpful to me, and continue to be helpful to me as I think about what the Bible teaches about our relationship to sin. What would you add, Chris?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, I would say I I really like thinking in terms of sin about the the progression of our lives as Christians. So justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification meaning like we talked a bit before, the atonement, Jesus’ death on the cross, and His resurrection has paid for you. So you are justified. You are counted as righteousness. It’s right now. It’s a one-time act, but then sanctification, meaning from the time that you know Jesus until your last breath. This is so. This is where you all are right now. You are in the process of sanctification, and here, here Paul actually he talks about this in Romans seven. You know that passage where he’s like, oh, the things I don’t want to do, you know, that’s what I keep on doing. I so I I’m one day I’m going to meet Paul. I’m going to say thank you for Romans seven because this was most of my life. I think sometimes though we we we get this picture of sanctification like it’s a straight line, or like we become a Christian, and now there’s going to be this pretty progression in my life, and all the really bad things I’m just suddenly going to somehow drop in a short amount of time. In a shorter amount of time than it took me to cultivate those things in my life and do them. So here’s a story that has been so helpful to me, and I I hope it makes you laugh, but is also helpful. There was a gangster who was at a fundraiser, a Christian fundraiser, and he was telling this story about how he was saved. He came to be saved. He was learning about the Bible, and he was going to speak at a Christian with another ministry leader at a Christian fundraiser. They get on the subway in New York City. The gangster has his favorite mink coat on. Two guys come onto the subway. It’s at night. One of them pulls a knife and says, “You got to give me your mink coat. I want it right now. And the gangster pulls out his gun and shoots them both in the kneecaps. And the pastor who’s with him is like, “Uh, and the gangster looks at him and says, “You know what? Before I knew Jesus, I would have shot him in the head. I’m really growing. And we, y’all, we laugh, but that is growth. Sanctification is messy, but it is progressive. So part of what you have to remember as you grow is that it is messy. And it is not going to be linear, but if the Holy Spirit lives in you, it is happening, and it may not be. It will not be as fast as you want. And then, of course, what we won’t reach till we die, which is glorification. Which can you even imagine what Megan’s talking about? Not being able to sin. If you are in Christ, that is where you are going. You won’t be able, and you will be. You’ll be fully mature and like Christ.

Megan Hill
Wonderful. So this helps us to understand why sin is so hard to resist, doesn’t it? Because we’re in that in-between state where we don’t want to sin, but we do sin, and we are able not to sin, but sin does still come after us with temptations, and so we’re still really, you know, Satan uses every opportunity, and our sin nature uses every opportunity to capitalize on that sort of sliver of chance that they have that you will sin. So let’s talk about that temptation. Where does temptation come from?

Christine Gordon
So three places, and I’m going to give you this Bible verse. If you’re the kind who likes to write them down or look it up, Ephesians two one to three gives us these categories. And if you listen for them, verse one, and you were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world. There’s number one, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. There’s the third one, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. So, world, prince of the power of the air, which is Satan, and the flesh. Can you maybe break those down for us a little bit? Each of those categories. Yeah,

Megan Hill
yeah. So right. So theologians would call those, as Chris said, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And so we’ve got this sort of evil triumvirate here that’s going after us and trying to get us to fall into sin. And the world, Paul says the course of this world, and you know that in Scripture the world doesn’t just mean planet Earth. Typically, especially in the New Testament, it means the realm of those who reject God and His gospel. So, those who are enemies of God, those who are against the Lord, who those who are against Christ-that’s what the world is, and so the world is kind of the worst kind of peer pressure, right? It’s ungodly influences around us, people and influences around us that are trying to get us to fall into sin and to rebel against God, and whatever you know, whatever popular thing you can think of that unbelieving people are into-that’s the world. That’s the the pressure of the world. Then we have the devil, and Paul says, as Chris pointed out, the prince of the power of the air. You know, throughout Scripture, the devil is called all kinds of terrible things. He’s called the adversary. He’s called the roaring lion. Peter calls him that. John calls him a thief. The Book of Revelation, he’s called the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan. He’s called the father of lies. I mean, none of these things are good things that we want to be around. Unbelievers, of course, do exactly what Satan says. They say yes, sir. You know how far? You know I’ll go do it. But Christians, as Christians, we don’t have to say yes, sir, to Satan. But he is there trying to get us to do his bidding. And then the flesh. Paul talks about the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and that’s our own sinful desires that come from our own hearts. And unbelievers, of course, are in bondage to that. They do whatever they want to do. We have hearts that are changed, and so what we want to do is increasingly the thing that the Lord wants and the thing that is pleasing to the Lord. And so, but we do still sometimes our own hearts do sometimes lead us into things, and so in Galatians, for example, Paul lists some of the works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy. This is in Galatians five fits of anger rivalry dissension division envy drunkenness orgies and things like these he says and so some of those things are sort of whoa that’s obvious hit yourself hit you know hit you in the face kind of sins like orgies or something and then alongside things like envy or division or something, which you think the churchy

Christine Gordon
sins.

Megan Hill
Yeah, exactly, churchy sins, right? Respectable sins, and so, but those are things that arise from our own heart. They arise from the flesh, and so we’ve got these three forces working against us, tempting us to sin: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Christine Gordon
And would you would you talk about this triumvirate? Would you say they like to? Alone, they like to work in tandem. Tell us about their yeah. So

Megan Hill
they don’t really work in isolation. That would be nice because you could maybe like kill one of them at a time, but they kind of work together. So for example, right, I’m here on Instagram late at night, which is always really a terrible place to be late at night, and I see a pair of shoes that I absolutely love, but I just don’t have the money for them, right? Well, from that moment, the evil triumvirate springs into action, doesn’t it? Right? The world, maybe it’s an influencer, maybe it’s the number of likes on that post, maybe it’s the reviews that are on the site about these shoes, you know, they give me the idea. Everyone has these cute shoes, Megan. Everyone has cuter shoes than you do. You deserve these cute shoes. Actually, shoes and the way you look are the most important thing in the whole world, right? Then my flesh gets in on the action. My flesh is like, oh yeah, that’s right. What that, what the world is saying, that is right. And guess what? I, in my heart, I really want these shoes. Shoes feel a lot more important to me than spiritual things. Looking cute feels more important to me than submitting my finances to God, then the devil’s like, “Whoa, we’ve got an opportunity here. Let’s see what we can do. And the devil adds his two cents. Actually, God is trying to keep you from being cute. You know, God doesn’t want you to have that thing that will really make you happy. Is it really that bad to spend that little extra bit of money on those shoes? Guess what-you can give to the missions fund next month. You know it’ll be fine, right? You see, I mean, shoes is maybe a silly example, but you see how all three of those things-the outside influence of the world, the wicked desires of our own heart, Satan’s suggestions that God isn’t true and His Word isn’t true-all of those kind of come together in this really terrible firestorm when we’re in the midst of temptation. So that’s the reality of living in a world that is full of sin, and we’re people who are justified and yet working on being sanctified and not get glorified. So, what is our hope? You know, I mean, what this is all really depressing so far. So, what are the tools that we’ve been given to help us to resist sin?

Christine Gordon
Wouldn’t it be terrible if we just ended right there? We’ll be like, “Well, thanks, everyone.

Megan Hill
Time’s up.

Christine Gordon
First, we have the Spirit who is called the Helper, and if you can, if you remember anything, remember the Spirit is called the Helper. He he actively will help you. That’s part of what he does. He’s also the Comforter. So he is, if you are in Christ, he lives in you, and he will remind you. Ask him to. First Corinthians 1013. If you’re being tempted, no one has been tempted in a special way, and that is one way that I think Satan loves at least to talk to me. You know what? Nobody really understands this. Actually, they do, and Scripture says he will give you a way out. There’s also the option that I think you guys is just under celebrated, which is to run. You know, I love thinking about the story with Potiphar’s wife, and you know, I always think like he could have had a conversation with her. He could have no. The man just took off and ran. So my running story is Realtor.com. I don’t know if y’all are inspired by Realtor.com like me. I love to look at houses often late at night, shoes and houses, and I like layouts. I like to think about what they look like. What are they doing in my neighborhood? And sometimes it’s fine. And other times, every once in a while, every couple years, I will be on there and I will get this sense I have moved from appreciating the beauty of what God has made to a place of envy and discontent in my own heart. And I have learned one of the best things I can do is just run. I mean, not maybe run from my laptop, but just shut it at the first entrance. And it is amazing the freedom that comes when that happens. I do want to talk about before we even talk about more strategies. I think there’s something that sometimes as Christians we miss, and that is this: there are roots, oftentimes, to your sin. Your sin has specific seeds. It has been formed by specific things, and so we do have to talk about behavior. We do have to stop and run, but I think part of what can really help us, especially in those places where you are just struck, where it’s those habitual sins that you come back to, come back. Your friends have prayed, your husband has prayed, your sister. Has prayed. I am so stuck in this place. Is to figure out what are the roots, what were the seeds, what formed that? Because we don’t form generic sin, right? Most of the time, it is often informed by something specific. So there’s a Chuck DeGroat. I don’t know if any of you. He’s a licensed professor at Western Seminary, he says this: Psychology serves us by deepening our understanding of how patterns develop, how our character forms, even how the power of sin in people, family systems, and community can be undone-not through what I call band-aid theology or quick fixes, but through the deep work of disentangling a heart from whatever binds it, that’s part of this root work. Is figuring out we have to talk about sin, but part of the the complicated sin and the stuck places often are are deeply rooted, and so we have to sort of investigate those roots.

Megan Hill
So, what does this look like practically, though? Like in our lives, what does that mean?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, yeah. I think let’s take a practical example. Let’s say the thing that is the sin that you just keep coming back to all the time is comparison and envy. It’s like you just that is what you do. You compare your shoes, your hair, your kids, your car. I mean, everything like your belly, your everything. And so this is a a simple example, but you’ll see the line if you can pause and back up a little bit and think about maybe you had, for example, a mom who the way the only way that you ever got praise from her was if she compared you to say one of your sisters, and you were a better runner, scholar, speaker, dresser, eater. I don’t know whatever you were. If that was the way that you received affection from your mom, do you do you see how she set you up, not hurt, not hating on your mom. I’m a mom, but do you see how the seed is there? The pattern is formed so that you have learned I need to get affection by being better than this person. That’s that’s a it’s a simple line from that to that, but it’s it’s can be a root that helps you kind of pull back a little bit, not to blame your mom, but to think about okay, how do I start digging at this root? And here’s the thing: it’s not only from the 20th and 21st century that the church fathers did this. They called it something different. They called it the passions. But those in the 4th century who you know lived in the desert, the church mothers and fathers, they talked about these things. They called it the passions. They were great root investigators, and that’s part of how they fought their sin. Specifically, was they would pause and figure out where it came from, which is which can be a which can be a hard process, but it’s worthwhile because you will be free. Okay, can you talk about once? Let’s say we’ve done that. We’ve identified some of the roots, maybe of our hardest stuck places. What are some of the tools God gives us then to start hacking away at those roots?

Megan Hill
Yeah, I think that the Lord has just given us a lot of tools, and one of the things that I’m convinced about is that fighting sin is sort of like having a toolbox in your house, right? Maybe you have a bunch of different sizes of screwdrivers, or you have you know several different hex keys. The other day I was trying to fix a chair, and I you know, pulled out all the hex keys. I was trying to find the right one that fit in the in the thing. And I think the more tools that you have in your toolbox to fight sin, the more likely it is that in the moment of temptation you’ll be able to grab one of them and it will be helpful to you. And so I think one thing that we need to do, even not in the moment of temptation, but before the moment of temptation, is to start to sort of cultivate these tools so that we have them ready, so that they’re in our minds, that they’re in our hearts, so that in the moment of temptation we have something that we can pull out. And I, you know, I could talk. You know, there are probably dozens of them, but let me just go through a few of them just to give you kind of the idea of what I’m talking about. So, for one thing, we can one would be we can remember the sinfulness of sin, right? Remember the sinfulness of sin in First John three. John says sin is lawlessness. You know, when we sin, we become law breakers. I don’t think we think about that enough. I don’t think about that enough. You know, I just sort of, as Chris said, I sometimes think about my sin in just sort of generic terms, like, “Oh, I’m sinner. I do sinful stuff. I don’t think like I am breaking God’s law, and. The tiniest act of unholiness is rebellion against God, and it deserves His wrath and displeasure. You know that it it is worthy of God’s wrath and displeasure, and we saw that poured out on Christ at the cross. Right, something that is you know sin is so sinful that it requires nothing less than the blood of Christ to pay its penalty. There are no inconsequential sins. Every one of them required Christ’s death, and I think if we just sit with that for a minute, like if we just remember that, then sometimes when you’re in that moment of temptation, you can remember no sin is really really bad. Like this is really bad. This is so bad that it costs the life of Christ. And sometimes that’s enough to help you to kind of reorient yourself. Another thing is to remember the character of Satan. You know how often do we meditate on on Satan? Maybe not often enough, honestly. Satan is not your friend. Satan is a liar. He’s a deceiver. He’s Peter calls him the devourer. He’s an accuser. He is not your friend. And so if he comes to you and starts whispering, as it were, in your soul. Don’t trust him. He can’t be trusted. He doesn’t have your good in mind. He does not want what is good for you. And I think if we remember that, then when we encounter Satan, we’re more prepared to go. Oh no, I should not be trusting this. You know, with little kids, you know, if you have small children, you know, when they’re very small, you teach them like stranger danger, right? You know, don’t when the nice person comes and offers you candy and says, “Get in my car, you know, don’t go with them, and you need to tell them that long before the nice person with the candy tries to get them in the car so that they know. And then when they’re in that situation, then they’re like, “Oh yeah, I know you can’t be trusted. I’m not. This is what my mom told me to do in this situation. I’m not going to do that. Well, we need to do something similar, I think, with our souls. Remind ourselves regularly, Satan is stranger danger. You know, don’t get in the car with him. He’s bad. You know, and I think we don’t spend. We just kind of oh, Satan, whatever, you know.

Megan Hill
But we need to remind ourselves regularly: Satan is really bad, and don’t trust him. Another thing, another tool, I think that that the Scripture gives us is to remember the sorrows of the past. One of the verses that I have found most helpful in my life in fighting sin and temptation is this one from Romans six. In Romans 621, Paul says, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? So he’s talking about the Romans’ life in the past. I’ll read that again. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? He’s basically saying, “Has sinning ever done you any good? And the answer is no, right? And we can all think back in the past about times that we have fallen into sin, and we can think, “I that was awful. I’m ashamed of that in in a healthy way. I mean, there is a healthy sort of sense of shame that that the Lord gives us to keep us from doing that again. Right? That did not do me any good the last time I did it, and I need to remember that it didn’t do me any good last time, so that this time I don’t do it again. Another thing that I find really helpful is remembering the cloud of witnesses. You know, Hebrews 12 tells us that we’re not alone; that there is a cloud of witnesses; that there are saints who have gone before, and then that we have the saints in our local churches and in our communities, and they remind us that we’re not alone. And as Chris said, there’s no unique temptation. There’s no unique sin, and there are people all around us, and people who have gone before us who have resisted that sin and who are resisting that sin, and that can give us encouragement. You know that that those people are coming alongside us, as it were, and they know what it is to resist sin, and and we can be encouraged by that as we’re resisting sin as well. Peter says in First Peter five, he says, “Resist the devil, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world, that people all over the world are suffering at the hands of Satan’s temptations, and you resist and they resist. I like to think of resisting sin as sort of a community program. You know that we are all we’re drawing the line here. We’re saying no to Satan, and we’re all saying it. And it isn’t easier to protest something to stand against something when it’s not just you and your little piece of poster board, but it’s 1000s of people and their pieces of poster board, right? Well, well, resisting sin is a community protest, and I think if you remember that all the people in my church today, right at this minute, are trying to resist Satan too. And I am part of this community protest. It makes it harder to be the one who gives in, and more encouraging to be the one who stands with everyone else who’s trying to defeat sin too. All right, but the truth is, we do sin, right?

Christine Gordon
We do. Although next time I’m tempted, I really want to like text you and be like, “Can you send me a maybe your whole family with some signs? Yes, just for me.

Megan Hill
Say no to that’s right. That’s right. Say no to say. So, but what do we do when we do sin? Is there hope? What’s there’s hope.

Christine Gordon
That’s that’s what you need to hear, right? Is there there’s so much hope. And here, for just a minute, I want you to think about the thing. I would assume none of you came in here just, you know, because you didn’t have anywhere else to be. So I want you to think about the thing that got you into this room, or maybe, maybe it’s a friend. I want you to think about that thing. That if I asked you right now, you would crawl under your chair because you are ashamed of the length of how long you’ve struggled with it, of how many times you’ve done it, feel free to close your eyes or leave them open. I just want you to hear what your Jesus says about this very sin-the one that is so bad that you’re not going to say it out loud. He says several things. First of all, Romans eight one: there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s what he says about you. You are not condemned. First John one nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If A, then B. There’s no equivocating that. First John two one to two, my little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That’s His name, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Those are the things that are true of you in the moment when you are doing that thing you’re ashamed of. That’s what Jesus says. That is your hope. And here’s the reality: I’ve been a Christian now for 31 years. Somebody could be in here and they’re six months old. Our lives look the same every day. You know why? Because my life is I sin, I repent, I enjoy Jesus’s forgiveness, and I try to walk in new obedience. That is what’s going to be true of you until you die. That may be good news or bad news. I don’t know how you’re taking it today, but it’s not as if you’re going to get to a place where repentance and faith are not part of your life. The things that you’re talking about are going to look different, but that pattern that you live in-the death and life-that is what is true of all of us. So that means all these things are true as well. All the The verse about the life that is possible because of the righteous that is you if you are in Him. So there is there is much much hope. I once asked a woman who was my age, and I thought, oh wow, she’s you know she’s pretty old. I was 25 at the time, and she was 50. Now I’m 51, and I have new respect for this woman. I said to her, she had been a Christian. You know, she was one of these like five-year-old raise your hand, come to know Jesus. And I said, “What’s the thing that you would say? You know, like you’ve been a Christian a long time. What’s the thing that like just stands out to you? And she thought about it for a minute. She she had been a missionary in Africa. She had been to seminary. She’d done all these things, so I expected like some deep theological truth, you know, or some like she would quote Calvin or something, and she said, “I just can’t believe I can’t believe how big of a sinner I am, and I thought, “Oh, lady, that’s not what I expected. And then she said, “And how much bigger every year the cross gets because of that.

Christine Gordon
And I think that you know we we get stuck and we think sanctification is going to be like I said this line where we just get holier and holier, and that is true. That’s happening inside of you. But if that’s happening, what you’re going to see more and more clearly is your sin, and that’s not a bad thing. That means that the Spirit is giving you eyes to see, and that means the cross gets bigger, right? Every time, that that’s what becomes more amazing as you see your sin more clearly.

Megan Hill
That’s really great. So obviously, we have. I’m not able to cover everything here. So, where? What are some resources? Where do you suggest that people go to find more help?

Christine Gordon
Yeah. So, how many have any of you read C.S. Lewis’ Screw Tape Letters? I imagine a lot of you have. If you haven’t, that is my favorite book, and it’s not a it’s not systematic theology. It’s like a story of a worker of Satan who has a nephew that he writes letters to, and he’s trying to get he’s trying to get this believer, this new believer, to sin. So it’s like you get this whole perspective of how Satan might work, how sneaky he is, and it just it kind of like comes in on the side because you’re not expecting it because it’s like letters. That’s my favorite, and then also there is there’s a book called Holiness by J C Ryle. He it was first published in 1877, but he writes like a Puritan pastor. He is no fluff. It is just stark truth, and if you need that kind of clarity, like me and my bullheadedness, might help you. J.C. Ryle Holiness, how about you?

Megan Hill
Yeah. So I love. There’s a Puritan paperback by Thomas Brooks called “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. In maybe in line with screw tape letters. He’s looking at what what are Satan’s tactics and what and sort of unmasking those. And it’s it’s very in a Puritan sense. There’s points and there’s subpoints and there’s sub points of the sub points and you know so it’s the kind of book where you can just read one little page of it and come away with something. One of the things that Brooks says in that book is one. You know, one of the many tactics of Satan is he says that Satan presents the bait and hides the hook, and I think that you know just even that little nugget of remembering. Ooh, this bait looks really great, but guess what? There’s a hook in there. is really helpful. So Brooks goes through just all the different things, you know, ways that Satan keeps us from spiritual disciplines, ways that Satan tries to cut us off from the people of God, ways that Satan tries to overwhelm us with shame, ways that Satan, you know, and just naming those things and looking at those things helps you to recognize the danger you’re in when Satan comes after you that way. So that’s precious remedies against Satan’s devices. It’s by the Puritan Thomas Brooks. Another recent book that I really have appreciated and keep recommending to people is by Esther Smith, and it’s called A Still in quiet mind, 12 strategies for changing unwanted thoughts. It is not specifically about sin and temptation, and yet there’s a ton of overlap there, and ways that you can even use her strategies when it comes to other things. And so she goes through, yeah, it’s it’s about unwanted thoughts, how you combat your unwanted thoughts, whether those are outright sinful thoughts, whether they’re just sort of intrusive thoughts, whether they’re just spiraling anxiety kind of thoughts. And she’s a counselor, and she’s writing about what are like biblical strategies for how do you deal with these things when they come into your head. And so often, right, our sins do start with something that we’re thinking with a thought that pops into our head with an unwanted thought quite often, and so I think this is a great book. Even though it’s not proposed to be about sin and temptation, but it’s really practical, helpful strategies for kind of cutting off those thoughts at at the place where they start. So I think those two things have been really helpful to me in talking about sin and temptation.

Christine Gordon
I just want to say this: I feel like I keep as you’re talking, I’m thinking about somebody. If you need to hear this encouragement, your heavenly Father is pleased by you pushing back against your sin, so if you are at a place where you feel really discouraged, like I’m just hopeless or this is too hard or I can’t do it, I want you to hear, He loves, loves, loves His children coming near Him, talking about their weakness, asking for help. So please don’t listen to the accuser who says to you, you know what? You’re never going to get this. They don’t. Those women up there, they don’t really understand what I’m dealing with. He will tell you all the reasons you can’t do it, and the Holy Spirit who lives in you will come and say, “Yes, you can. Not because you’re so strong or great, but because the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead is alive in you. And please know that your father is pleased when you try to resist temptation, no matter what it is.