Covenant Eyes

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." Colossians 2:20-23

There is a story of a young boy who had gotten himself into trouble. He was told to go sit in the corner. When he arrived at the chair, he refused to sit down. After his parent told him again to sit, he refused. Under the threat of increased discipline, he finally relented and sat down. However, prior to sitting, he said, "I will sit, but I am still standing on the inside!" That is pretty funny. Humor aside, this story serves as an anecdote to something more serious. In Job 31:1, Job is giving a defense of his personal purity when he says, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman." Job made this covenant because of His knowledge that God could see everything. Therefore, His sin would not be hidden from the Lord. "Does he not see my ways and count my every step (Job 31:4)?" The Bible later records the reaction of his friends. "So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes (Job 32:1)." Many of us have been like Job's friends and given up talking to somebody because nothing was going to convince them they were full of themselves; i.e. righteous in their own eyes. If we are honest, perhaps we have even been like Job at a time in our lives. Early on in my Christian walk, I attended a church that was heavy into teaching about overcoming sin in our lives. Once, the church made everybody fast from certain things like sugar. Everybody was talking about how they can avoid donuts, sugary cereals for breakfast, drinking their coffee without sugar and so on. You soon realize that sugar is in everything. Then there was a time when they challenged  people in the congregation to be like Job and make a "covenant with our eyes." Therefore, I took on this challenge and tried to avoid lusting. It didn't take long before I realized this was next to impossible. As a young man in my mid 20's at the time, this challenge buried me. My entire focus became, "don't lust." It was like the number of attractive women I encountered tripled. It was hard not to focus on not lusting! I cannot remember what we talked about in church after the challenge was issued, but if other people were like me, there was nothing to talk about. I failed miserably. Come to find out, that was not a bad thing. I should have failed. Enter the Apostle Paul.

In Romans 7:7-8, Paul writes, "Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting." Paul says that sin produced every kind of coveting. The Law said "You shall not covet" and all he did was find more ways to covet. It was no different with my experience with making a covenant with my eyes not to lust. All I found was more opportunities to lust! The same thing was true with fasting from sugar. That is why Paul would also say, "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death (Romans 7:10)." We tell ourselves that we must discipline our bodies to the point that we rid ourselves of sin because we believe that is what God demands of us. Now, don't get me wrong, we should try and avoid sin. Sin is so terrible that it required the death of God, in Christ Jesus, to pay the penalty for it. However, when all we do is focus on sin, we will only produce more of it. Paul would also write that, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)." The laws or covenants we try to impose on ourselves in order to discipline our flesh against sin, only give power to the sin we are trying to avoid! We end up getting consumed by sin. That is why at the end of Romans 7, Paul exclaimed, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25)!"In his attempts to overcome sin by subjecting himself to the Law, he only gave sin the green light to consume him. But, he also found the answer to overcoming his wretchedness; Jesus Christ. The Law did its work in Paul; it led him to trust in and depend on Jesus Christ. When a person discovers that Jesus Christ is meeting the deepest desires of their heart through His unconditional love, their focus turns towards Him and the Spirit of God and off of themselves and their flesh. The challenges, fasts, covenants, or whatever religious or self-imposed regulations we submit ourselves to have their place, but they do nothing to stop the indulgence of the flesh or its desire to be indulged. Only when we submit to the rest we have been called to, through faith in Jesus Christ, will we begin to see our hearts change. And when our heart changes, so will our behavior and we will start to indulge the Spirit of God living inside of us.