When the Righteous Fall

We are made righteous by the blood of Christ alone; Jesus is our claim to peace with God. Yet, at times we fall by the hand of our greatest enemy: temptation. Oh, from what heights we fall and to what depths we descend. We stumble often and in many ways. In our folly we light upon the fowler’s snare and know the miserable fruit of our sin – the yielding to our desires.

But there is hope in our falling.

In his book “The Horse And His Boy” from the Narnia series, C.S. Lewis writes of a talking horse named Bree and his traveling companion, a young boy named Shasta, who are journeying on their way to Narnia. Shasta finds himself very stiff from the journey, but, as Bree says, “It can’t be the falls.” Shasta had fallen many times from the horse, but on soft grass. “No:”, Bree says, “it’s the riding itself that comes hard at first.”

So it is with us. What is hard is learning obedience. When we fall, we fall not into hopeless calamity, but rather into the loving discipline of our Father, God. He is patient with us and by his sustaining power we are kept safe. We are on a pilgrimage – a journey through this temporary life to our eternal home – and in his wide and long love, God keeps us as his on the treacherous road. Grace and victory are God’s to dispense, and in our falling we learn that. Without him we are lost.

William Cowper writes in his poem “Human Frailty”,

But oars alone can ne’er prevail

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heav’n must swell the sail,

Or all the toil is lost.

We must come to him often, from the pit of sin and guilt, if need be, to find our answer and rescue. His Spirit must fill our sails and strengthen us on our passage if we are to grow in our walk. This is humbling to admit; without him we can do nothing. In our falling, may we learn that on our own we are unable; apart from him we can do nothing. But God, in his kindness and loving providence, grants us victory. He gives us the strength to rise from our mistakes, fallings, and failings and to grow wiser and humbler. May we always humbly receive this and constantly be aware of it.

Over time we learn to overcome the strong foe of our souls that would cast us down to never rise again. By his Spirit we are trained and taught how to engage our enemy and resist him firm in our faith. By his grace we are granted the power to rise from every blow our flesh would deal to us and stand against the constant onslaught of temptation brought on by our evil desires. It is God who is at work in us.