There are several theological reasons why we retain the black
dog after salvation that are beyond the scope of this article, but I wanted to
offer at least one that is germane to our discussion. God uses our sin nature
or black dog to test our obedience to Him much as He did when He left some of
the Canaanites in the Promised Land (cf. Jdg 2:22; 3:4).
After Joshua’s generation died off, the generation that followed
afterwards didn’t know Joshua and started slipping away from following the ways
of Yahweh. They wound up integrating with their pagan neighbors, and it turned
out to be spiritually ugly and costly to the nation of Israel. If we elect to
backslide and start walking in the flesh, it only results in burdens rather
than blessings, yes? Someone proposed a remedy: “The answer to backsliding is
to slide back to God.” It is quaint, but it is easier to slide than to
take steps. Water takes the path of least resistance, right? Staying rather
than straying demands effort.
I wanted to mention an insidious danger with our black dog or
sin nature. Figuratively speaking, we can keep it tethered to a leash and
prevent it from becoming a physical reality, but spiritually it is unleashed
and poses a threat to our spirituality and relationship with the Lord. It is
all about which dog we are feeding; in this case, the wrong one.
To better understand this concept, recall that Jesus spoke of having
our bodies in check but not our thought life. We may not be guilty of a
physical act, but we can be guilty of thinking sinfully but not physically. He
concludes that thinking sinfully about something is no different than literally
sinning in knowledge. He uses the example of adultery,
(Mat 5:27) You have heard that it was said to those of old,
YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
(Mat 5:28) But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman
to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his
heart [emphasis mine].
We learn from this that what we think about does matter to God!
Thinking sinful thoughts is like petting the black dog while on a leash! Sin
begins within the heart, the seat of the intellect, the emotions, and the will
(cf. Mt 12:35; 15:18-19). This means that thought always precedes behavior.
We may not express that behavior while our thought-life already has. If you
dwell on it too long, it may surprisingly jump out! Our exterior can be a
pleasant façade to others, but our interior can be quite ugly to God.
There is no such thing as a thoughtless act that leads to a victim
mentality to evade any culpability of wrongdoing. In other words, they plead
not guilty when they are already guilty for thinking it, according to Jesus.
Thinking was treated as a safe zone; the violation was in the doing! “Think it;
just don’t do it!”
It is preventative medicine to think wholesome thoughts to avoid
those so-called “thoughtless” moments that lead to an outward behavior of
regretful indiscretion. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation but one
indiscretion to destroy it, yes? Improper thinking or petting on the black dog
on a leash can lead to improper behavior. We must not underestimate the
importance of a spiritually healthy thought life (cf. Php 4:8). You’ve heard
the expression, “A man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.
The real person is found in the thought life; God knows.
A person without the Holy Spirit will be governed by the flesh
or the old man or the black dog. A person who has the Holy Spirit is empowered
to avoid doing unholy things when we were spiritually dead (Eph 2:1-3).
Unfortunately, there is a tendency for believers to forget what they had been
redeemed from before coming to Christ.
At one time we were alienated and enemies
in our mind by wicked works (Col 1:21). We who
know Jesus are the sons of light and sons of the day. We are not
of the night nor of darkness (1 Thes 5:5). We
are commanded to be holy not according to our standard but to God’s attribute
of holiness – for I am holy (Lev
11:44-45; 1 Pet 1:15-16).
The command to be holy as God is holy is impossible apart from
the Holy Spirit (cf. Zech 4:6; Jn 15:5; Gal 5:16; Eph 5:8). Any thought, word,
or act of a believer that falls short of God’s standard of
righteousness indicates we are not rightly related to God because we are either
unsaved or out of fellowship with Yahweh. The remedy is found in Rom 10:13 for
the unbeliever and 1 Jn 1:9 for the believer.
To be crystal clear on 1 Jn 1:9 verse above, this is a matter of
practical righteousness, not positional righteousness.
Fellowship with God is hindered by sin. Salvation (Rom 10:13; Eph 2:8-9)
addresses the penalty of sin. Progressive salvation is about maturation in the
faith and works. If works were allowed to influence our salvation favorably,
then salvation would not be of grace but of works (cf. Eph 2:8-10; Titus 3:5).
Therefore, Christ propitiating the penalty of sin for mankind (not
just for a select few) would have been unnecessary because good works, not the
blood of Jesus, would have atoned for sin. Works of righteousness, however, could
never satisfy the penalty of man’s sin before God, which is eternal separation
from Him. Christ’s death on the cross was deemed essential if a man was to be
redeemed by Yahweh.
Speaking of progressive sanctification, my friend, Dr. Michael
Womack, told of a sign hanging in a restaurant that read,
“The standard is perfection, but we will settle for
excellence.”
The divine standard for our lives is the holiness of God and not
the faulty measurements of human logic that “nobody is perfect;” the latter
tends to focus on the imperfections of man rather than the perfection of God
(cf. 1 Jn 5:17; 2:1).
Not only does the sin nature or black dog remain with us this
side of eternity; it also cannot be improved, domesticated, or eradicated by us!
This dog is definitely not man’s best friend but foe! No matter how far we
ascend intellectually or scale the social ladder or “evolve” among our fellow
homo sapiens, our sin nature will remain as ugly as it was the day that we
were born again. This is because our Adamic nature is the unredeemed part
of us. It can only be removed from our being by God.
If we cannot improve, domesticate, or eradicate the black dog or
our old man, when will Yahweh rid us of this canine for good? It will be one of
two ways, my friend. It will happen whenever we are either caught up in the
rapture, which is imminent and the next eschatological event for believers, or
we keep our appointment with physical death (Heb 9:27). Until either one, we
are stuck with that black dog. God will permanently remove this hound from hell
during the process of glorification.
Speaking of the rapture, In the
twinkling of an eye…we shall be changed (1 Cor 15:52)
reveals the rate of the sudden transformation of believers in which our sin
nature will be removed instantly whether it is being raptured, shall
be caught up (1 Thes 4:16-17) or dirt-napping, absent
from the body [in death] and to be
present with the Lord [in glory] (2 Cor 5:8). Naturally, I favor the
rapture; the death route just doesn’t appeal to me like the thrill of being
translated to heaven to be with Jesus at any given moment!
As long as we are alive, we could very well be the generation
that experiences being translated to glory. What a blessing that will be for
all believers during that rapturous moment! One of the reasons no man knows the
day nor the hour of Jesus’ imminent return is that God wants our personal
holiness not to be a matter of timing but characterized by faithful obedience
(cf. 1 Jn 3:2-3). My former pastor once said, “If we knew when Jesus would
return, we would sin ourselves stupid!” The black dog would have a heyday. I have
never found an exception to this truth. Personal holiness yields blessings;
disobedience invites avoidable burdens into our life. Why do we choose to heap
upon ourselves those avoidable burdens by messing with the black dog? Let
sleeping dogs lie, yes?
Both natures (old and new) do not operate simultaneously (cf.
Rom 7:25), but recall the Jewish point of view of good and bad coming forth
from the same wicked heart. For the believer, good comes from the new nature
and bad comes from the old nature. The Jewish objective was to have more good
than bad to warrant heaven! But how does God view man’s good as represented by
the white dog in the dark heart? Isaiah declares that all our righteousnesses
are like leprous rags (Isa 64:6)! Read Paul’s declarations,
(Rom 3:10) As it is written: THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO,
NOT ONE;
(Rom 3:11) THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO
SEEKS AFTER GOD.
(Rom 3:12) THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE; THEY HAVE TOGETHER
BECOME UNPROFITABLE; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE [emphasis
mine].
(Rom 3:23) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God.
(Luk 18:18) Now a certain [very
rich, Lk 18:23, moral and ethical, added] ruler
asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
(Luk 18:19) So Jesus said to him,
Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that
is, God.
Jesus was not including Himself with the no
one (v19), for He was God (cf. Jn 10:30; cf. Jn 10:33). What Jesus
was asking the ruler was this, “Are you recognizing and acknowledging that I am
God since you addressed me as Good Teacher?”
Jesus already knew his answer, but it was for the benefit of the ruler, but it
became quickly evident that he did not (read Lk 18:22-25). And even if he did,
he loved wealth more than God and turned down Jesus’ offer of salvation.
Imagine a world of lost people sidestepping faith in Christ and
seeking in their own strength to tip the scales in favor of heaven by having a
heavier pan of good works than a pan of bad works. Good works cannot redeem
anyone from the penalty of sin; only Jesus can do that and has done that. In
Rom 3:12 above, Paul quoted David from Psa 14:1-3 and Psa 53:1-3 to inform
those relying on their own goodness, There is none who does
good, no, not one, even those attempting to tip the scales in
futility.
It should not come as a surprise that man’s idea of good and
God’s idea of good are dissimilar, not even remotely similar! Any theological
system (Jew or Gentile) that promotes the belief that a person will be
guaranteed a positive outcome in the afterlife should the accumulation of his
or her good works outweigh the sum total of all of his or her bad works in life
is purely fictional according to the authority of the Word (cf. Eph 2:8-9).
Self-redemption is a myth, an idea perpetuated by a black dog theology.
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