Once upon a time in a small Western town, a rather simple-minded man owned a beautiful horse. Two shysters came to town, saw the horse, and immediately began scheming to take it. They hit upon an imaginative plan to do so.
One day the owner of the horse rode it into town, tied the horse to a hitching post, and went into a couple of places to take care of some business. Later, when he came back to the hitching post, his horse was gone, and in its place there was a man who was tied to the hitching post. When the owner asked where his horse was, the man explained. He said, "Sir, some time ago, I committed a terrible sin. Because of that I was turned into a horse for several years. But now I have served my time and have been turned back into a man. Will you please untie me?" Since it was illegal in that little town to walk around with a man tied to a rope, the owner of the horse reluctantly untied the man and let him go.
Several months passed. The man who had owned the horse was visiting a nearby town when he saw a horse tied to a hitching post that looked strangely familiar. He gave the horse a close inspection, and discovered that it was the very horse that he had owned. He went up to the horse, looked him straight in the eye, and said in a low voice, "So, you've sinned again."
Well, that is our ongoing problem-we keep on sinning again. In spite of our best intentions, we continue to struggle with sin. Paul talked about his own struggle. He said, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. . . I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing" (Rom. 7:15, 18-19).
Is there some magical age at which we move beyond that struggle? Evidently not. Someone asked a 95-year-old man, "How old do you have to be before you no longer are tempted to do what is wrong?" The man said, "I don't know, but it must be sometime after the age of 95."
Actually, as long as we live, we will face that struggle. Paul came to the conclusion that we can never triumph in our own strength. The only way to victory is through the liberating presence and power of Jesus Christ (Rom. 7:24-25).
When Blake was about 9 years old, he came forward on the invitation one Sunday morning. He said that he was sorry that he had sinned and wanted to rededicate his life. I prayed with him and then he went back to his seat. That Sunday afternoon as I sat in my recliner in our den and watched a football game, he walked by me and said, "Well, Dad, no sins so far."
I don't know how much farther he made it, but if he's like his dad he probably didn't make it much farther. We can be grateful for God's forgiveness for sin and for His grace to help in our ongoing struggle.
