The Power of Mercy: Displacing Evil with Kindness

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So Paul is coming to the end of this particular section in Romans 12, and as usual, he brings in one of those interesting conclusions. Mind you, so very often we miss the conclusion because it’s so pithy, it is so short and yet full of insight. He says, “…do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Now, remember, he’s just been talking about loving the world, about putting others first, about serving people rather than being served, entering into people’s suffering and weeping with them and also rejoicing with them when good things happen. Do not look at yourself too highly, but associate with the humble. Don’t repay evil for evil. and love with affection, be kindly affectionate to one another, let your love be without hypocrisy, all of this that we can only fulfill as we put faith in Jesus Christ and allow him to work through us, though remember when he works through us, he works through an imperfect vessel, so we are not doing anything perfectly well, but we’re doing the best we can by faith. So at the end of all this, having said love your enemies and give water to your enemy when he wants a drink and feed him when he’s hungry because you will pour coals upon his head in the process. You’ll make him feel guilty. You’ll make him wonder why you operate as you do as a Christian. And maybe he too will want to become a Christian. So then he says, as I said a moment ago, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Now, why is this very significant? Because Paul is telling us, don’t endlessly concentrate on trying to die to your sinful nature. I know from counseling over many, many years, faith training counseling, that there are Christians out there who continually try to put to death their human nature. because they are now Christians, and yet they see themselves with many habits that are sinful or addictions, and they want to try to put those things to death. Now, I’m not saying you can’t overcome an addiction or a habit that is a sin, but I’m saying this. You do not try to put your sinful nature to death because you are your sinful nature, your human nature. It is better to translate the phrase sinful nature as human nature because that’s what human nature is. It is fallen. It is broken. It has this proclivity and tendency towards sin. It is not the natural humanity that God gave us at the creation. There has been a fall, a catastrophic fall, which has brought humanity into enormous crisis. Well, if you don’t put to death your sinful nature, what do you do with it? Well, you count it, reckon it, treat it as if it were dead. That is the counsel of the gospel, Romans 4, verse 5. And you’ll see, as you read Romans 4, the way God treated Abraham. He treated him as righteous. He counted him as righteous, which means, of course, that he was not righteous in himself, but God treated him as if he were righteous. Now, why do we do this? Because God in Jesus Christ at the cross took our place and took our judgment, and Christ’s death was a judgment and an execution on behalf of the whole human race. So we, by faith, when we come to Jesus, thank him that we are counted as dead, that our human nature, with all its sin, with all its identity as a sinner, with all its power, is counted as if it were dead. Now, when we do that, we move on. We stop trying to put to death our sinful nature, and we thank God and praise Him whenever its tendencies arise. We give thanks, and we say, Father, thank you that this feeling, this desire, this urge has no power over me to identify me or to condemn me because I’m counted as crucified and executed in Jesus Christ. So this is where this counsel makes sense, doesn’t it? Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words, we move forward. We no longer spend time and waste endless energy trying to put to death our sinful nature, but we overcome whatever we’re dealing with, by doing good to others, by serving them. Now, this is where so many Christians come a cropper. That’s an English expression. I haven’t used it in decades, I think. This is where many Christians stumble, come a cropper. That’s what that means. And what I mean is this. They say, I can’t serve God. I’m still a sinner. I can’t do good for other people. I can’t serve them in the name of Jesus because I have failings and struggles in my own life and I would be a hypocrite. No, that is not so. What you do is you say to the Lord, Father, I thank you that you do not count my human nature against me because it is reckoned as if it were executed, crucified in Jesus Christ, and therefore I go forward serving other people, blessing them, reaching out to help them, putting them first, putting them before me, loving my enemies and in the name of Jesus, even though I’m still a sinner. And what you find is that slowly you are displacing evil or tendencies to do wrong by the good that you are doing now notice the word displace not replace but displace imagine a soccer ball that you have in front of you and a big bowl of water and as you press put that soccer ball in the water and you press it down into the water what happens to the water Well, the soccer ball displaces the water. It fills the volume where the water would have been were you not pressing it down, and thus the water spills over the sides of the bowl. In the same way, or in a similar kind of way, we are displacing the evil in our lives and the tendencies towards wrongdoing by filling the space with the good that we’re doing. We’re not doing the good to be saved. We’re not doing good because we are anxious God will condemn us if we don’t. We’re doing the good out of the mercy that God has shown towards us, and in doing that good we are displacing so much evil in our lives. Don’t let the devil say to you, you’re not good enough to witness to Jesus, as if he cared. I mean, he’s a hypocrite anyway. You’re not good enough to serve Jesus? No, you’re not, nor am I. We are unworthy vessels. But God has shown mercy to us, and we are showing mercy to others. And what our testimony is, is not, look at me and see how righteous I have become, but look at me and see what mercy God has shown to me. And so that’s why we go about, or how we go about, doing good. And as we continue to go forward, we find ourselves less and less inclined to the evil habits that we wanted to do. Now, let’s bring it down a little more closely. In other words, when we are tempted to sin, we realize we have an option. Let’s say we have been volunteering in a certain capacity in town or with the church, and we enjoy doing that volunteer work. And we could go there any time of the day and, you know, simply go into the room where we’re doing this volunteer work or however we’re doing it and perform our good works. And when we’re tempted to sin or to just indulge ourselves selfishly, we realize in our minds we suddenly have an option. Well, I could do this self-indulgent sin, or I could go into town and do my work in the volunteer department. And so we have an option. Now, why is that significant? Because in addiction, no option is ever seen. The person who’s struggling with alcohol or drugs or food issues or sex issues simply feels a desire and immediately fulfills it without even giving it a thought, without deciding to. In fact, when he’s finished, he thinks to himself, I don’t understand it. I just had a desire and I went straight forward and did it. I didn’t even make a decision. That’s very puzzling. It’s the mystery of iniquity. But when we discover that we, or rather when we learn in our volunteer work that we have some nice opportunities to serve other people and it’s a pleasure to do it, we suddenly find that into our mind during a moment of lustful desire pops up another interest. our volunteer work, and we realize we have an option. And then we’re thinking, Lord Jesus, I could indulge myself and feel miserable afterwards, or I could go and do that volunteer work and bless somebody else and feel so good with myself afterwards. So this is how it works. Notice this verse. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Displace evil. Don’t give room for it. Now, I’m giving this counsel when I don’t follow it perfectly myself. But look, you don’t have to be perfect, because Christ is your perfection. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we miserably fail. But each time we’re learning. Each time we’re learning how to displace evil with good, and we’re thinking ahead, realizing how much nicer it is and satisfying to do good. But when we were in a full-blown addiction, we never looked ahead. We blocked out the future. We blocked out the present. We simply went ahead because that was what we were doing to try to block out the pain we felt. But now, this alternative comes to us. Lord Jesus, I have an option. I have an alternative. I can serve you. And it’s such a pleasure, Father, in doing it. And you don’t tell me I am unworthy to do it. You don’t tell me that I’m a hypocrite if I do. You simply love me, and I thank you that out of the mercy of your love, I can love other people too and serve them. Thanks for listening today. Colin Cook here and How It Happens. You’ve been listening to my broadcast, which you can hear on the radio in the Denver and Colorado and surrounding states areas at 10 o’clock in the evening, repeated at 4 in the morning on KLTT AM 670. You can also hear it, though, on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, SoundCloud.com or Podbean.com, and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And as you’ve heard me say frequently now, I’m looking for five new partners because we are at rock bottom financially. And if there are five people who would like to commit to $50 a month for a year… then please send your first donation and mark it, partner. Send it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Well, thanks for all your support, and thanks for listening. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.