The Catch-22 of Why 'Self' Can't Win

Our Sin nature doesn't think it needs God

Our "self," the nature we were born with is rebellious. It's not our fault, we were born with it. It's been passed down from Adam and Eve and their decision to disobey God in the Garden of Eden.

The result of one trespass was condemnation for all men. (Romans 5:18)

Some of you non-Christians reading this probably are saying to yourself right now "no it's not,", but you're wrong and you know it.

Parents, what is one of baby's first words?
No. Why is that? Rebellion—they were born with it just like you.

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5).

It's a natural response, whatever you want them to do, they don't want to do. Otherwise, why wouldn't they at least once out of a hundred times say yes?

Which glass gets broken first?
Stand up two sheets of glass. Tell everyone "Whatever you do, don't break the glass on the right." So, which glass do you think gets broken first? The right. Why? The sin nature, the nature that rebels against any law.

I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:18-19)

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (Romans 7:14)

God says we must be saved—self says "no, I can do it."
Our sin nature does NOT want to admit it needs God. It wants to stay in control. It wants to forget about all of the lifetime of sins already committed and says to God..." Just tell me what to do and I'll do it".
When Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and read them, the people said, "Great, no problem, we'll obey them, you can count on us! Amen, Hallelujah."

So what did they do?
They broke them all, over and over—backwards, forwards, upside down, inside out. Anyway you could break them, they broke them.

God knew they would
So why did he give them? To teach them about their sin nature. For them to realize they had a fatal problem. He wanted them to realize they needed a savior. Otherwise when Jesus came they would be saying what do we need Him for? We are doing just great by ourselves. Actually we do have a BIG problem and it’s no accident that the word sin is used 387 times in the Bible.

The Ten Commandments taught them about Catch-22 of Self
The catch is that although Self desperately wants to prove capable of living to God's standard without any help from God, it can't. It can't because it's nature is rebellion. So, as soon as Self is confronted with what God wants, even if it desperately wants to do it, it can't. Because its rebellious streak is so strong. Self may keep up an act for a while, but sooner or later it comes tumbling down.

In the very stubborn, that happens over and over
It's actually a very good thing for self to fail because that's when it's got a chance to wake up and realize it's fighting a losing battle. You've heard that it's insane to do the same thing over and over expecting a different result? That's what the Sin and Self nature controlled people do, caught in the losing battle of Catch-22 with the rebellious Self nature...life a dog chasing his tail, running in circles and never getting anywhere.

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. (Romans 7:15)

The way out?
Turn from trusting yourself to win this losing battle, and put your faith in God's way, the Salvation he provided for us all, the Lord Jesus Christ.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  (John3:16-17)

Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  (John 14:6)

You Could Say Its Not Your Fault!

You were born that way!

Many have problems with the idea of being told they are a sinner. They hear a verse like the following and they really get upset.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
(Romans 3:23)

They hear that and say “How dare the Bible lump me in with all the bad guys?! I resent that. I’m a pretty good person. I try to do the right things. In fact I’m one of the nicest people I know. In fact show me the qualifications for Heaven and let me go…I know I can do it.”

No you can’t!
It’s not a question of you doing or not doing something that puts you in a position of needing to be saved. It’s something that was set in motion generations ago. You were born into it. It’s something that you inherited. It started at the beginning of time when God told Adam in Genesis 2 15-17…

Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.

When Adam was created, he was created in God’s image. 
He was alive physically and spiritually. He was in total union with God. But he was given free will. He wasn’t forced to to anything. God wasn’t going to force himself on Adam because that would have made him a slave. Being God’s slave would not be someone who was “like” God. If Adam wanted to maintain his relationship and fellowship with God it would be his free and willing choice. That’s why he was given just one condition to maintain his status…don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as he did that he was demonstrating that his choice was to remain in full, happy, fellowship with God.

But that’s not what he did
He couldn’t resist. It became more important to him to taste the forbidden tree than to maintain his relationship with God his Creator and as a result he died spiritually.

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; 
And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
(Genesis 3:17-19)

He still had his physical life but spiritually he had died
That meant that all of his offspring would be dead spiritually as well…that means all of us. Not our fault. Not our choice. That’s the way we were born. If you think that bothers you, imagine how God felt.

He knew mankind forever was doomed unless he intervened. Now isn’t the time to get into the reasons why but the only way out was that a substitute would have to be created to die in our place.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
(John 3:16-20)

What dooms people is refusing to accept God’s substitute
God sent his beloved Son. He left Heaven. He lived, sacrificed and suffered and died on a cross to give us a way out of eternal death. He arose and now offers full eternal salvation and life and fellowship with him. He offers us adoption as full heirs into his family. Total love. Its not just things people do that condemn them. They are already condemned. They are born that way. What sends them to a hopeless, miserable, tortured eternity is that they refuse to acknowledge the Lord and His sacrifice. They refuse to believe in Him as the son of God. He makes the supreme sacrifice and they turn their backs on Him. They have no hope.

If you don’t accept Him as Savior and put your faith in Him you have no one to blame but yourself.