You can take the ___ out of ___, but … Let’s fill in the blanks. Sort of. As in – through Moses, God took the Israelites out of Egypt, but you can’t take Egypt out of the Israelites. Or, as Philip Yancey wrote, “He dragged them out of Egypt only to find they had kept Egypt inside them”. 1Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read (p. 77). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
The original version of “You can take the ___ out of ___, but …”
Remember that? God set Moses to rescue His people, who were slaves under the Egyptian Pharaoh. Life was so awful for them that they cried out to God to save them.
But before too long, we read this:
Ex 16:1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
That is so not true! Pots of meat and eating all the food they wanted? What happened to:
Ex 2:23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Long forgotten. As the title says, You can take the ___ out of ___, but …
God used Moses to take His people from Egypt. But He didn’t take Egypt out of the people. Why not? Surely, God could have taken Egypt out of the people. He could have made them realize that even this life, wandering through the desert, preparing for life on their own with freedom from slavery – surely this was better than being slaves.
Yes – God could very well have done that. But He didn’t. He doesn’t. There’s this thing called free will. Even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve the free will choice – love God or eat from that tree. They were warned. But they did it anyway. And God allowed it. For more on why, please see Why were Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden?
It’s all about love really. God loves us. And He wants us to love Him. And so He allows us the choice, as we just read, to love Him or not. And that includes not doing anything to force us to love Him. After all, if we’re forced, then it’s not love.
What about today’s version of “You can take the ___ out of ___, but …”
It’s really not all that different.
Look at this passage that Paul wrote:
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Ro 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Ro 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Ro 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Ro 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
It sounds so certain. Our old self is crucified with Jesus – so we’re no longer slaves to sin. And so we are to count ourselves as dead to sin.
It’s like – what can go wrong? It’s so obvious. We become Christians – and we’re perfect.
Except we’re not. Just look around. Look in a mirror. We aren’t perfect. Not even one of us.
It’s a process. One that won’t end until after we’re dead. Physically dead.
And that’s why Paul also wrote:
Ro 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 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. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Ro 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
See? What Paul wrote in chapter 6, and seemed so obvious – isn’t obvious at all in chapter 7!
That’s why non-Christians should realize that Christians aren’t perfect. It’s also why we Christians also need to realize we aren’t perfect. We must always examine ourselves. Try to be sure the things we say and do are really in line with Jesus’ teachings. Because even with this new life – the old one doesn’t just disappear. It tries to come back.
You can take the Christian out of the old life, but you can’t take the old life out of the Christian.
Satan isn’t gone – yet. Temptation isn’t gone – yet. Sin isn’t gone – yet. Evil isn’t gone – yet.
All of those things still exist around us today, just as the memories were still around for the Israelites. And yes – those memories of life in Egypt were false. But so are our memories that our past sins were more fun than living the life designed for us by Jesus.
The fact that both are lies – the memories of Egypt and our memories of things we used to do – is irrelevant.
And that’ why Paul writes this in chapter 8:
Life Through the Spirit
Ro 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Ro 8:5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Ro 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Ro 8:12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
And so, while
You can take the Christian out of the old life, but you can’t take the old life out of the Christian.
In other words,
You can take the Christian out of the life that was a slave to sin, but you can’t take the slavery to sin out of the Christian’s sinful nature –
You can take away the penalty for sin from the true Christian.
However – that means we will sin. It means we must still watch out for sin.
But then, as Paul continues:
Ro 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
That future glory is more than worth the effort, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to do everything we can to not sin.
Conclusion – You can take the ___ out of ___, but …
There’s all sort of ways to fill in the blanks that will show us we still sin.
But – there’s also this from Paul – from chapter 8:
More Than Conquerors
Ro 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Ro 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we remain true followers of Jesus then nothing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So we can actually change the format of the title line then. Now we have something like this:
You can’t completely take the sin out of a true Christian, but you cannot separate a true Christian from the love of Christ either.
Footnotes
- 1Yancey, Philip. The Bible Jesus Read (p. 77). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.