“For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” (Matthew 9:5-6). Sin keeps us down. Sometimes the shame of it is so overwhelming that all we can do is curl up into a ball and wish that we had never been born. But what are we to do if we find that through our pride and our foolishness we have dug a hole so deep for ourselves that we can see no way out? How can we walk the covenant path and be a light and a service to others when we have become paralyzed by the weight of all of our sins? When we've stepped into the ring to battle for our very souls and the world knocks us down, Jesus Christ is there to get us up off the mat. But He is not there as a paramedic to cart us off to the hospital. The fight is not over. The ref is counting and we're still sprawled out and semiconscious. We don't have time to waste. We have to get up and keep swinging. When the woman was caught in the very act of adultery and dragged into the public square by an angry mob screaming for some old school, Old Testament justice, I'm sure that she thought that she was out for the count. But not Christ. They got in a few good jabs but you can take these bums. You can either give up now and have the rest of your days defined by this one terrible decision, or you can pick yourself up off the mat and go and sin no more and come out swinging. When that paralyzed man took up his bed and walked, he refused to let Satan win. Through Christ's tough love and forgiveness, he was no longer tied in knots with all of his sins and he was free to walk the gospel path. It is unquestionable that life will knock us down, over and over. Some of us seem to fail so often that we know every rip and bloodstain and hard patch of that mat like the side of our bruised and bloodied face. But every time we get knocked down, Christ is there to mop up the blood and to tape up our cuts and pep us up for the next bout. Holding ourselves back from worship or service is choosing to stay down on the mat. But sharing our talents and sacrificing our time in the service of others and genuinely caring for and loving those around us despite the fact that we are not yet perfect and seem to struggle with even the most because commandments is how we get back up off the mat and keep fighting. Christ doesn't side with the losing side and yet He is in our corner. With His help we can take on anything the world throws at us, so long as every time that we get knocked down, we get back up, take up our excuses and walk the walk and fight the good fight and take up our jab and our jab and our cross and follow Jesus all the way to victory. The fight isn't over until we say it's over.
