The End of the Sisyphus Cycle

We are born our father’s children. Our DNA determines our traits, and it doesn’t ask us what we would like. Our parents DNA provides the root that produces the fruit of who we are.

Spiritually, we are born with a father as well — Adam. (see Gen.5:3 “Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.”) “We are in his lineage. We share his spiritual features. We are the branches of his family tree. Adam serves as the root of that tree and determines the fruit of the features of our inner life.”

We are broken, and we know it. Some scholars call it the one undeniable, empirically verifiable truth of Scripture — the depravity of man.We point fingers and shift blame, embarrassed by our guilt and what we know we’re capable of. We were made to rule over creation (Ps.8:6-8 “You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.”), and yet we see our failure to even come close to doing so.

Vassar calls it the “Sisyphus Cycle.” Sisyphus was a king in Greek mythology who was condemned by the gods to spend eternity pushing a large boulder up a steep hill. It was a pointless task — every time he reached the top of the hill, down the boulder would come again. This is us! We try to push the glory of our own goodness up an insurmountable hill only to fail time and time again. Up the hill with our attempts to feel good about ourselves. Up the hills with our yearning for the approval of others. Up the hill with cultural and societal expectations. And with every failure to meet some made up set of standards that, in all honesty, oftentimes contradict each other, down rolls the heavy stone…down, down, down the hill again.

Is there are way to be free from the Sisyphus Cycle?

Well, yes. But, we can’t do it on our own.

We need someone else to climb the hill for us. Then, and only then, will our glory hunger be filled and the end of our constant clamoring come.

Our Approval Secured

Jesus is the only One since Adam’s fall to be free of the burden we all bear.

Heb.4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.”

John 8:29 “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.””

Mt.3:17 “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.””

John 8:46 “Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?”

Consider what Paul tells us about Jesus’ death in 2 Cor.5:21 (“He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”)

Jesus became our sin and bore our curse so that we could receive the righteousness of God and know His blessing.

The Son was legally liable for our sins, and our debt was paid on His cross.

We receive Jesus’ perfect obedience as He takes every ounce of punishment for our rebellion.

“God took an eternity of what we deserved, bound it up into a moment, and unleashed it on His Son so He could spare us and give us an eternity of what we don’t deserved. God looked upon Jesus as though He lived my life so that He could look upon me as though I lived Jesus’ life.”

And how does this happen? Faith.

Consider the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q: How are you righteous before God?

A: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.

God considers me in Jesus as having fulfilled all the demands of His law. Because I am in Christ, “I am not condemned by God; rather, I am loved, approved, and affirmed.”

1 Cor.4:3-4 “It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself. For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me.”

What’s this mean? At least in part it means that I’m “not defined by how good I feel about myself or how good another feels about me. I’m not even defined by how good I really am or am not. I’m defined by what the Lord says about me. The Lord is my judge, and He has justified me. He has declared me righteous in His court and set His love and affirmation upon me forever.”

Think about the courtroom of opinions you have labored for over the years.

What was something you did in middle school to curry the favor of others?

What about high school?

College years or in your job?

At church?

How much of it was a legitimate striving for holiness, and how much of it was to receive a positive verdict?

This is typically how we live our lives, constantly in courtroom of opinion struggling to prove our case…our worth…seeking commendation and avoiding condemnation. Every courtroom that you live in is a shadow of the courtroom that has already given judgment on you. God’s opinion, God’s courtroom, His approval through the finished work of Christ and our faith in Him trumps them all.

But, here’s the thing, we will never be completely free from the public courtroom until God’s opinion is the one that matters most. Until then, we’ll still serve this unrelenting glory hunger. (After all, we were made for this!)

This is all TRUE! Consider Jesus’ prayer in John 17:22-23 (“I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”) The approval Jesus has as the Father’s only unique Son who was utterly obedient even to the point of death, God feels the same way about those who are in Christ through faith. Find it unbelievable if you will…and we will…but it Scripture. It’s true.

I need a reminder of how God felt about His Son Jesus. Somebody tell me what God declared over Jesus at His baptism. (Mark 1:11 “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.””)

Jesus has removed our condemnation and replaced it with God’s delight! We can tend to be more theologically advanced than to buy into a God who may have emotive feelings towards us. I’ll admit it…I’m like Vassar, I can be a little skeptical when it comes to describing God’s emotions towards us. But, why would we shy away from this? Are we more tender as parents…as fathers…than God is? Are we more affectionate? Is it somehow okay for us to feel delight in our children, but not God in His?

Here in lies the cure: the glory we were made for — God’s pleasure — is the only thing that will liberate us from the fear of displeasing others. His approval is the only thing that can satisfy our glory hunger.

Our Corruption Healed

Anyone a fan of “A Christmas Carol?” Who is your favorite character? Does anyone prefer “old” Scrooge to “new” Scrooge? It’s a good example of the exposure of our desire to be good. (Now, the argument of wanting to be good vs. capable of being good, that’s a discussion for another day.) It’s a reminder of the virtue we were created to possess but that was lost along the way.

Well, there is good news. Our condemnation has been dealt with. And now, the person we were before Jesus is progressively being done away with as well.

Eph.4:21-24 “assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

Col.3:9-10 “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.”

Since we just finished an entire 12 or 15 weeks on the pursuit of holiness, I won’t rehash it, but this is the process of becoming more like Jesus because we’ve been approved, not to seek God’s approval.

Jesus ends our Glory Hunger

Our glory hunger is a two-edged sword. On one hand, it leads to idolatry as we seek the approval of others and lift them up as idols in our lives — like last week’s broken buddha. On the other hand, are failure to find lasting satisfaction in anything this created world has to offer can/should lead us to Christ.

Jesus restores to us the glory that Adam lost. Fittingly, Scripture calls Jesus the second Adam. Egger says in “Jesus: The Second and Greater Adam”:

In Adam we glimpse the goodness and greatness that God intended for human creatures. Yet we only glimpse these, because Adam spoils them for all mankind, forfeiting them in the first moments of the world. In Christ, we behold a second and greater Adam, the restorer of human goodness and greatness. What Adam squandered in a moment, the second Adam regains and bestows forever. As Paul writes in Romans 5:18 “So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone.”

In this new Adam we again have the “very good” spoken over us by our heavenly Father. We are once again the object of His pleasure, not his wrath. We are being renewed in the likeness of His Son. We are discovering again the glory for which we were made, the glory for which we hunger, and we are realizing there’s nothing in this world that can give it to us. It’s only found in Christ.