Illusion of Control
I think it is a near-universal truth that each of us enjoys the illusion of control. When my children were young, I didn’t like anyone besides me or Beverly driving them anywhere. It wasn’t that I only knew people who were bad drivers; rather, it was that I was confident in my ability (and Beverly’s) to keep them safe. I knew that I could do it, and I didn’t trust that others could. I describe this as an illusion because as my children grew up, the Lord gave me the wisdom to understand the reality of life: we have a little control over a few things but no control over the rest.
In Ecclesiastes 9, the preacher makes this point in verses 11-12: “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them.”
We do not like this because it doesn’t make sense. We want life to make sense: the race should be to the swift and the battle to the strong. If I’m intelligent and wise, I should have bread and riches. If I love and serve God, then only good things should happen for me. That would make sense. Yet we struggle with this concept. Why? It’s right there in Ecclesiastes 9.
The Book of Job explores this idea as well. It makes no sense to Job or his friends that he should be suffering if, as he claims, he is a righteous man. The righteous shouldn’t suffer; it is the wicked who should struggle in this life, and the righteous should live as Job had before the book began: “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!” (Job 29:1-6) Living righteously before God should ensure that the Lord always has a feast prepared for me and that my cup is always running over.
Even though I know this isn’t true, it is still so easy to fall into this pattern of thinking. When I see someone who is in a bad place, like Job was, I want to make sense of it. It must be because that person has made poor life choices. Or they’re not serving God faithfully. Because if people would only do what’s right, then things would go well for them! Why are we tempted to think this? Because if it’s true, then I’m in control. If I live righteously before God, then God will give me good things. My life will be what I want it to be. Ultimately, it all comes down to me!
This seems to be the attitude that plagued the Pharisees and caused them to be condemned so harshly by Jesus. They took great pride in keeping the Old Law according to their own standard because they thought that God would save them as a result. Consequently, they were filled with self-righteousness because they thought their salvation would be a result of their effort and works. Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector perfectly illustrates their problem (Luke 18:9-14).
Paul understood the reality of our situation: salvation is found in Jesus, not ourselves. In Romans 7:21-25, he describes himself as someone who wants to serve God completely, but recognizes his inability to do it: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
A few pages over in chapter 10, Paul, after explaining that Israel relied on their own righteousness rather than God’s, explicitly makes the point that he described in chapter 7: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (4).
This is not to suggest that we have nothing to do for our salvation. On the contrary, Jesus said that we must “strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24). However, it is imperative that we recognize our need for God’s grace and mercy because, like Paul in Romans 7, we will never keep God’s law perfectly. We will never live such a righteous life that we will have earned our salvation.
Rather than relying on our own efforts and being confident in our own righteousness, we must recognize that all of our hope is in Jesus Christ because no matter how much we strive, our best efforts are going to fall short of His standard. Ultimately, I am completely dependent on Him.
