Now the only way we can become clean is to have the filthiness of our sins washed away. In other words our souls need to be cleansed. There are two parts to a true cleansing. First, that which creates the filth needs to be taken away and eliminated. If you wash a cutting board that has raw meat on it but leave the raw meat, the cutting board still carries the germs of the meat on it.
In other words, we must eliminate the desire for sin from within us. We cannot eliminate the filthiness of our sins if we continue to toy with the desires for those sins. The desire for the sin will just taint our souls again and spread the filth throughout our beings as if we were never cleansed. And in truth we weren’t if we continued toying with the desires.
Unfortunately this is really hard. I’ve had some very difficult struggles with sin. It isn’t easy giving up the wicked things we desire. What makes it even worse is that the longer we have been immersed in a sin, the harder it is for us to give it up. Yet we are required to try, just as we agreed to do in the Premortal Existence during the first test. This is how we were required to exercise faith in ourselves. Would we have faith that we would try to eliminate sin from our lives? We, of course, said we would and are here to prove it.
Now I know I lack the ability to eliminate my desires for sins from my life. There are too many of them and I’m a pretty weak person. Does this mean I am a failure and will not pass the second test? No, it doesn’t. The Lord knows we are imperfect still. As such we are all weak and lack the ability to eliminate all of our desires for sins.
What is required is that we give it our best and our all. Then we can call for help to give us the additional strength we need to succeed. We could consider it much like the final battle for Gondor in “Lord of the Rings”. Gandalf and the citizens of Gondor fought with all their might, but they couldn’t repel the oncoming Orc army. When they reached their limit, the riders of Rohan appeared to help. The Orc army was almost defeated and repelled when they received some additional strength. Again Gondor came to the brink of destruction. Then Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and the army of the dead arrived and finalized a victory for Gondor, saving the city from complete ruin.
This is how it works with us. We fight with all we’ve got, never forgetting to pray and fast. When we reach our limits, our Heavenly Father gives us some strength. Then we are required to fight to our limits again, remembering to pray and fast. Then we receive some more strength. Ultimately, we will gain enough strength to win a victory over our sins.
So, in truth, our victory over sin begins with another exercise of faith in ourselves, just as we needed faith in ourselves in the first test. We must believe we can overcome our sins with heavenly help. We must let this belief grow to action to overcome these sins, for faith without works is dead (James 2:26 in the New Testament). Then we have exercised faith in ourselves and taken the first step towards victory.
But where does this strength and help come from? By what power are we able to receive it? The answer is by the power and strength of Jehovah, given to Him by our Father in Heaven so that He could come to earth as Jesus Christ and perform the work necessary to bring us home.
Next time we’ll discuss this mission on earth and how it gave Jehovah the strength to help us overcome sin. We’ll also discuss how this mission finishes the second step of the cleansing process and overcomes the problem of the physical death.
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