Audio Transcript
If I see and feel sin within me, surely God will not lead me or care for me — right? Wrong. Dead wrong. And we have proof: Psalm 25, an incredible psalm for life. We read it today in our Navigators Reading Plan. And this psalm is on the mind of Isabel, confusing her a bit. She looks at her own life. She sees her own sin very clearly. And for that sin inside her, for that corruption she sees and feels inside, she feels disqualified. “Surely God cannot guide my life. Surely he won’t guide my life. Not while I’m still wrestling with sin inside of me.” Then along comes David in Psalm 25 and gloriously destroys her whole basis for making such assumptions about God.
Here’s Isabel’s question, from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina: “Pastor John, hello and thank you for taking my question. Considering David’s confession of sin throughout Psalm 25, how does acknowledging our ongoing sinfulness help us find God’s guidance more effectively, rather than making us feel more disqualified for it? I see my sin and assume God isn’t going to help me out in life because of it. I feel so unworthy to be led by him because I can see my sin so clearly. But this psalm doesn’t seem to see that as a hindrance to being led, that we are sinners.”
Our Problem: Sin
It is utterly crucial that we settle it biblically once for all: None of us as Christians will ever be completely free from our own sinfulness, what Paul calls “sin that dwells within me” in Romans 7:20. None of us will be free of our sinfulness before we die or before Jesus comes.
Perfectionism in this age is deadly. It will turn us into liars who “say we have no sin” (1 John 1:8), or it will turn us into people of hopelessness with suicidal despair that it is simply impossible to be a Christian. So, I think I should begin by making as clear as I can a biblical case that all Christians deal with indwelling sin until the day we die or Christ returns. And I know this is dangerous to do (just like it’s dangerous not to do it), because some people will take this as a license to sin. It’s not, and that’ll be clear in just a moment.
So, here are some of the biblical passages that you can go to, to ponder the terrible reality that we will not be free of our own indwelling sin until Jesus comes back or until we die.
- In 2 Corinthians 7:9–10, Paul speaks of Christians repenting of sin, which restores them to fellowship.
- In 1 John 1:8, John says, “If we [Christians] say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”
- In Galatians 6:1, Paul urges us to restore fellow Christians who are caught in sin.
- In James 5:19–20, James says that if we bring back a Christian from his sinful wandering, we’ll save his soul from death.
- In Matthew 18:15, 21–22, Jesus says that our brother might sin against us and repent several times in the day, and we must forgive him.
- And of course, he tells us to pray regularly, probably daily (Matthew 6:11), “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
Our Response: Fight
How are we as Christians supposed to respond to this remaining corruption in our souls? If denial is wrong and despair is wrong, what are we supposed to feel? What are we supposed to do?
“The brokenness that we feel for sin does not make us despair of God’s guidance, because it throws us onto his mercy.”
Here’s the way the apostle Paul tells us to respond. In Colossians 3:5, he says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.” In Romans 6:12, he says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” In other words, don’t let sin be king. Don’t let it have dominion in your life. And most importantly, in Romans 8:13–14, he says, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” — which means that the evidence for being a son of God is to be led by the Spirit into making war on our sin.
So, paradoxically, the very battle that could discourage us becomes a means of assurance that we are real Christians. Real Christians hate their sin. This is why the teaching against perfectionism is not a license to sin. It’s a warning that true Christians never make peace with our sin. We hate it. We cry out with Paul in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” That cry is not the cry of despair; it is the cry of dependence. The next verse says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).
Our Hope: God
When Isabel, who asked this question, says, “I feel so unworthy to be led by [God] because I can see my sin so clearly,” my word to Isabel is that this sense of unworthiness is paradoxically an evidence that she is a good candidate for God’s guidance — which brings us now to Psalm 25. Isabel points out that David repeatedly (at least four times in this psalm) calls attention to his own sinfulness, even as he prays confidently that God will give him the guidance that he needs. And Isabel is asking, “Why doesn’t the confession of sin make him feel disqualified to be guided by God rather than hopeful that he will be guided by God” (which it does)?
In Psalm 25:7, he says, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.” In verse 8, he says, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” In verse 11, he says, “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” In verse 18, he says, “Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.”
Good grief, David, why are you belaboring your sins? And he probably says, “For Isabel. I’m doing it for Isabel.” This is the way he speaks when what he really wants from God is guidance. “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long” (Psalm 25:4–5).
Why does David feel confident that he can hope for guidance from God even though he is a sinner? And I think he would say, “My eyes are ever toward the Lord” (Psalm 25:15). He is not looking in the mirror for hope of worthiness. He is looking to God. And what is he hoping to see when he looks to God? “Turn to me and be gracious to me” (verse 16). “Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy” (Psalm 28:2).
Our Heart: Broken and Bold
David knows he deserves nothing. He is appealing to grace, he’s appealing to mercy, and then he appeals to God’s own zeal for his glory. “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great” (Psalm 25:11). He doesn’t minimize his guilt; he calls it great. This is the way justified sinners talk. It’s paradoxical, I know, and it’s amazing. It’s wonderful. The brokenness that we feel for sin does not make us despair of God’s guidance, because it throws us onto his mercy, which is our only hope.
So, I encourage Isabel and all of us to be brokenhearted because of our sin and bold because of God’s grace. That’s what Micah 7:9 captures so well — this brokenhearted boldness as we wait for the Lord’s guidance. It says, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.” Isn’t that amazing? “For me,” not against me. “He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.”
We are mortified because of our sin, and we are justified because of God’s grace — and therefore we say with David in Psalm 25:8, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.”
