My daughter was watching a movie about the Craig’s list killer this weekend. I was struck by the comments made by the investigators that he was difficult to pinpoint because he was so normal. He did not fit the typical profile and had not yet been identified in the criminal database. By his appearance, his demeanor, and life circumstances, you would never suspect the evil that lurked in his heart. Watching, it is easy to take on the role of an observer and declare oneself immune from such choices. That is, unless you have already visited those places in yourself and know that no sin, big or small, is beyond the depravity that lies within your own heart.
No one who has gazed at that reality can cluck their tongues in smug disapproval at grievous human choice. It is not some self endowed religious will power that makes you different from an anguished girl contemplating ending the life of her unborn baby. Your superior genes do not keep you from indulging the anger that burns within through domestic violence. Neither does the fact that you engage in regular date nights keep extra-marital lusts at bay. “There but for the grace of God go I,” is not a proclamation of supremacy, but sober recognition that God’s infinite grace shaped life’s circumstances in such a way to keep some temptations just outside the easy grasp of my greedy clutch.
I’ve experienced enough of my own failures to know there is no sin too great that given the right set of circumstances, that it would not enter my contemplation. The spirit within acts as a rudder to steer me away from many circumstances, but my flesh ambushes the controls and takes me places so tantalizing that it is only God’s grace that prevents my diving recklessly into its siren-called depths. It is in this place that you realize just how much Christ’s payment for sin really was. Today thankfully embrace the redemption of the cross!
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