Jeff Vanderstelt discusses how the Gospel teaches us to say no to sin.
He says, “Talking to a young man who got stuck in a pattern of on going sin in the area of pornography and he came to me one day and he told me about it. And I said, ‘Let me ask you, when you continue to go back into this sinful pattern what happens to you…’ He said, ‘Man, I’m full of guilt. I’m full of shame.’ And I said, ‘Do you believe that the cross was sufficient—that Christ died once for all?’ One time, He doesn’t need to die over and over for you. And he said, ‘Well, yeah I do.’ And I said, ‘Let me ask you, at the point of your sin how long does it take you to get to the foot of the cross worship Jesus for the fact that He died for that sin?’ He said, ‘Man, it takes me two or three days at times.’ I said, ‘So, for two or three days when you’re away from the cross, who is getting all the worship, all the dependency, all the focus.’ He said, ‘It’s me.’ I said, ‘So, do you understand that the very thing that led you into the sin of pornography you’re now trusting to lead you to grace. In other words, you’re actually thinking that trusting in yourself is going to get you free from sin, but that’s the very thing that got you into sin in the first place… So what do you do?’ He said, ‘I beat myself up.’ I said, ‘So, you believe you have to hang on a cross for what you’ve done. You believe you have to pay for it, because the cross was not sufficient enough for you…It was sufficient enough! Why not at the point at which you looked at this stuff you get on your knees and go ‘Thank you God forgave me for what I just did. Jesus, you died for this…’ Why don’t you do that before you look at the stuff? Like, ‘The stuff I’m about to do Jesus I praise you for forgiving me for what I’m about to do! You died for this! I’m so thankful’‘ He goes, ‘If I did that I wouldn’t sin.’ I go, ‘I know that’s the point!’ Because the Bible says grace teaches us to say no to sin…When you see how amazing and scandalous the Cross is you don’t want to sin anymore! You want to cling to the Cross. You want to love Jesus. You want to worship Him! You want to say, ‘NOBODY does this!’ There’s only one who’s worthy of praise. It’s Jesus Christ. It’s good news…One already paid. Don’t put yourself on a cross today!”