I’m not usually fond of blogs that quote a blog quoting a book, but Justin Taylor has been reading Paul Tripp’s Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy and posted an excerpt that I find extremely insightful and personally convicting…

Sin lives in a costume, that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party.

Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth.
Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty.
Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer.
Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership.
Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart.
The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.

Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, which is part of its draw.

You’ll never understand sin’s slight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. I say all the time to people that no one is more influential in their own lives than they are because no one talks to themselves more than they do. We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We’re all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We’re all very good at being intolerant of others of the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us to not hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but to compound matters, we tend to be blind to our blindness.

What does all of this mean? It means that accurate-self assessment is the product of grace. It is only in the mirror of God’s Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit, that I am able to see myself as I actually am. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. The God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness, and with a humble sense of personal need, seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.

I think Tripp has really put his finger on the self-deception that we are all capable of as we rationalize and justify our sin. I also believe that his antidote in God’s Word and God’s Spirit are absolutely correct. However, at least in the section quoted, Tripp misses a key component to seeing through sin’s masquerade–God’s people.

Because of our power to be self-deceived, we need a few people in our lives that know us well enough to see through the smoke-screen and love us enough to tell us what we don’t want to hear. Unfortunately, this is all too rare in the church today. If you are among the majority who does not have this sort of friend in your life, then I urge you to seek it out and develop it. It will take a lot of work, and it won’t happen overnight, but it will be well worth it.

If we are blessed with a husband or wife, we should have at least one such person, but many marriages lack the iron-sharpening-iron combination of intimacy and grit that it takes help our mate fight the self-deceiving power of sin. If you don’t have this sort of relationship with your spouse, then I urge you to work towards it. Husbands need to take the lead on this.

Whether with a friend or a spouse, breaking through to this level requires us to drop our defenses and be real as well as to have the courage to be willing to forgo immediate approval in order to tell a friend not what they want to hear but what they need to hear. We cannot do this with just anyone. We need to build a mutual trust, and that takes time and effort. Perhaps the fact that we are too busy is merely a costume over the sin that we don’t really want to be known nor want to bear another’s burdens as being a true friend requires.

 

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” (Proverbs 27:6)

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)

 

HT: Justin Taylor