THE MERCY-GO-ROUND: What Sin Cycles Say About Us

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Proverbs 26:11

There’s a subpopulation of the Christian community that behaves as if it were in constant pursuit of repentance.  Maybe you’ve seen the people I mean.  You’re a decent soul, so you try not to think too directly about what their actions mean, but you can’t help but notice them:

·    In Christian communities with a tradition of altar calls, they are the altar-rail “regulars” when an invitation is made to come forward and accept Christ.

·    In congregations with a tradition of prayer circles and the laying on of hands, these congregants are more often than not at the center of it all, getting the prayer attention week after week.

·    Among a congregation’s spiritual counselors, these congregants are the designated counselees, laying claim to more of the counselors’ time than most other congregants combined.

We could call it a “Mercy-Go-Round,” as my title proposes.  People hop on the ride to get another opportunity for the mercy God offers, and something turns that into a habit for them.  Another chance, another chance, another chance, one more please Lord, and ever onward another chance …

Why?  Two motivations come to my mind that may explain the Mercy-Go-Rounders.  The first, which I won’t explore in depth, is that they are addicted to the rush we all know so well from having come into the grace of God – that Born Again moment that changed our view of the world and our lives.  Perhaps those individuals would make an interesting article for another day, but right now I’m more interested in the second group, those who find themselves trapped in a cycle of sin, unable to escape it.  Dismayed by their inability to rise above their sins, they long to be Born Again again.  And again.  And again.

Leaders and the Sin Cycle

It’s sad to see congregants in that state.  Sadder still is to see church leaders who might also fall into that vicious cycle.  The older congregants in my church speak of the days of the fallen televangelists.  The 1980s was filled with the rise and fall … and re-rising, and re-falling … of any number of these TV personalities.  Peter Popoff, for example, was caught red-handed in 1987 pretending to hear the voice of God revealing secrets about those in his live audience.  It turns out he was only hearing the voice of Mrs. Popoff via short-wave radio, reading those details from prayer cards that had been handed in earlier.  After the fraud was revealed, Popov went bankrupt and disappeared … very briefly.  These days, he has returned proclaiming the forgiving power and patience and second repentance opportunities of God, and he sells Miracle Water and Holy Sand on late night television.  He earns over half a million dollars a year from continued donations, and he drives a Porsche worth more than most of us gross in two years.

Congregants become Mercy-Go-Rounders because they see some in positions of authority become Mercy-Go-Rounders, and they see them succeed quite well doing it.  Pop Culture Christianity has a sad abundance of examples: Robert Tilton and his Thousand-Dollar Vow requests in exchange for miracles; Don Stewart and his tithe-financed Hummer H2 and private land deals; Jimmy Swaggart and his dalliance with a prostitute, followed by his repentant return to power, followed by his dalliance with a prostitute, followed by his repentant return to power …

What these men share in common is (1) they continue to head up multi-million dollar ministries, and (2) they are living role models for the repentance Mercy-Go-Round emulated by far too many congregants.

The Word of God on Sin Cycles

The New Testament treats repentance unto salvation as a one-time thing.  While some may argue that the God of the Bible gives endless opportunities for the repentance of His people, we need to realize that most of that longsuffering patience seems to have taken place in the Old Testament.  And that makes sense – followers of the Old Covenant did not yet have any mechanism by which they could be put to death and raised as new creatures with the nature of Christ.  In the New Testament, the only Christians we see being dragged back to repentance again and again are members of the congregation in Corinth – the original Mercy-Go-Rounders.  But they are the chastised exception, not the laudable rule.  Anyone following their pattern would do well to heed the words of Hebrews 6 and its command to cease from continuously trying to lay foundations for repentance:

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (6:4-6).

Strong words.  Both the writer of Hebrews and the Apostle Paul foresaw that the free grace of God might lead many to believe they would have to pay no heed to walking in righteousness.  After all, God’s grace and the sacrifice of Christ removed ALL sin, past, present, and future.  Paul is inspired by the Holy Spirit to write against such presumption:

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”  (Romans 6:14-15)

It’s a hard truth, but a truth nonetheless: In a life under grace, there is no pattern or habit or cycle of sin.  There is no re-laying of a repentance foundation.  Sins and missteps will occur, and for that, the first epistle of John says, when we “confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9).  But John doesn’t speak of those sins as habitual or cyclical; for that kind of lifestyle, he has a more dire pronouncement:  “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1:6).  Those who walk in darkness, and return unto it continuously as part of their nature, show that it really IS their nature at work.  Continuous returns to the darkness show, says the Bible, that the light is not in us.

“But God gives many, many, many chances!” say those who would protest the Word.

“But surely you shall not die!” says the serpent.

“You are my friends, if you do as I command you,” says the Savior.

There is no Mercy-Go-Round.  Christ died once, and once for all.  Good works can never earn salvation; they are, however, sure evidence that one is walking in light, performing the deeds the Lord has set out for us.  If we sin, we should confess and accept that Christ's sacrifice has renewed us once for all time.  If we are extreme cases like Corinth, we should feel shame and find again what our repentance meant.  But if we are continuously returning to a walk of darkness, then we must ask: What nature is at work in me, and why is it not dead?  Has it never been put to death in Christ?

Mara Natha,

Cosmic