Gospel Prism

Today was the second time I was listening to the radio where a caller was talking about his “disease� of compulsive gambling.  Now I have had this discussion before, but the result always seems the same: People cannot imagine that perhaps that are responsible rather than some disease.  The argument goes that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain that leads to addictions, such as alcoholism or gambling.  I am not a physician, and certainly not a neurologist, so I will assume that there IS a chemical imbalance in the brains of those who have addictions.  I will also grant that quite possibly some might have a clear inclination towards addictions.  However, I tend to think this is a classic situation where the question of “What comes first the chicken or the egg?� arises.

What do I mean?  Well, gambling might actually create a chemical change in the brain.  But isn’t it possible that gambling itself makes that change?  Or even if a person has that tendency, couldn’t a person avoid such situations so that he/she will not be making this situation worse?  Since I believe Paul when he says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,� I would say that every person has a chemical imbalance in the brain that leads a person toward a sinful behavior.  The sinner IS totally depraved, meaning that every aspect of a person, including the physical body and yes the brain, is affected by sin.  It is far too simplistic to think that human addiction is a disease.  Furthermore, it is an attempt to rid oneself of blame and responsibility.  Hence, if a person believes they are affected by a disease and not by the tendencies of their own sinful heart, it will be quite easy to fall to the same “disease,� as one can so easily catch a cold and blame the virus.  Such a position is a recipe for continual “relapses� to such a “disease.�

Sin creates chemical imbalances in the brain.  I am certain that the body we have now (since we know that one day, those who trust Christ, will have a glorified body [1 Corinthians 15]), is not a physiologically perfect body.  Sin has impacted us, and we must see that we are the culprit that makes us crave and lust after all things that turn us away from God (1 John 2:15-17).  So I hope more people will stop saying, I have a disease,� and instead will respond like the tax-collector in Jesus’ parable did as he prayed to God in the Temple: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!� (Luke 18:13)

The following is an article I wrote concerning gambling and the Bible’s perspective on it.  I hope it helps those who are thinking about the harmless influences of gambling, as nothing more than an advertisement of the gambling industry:

I was listening to an interview on ESPN radio some years ago, when the interviewer was talking to a pro athlete about his alcoholism. As the athlete continued to share about his experience with alcohol and how it had virtually ruined his life, the interviewer stepped in with this remark, “It’s a disease, man!� Now, I know that since I am not a person beholden to alcohol, nor exposed to alcoholism, it might be very easy to dismiss my words here. But please bear with me as I try to speak not about alcoholism per se, but to what is truly the cancer of the human condition, the sinful heart. I would beg to differ with the many who use labels and Teflon terms intended to lessen the blow of this stark reality: that we humans refuse to take responsibility over the actions of our sinful heart.

The Bible makes this point clear in the very beginning. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God called Adam to own up to his sin. We cannot hear the tone of Adam’s response, but we really don’t need to, when he says: “The WOMAN whom YOU gave to be with me, SHE gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.� In other words, “It’s not my fault, God. It’s your fault and it’s her fault.� Ah, now we know that blameshifting and playing politics has truly had early beginnings. Subsequently, human beings ever since have refused to take any responsibility for their own sin. Instead, it is either God’s fault, her fault, his fault, the parents’ fault, society’s fault, the dog’s fault, but never, ever MY fault and God forbid, MY sin.

Examine the lives of Saul and David and how they deal with sin and you begin to realize just what makes these two men so radically different. We know David to be a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Was David distinguished this way because he was morally more righteous than Saul? I don’t think so. David was an adulterer, a murderer, a schemer, and a terrible father. While the Bible is silent on Saul’s personal sins, we do know that his son Jonathan was a man of great integrity who genuinely feared the Lord. At the very least, Saul raised a Godly son, quite a difference from David’s coterie of foolish and evil progeny. So then, why is David a man after God’s own heart? I think the answer is most obvious in their responses, not to their successes, but to their disobedience to God.

When Saul is rejected as King in 1 Samuel 15, he is confronted by Samuel to come clean and take responsibility for his sin. But his response sounds eerily familiar to Adam’s moment of truth. God tells Saul to destroy everything and take no plunder, but Saul has failed to see the mission to its full completion. So Samuel says, “Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?â€? Listen to Saul’s response, “”I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.â€? In other words, “I did what God asked, why should he be upset with me!â€? Moreover, it was the soldiers’ fault. They didn’t listen. The evidence is undeniable that Saul has succumbed to the sin of pride that leads to defensiveness that leads to blameshifting.

But if we study David’s response to his sin, when he is confronted by Nathan, there is quite a difference. In 2 Samuel 12:13, David responds so simply and yet so poignantly, “I have sinned against the LORD.� Nathan then goes on to explain that there will be severe consequences for this sin. He will lose his son and his children will constantly struggle against him, as proven by his son Absalom’s rebellion. And yet, through it all, he continues to trust in God’s sovereign and good judgment. I think it would be fair to say that a key component of a pursuer of God is a humble heart and a solemn acceptance of one’s own sins and all the consequences which accompany that sin.

This type of framework would transform the believer and the church to be a Gospel-loving, empowered life. Because as believers in a God whose Son would die to extend His righteousness to our account (Romans 4), we now know that it is NEVER our righteous deeds or works that give us hope or identity. In this way, it is Christ’s righteousness that makes us the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and it is because we have been crucified with Jesus that we can live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). If this is all true, then we must stop the blameshifting and say before God, others, and the world, “I have sinned.� That is, it is MY fault and it is MY sin and I deserve the just punishment of God. But thanks be to God that in Christ we will never bear the full brunt of the just punishment for our sin or all would truly be lost. Ah, and then the cross and grace become sweeter and more precious than ever before, because we stand in constant praise of Jesus’ awesome sacrifice for us. So the last verse of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,� so aptly says,

To Christ, Who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore.

If this is true, then we must also begin the hard work of halting the mislabeling of sins. Our blameshifting nature and self-protective identities rob us of the freedom to live the new life Christ has won for us at the cross. Instead, we perpetuate the evasive tactics of the Adams and Sauls of our world by de-sinning sin. And so we use certain terms to disguise sin. For example:

Procrastination - Is often a term used in place of laziness. We want to think, “I am not lazy, I just can’t concentrate.� Procrastination sounds much nicer, almost admirable. But procrastination, if we really thought about it, is nothing more than another way of saying, “I don’t want to be diligent because it’s too tiring, too work heavy.� Being a procrastinator sounds typical, being called lazy sounds is downright rude.

Getting a Buzz - No one likes to think of the ‘buzz’ as drunkenness, but is it possible that that is what a buzz really is? We toe the line that says drunkenness is when, when…where is that line anyway? Is it the legal limit? We laugh about getting a buzz because it seems quite sterile to think of drinking in this way. But isn’t drunkenness really when one hands over control to alcohol? And in such a state, we no longer have full self-control over our capacities, one part of the fruit of the Spirit. I am not saying drinking is a sin, nor is it drunkenness. But most Christians are quick to point out that drunkenness is a sin, but the buzz? Well, that really isn’t a sin, it’s only a good feeling. It sounds very close to justification to me.

Flirting - No one likes to call flirting, lust. Flirting is fun, stylish, bantering. But it simply is not lust. But Jesus raises the bar on adultery by saying that if anyone looks at a woman lustfully, that’s adultery. Well, God knows the heart and there is no hiding behind the looks and the “playful bantering.� Maybe, just maybe, we have crossed the line with flirting and yet, we would hate to actually be called one who is lusting.

Eye-Shopping - I wonder if we have ever eye shopped without committing the sin of covetousness, the longing for something so much that it is nothing more than the sin of lust except with possessions. Once again, the line is quite fine, and as John tells us, “the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world� (1 John 2:16). Now that the Internet has given us a world mall, covetousness is quite an easy sin to commit.

There are many more words and phrases we can examine here. But the point is that we are too often no better off than Adam or Saul or David. All of us commit sins regularly and horribly. It is for this reason that Paul genuinely believes he is the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). This was no red herring. He knew himself better than anyone and I am sure that people said to him, “Paul, you are the best Christian I have ever met.� But in his mind and heart, he knew. Apart from Christ, he would be doomed because every day there was a moral failure. But again, Paul and David had two things in common, they were terrible sinners but they were quick to say, “I have sinned and I need God.� Adam and Saul, they were always ready to say, “She made me do it,� or “They made me do it.� Let’s confess our sins and call them what they are, sins, trusting that He is faithful and just and will forgive us all our sins and cleanse us of unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). In doing so, we know this wondrous truth: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption� (1 Corinthians 1:30).

It’s not a disease, man, it’s sin. But confess that sin sincerely before the foot of the cross and you will not only be freed of alcoholism, but will gain righteousness, holiness, and redemption, and will experience life as you have never experienced it before.