[If I have gotten any info wrong on the wonderful novel mentioned below, bear with me, I have only read it once and you need to read it more to grasp the whole concept.]
In the novel A Tale of Two Cities there is a character named Doctor Manette and he is thrown in jail for eighteen years, however he was thought to be dead. In Book the First of a Tale of Two Cities, Doctor Manette is “Recalled to Life” because as it turns out, he’s not dead! … Well, he's not physically dead. Mr. Lorry and Doctor Manette’s teenage daughter, Lucie, go to get him from where he is being kept.
Doctor Manette has lost it. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie find him, he doesn’t even call himself Doctor Manette, but the name of the tower he was previously residing in. And to add to all that, all he does day and night is make shoes. Fast forward five years and Dr. M is a normal person living with his daughter safely in another city. However he still keeps his old shoe making bench and tools and he isn’t exactly sure what happened to him the years before. Besides all that, though, he is happy with his daughter.
This is Dickens though, and the book is three hundred something pages long so that’s not the happy ending of Dr. Manette. One night after Charles Darnay marries Dr. Manette ’s daughter, Dr. Manette relapse or “backslides” as Christians call it. He returns to making shoes for nine whole days. Eventually his friends, Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross have to destroy his shoe maker bench and bury his tools.
You may be wondering why I’ve just summarized a snipped of a Charles Dickens book. Well I’m reading it in English class so this is just like a study guide for me. Just kidding. I am writing about it because in some way I feel like the story of Doctor Manette can be an allegory for Christians. You may be wondering “how?” Or you may already have an idea of what I’m about to say.
Before we were saved and became Christians, we were dead in our trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1) just like how Doctor Manette was dead (not physically but mentally, similar to how we’re not physically dead, just spiritually). However, someone came to get us: Jesus. So we are saved from our condition of being dead not because of anything we did, but only because of Jesus.
Jesus brought us from being a crazy dead person and into a family (similar to how Doctor Manette was in a family with his daughter). We no longer need to go back to shoe making or our sinful addictions. Over time we learn that Jesus saves us from our addictions because we are a new creation.
I love how Colossians 3:1-17 talks about us being a new person in Him.
Colossians 3:12-14 (NKJV)
In the novel A Tale of Two Cities there is a character named Doctor Manette and he is thrown in jail for eighteen years, however he was thought to be dead. In Book the First of a Tale of Two Cities, Doctor Manette is “Recalled to Life” because as it turns out, he’s not dead! … Well, he's not physically dead. Mr. Lorry and Doctor Manette’s teenage daughter, Lucie, go to get him from where he is being kept.
Doctor Manette has lost it. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie find him, he doesn’t even call himself Doctor Manette, but the name of the tower he was previously residing in. And to add to all that, all he does day and night is make shoes. Fast forward five years and Dr. M is a normal person living with his daughter safely in another city. However he still keeps his old shoe making bench and tools and he isn’t exactly sure what happened to him the years before. Besides all that, though, he is happy with his daughter.
This is Dickens though, and the book is three hundred something pages long so that’s not the happy ending of Dr. Manette. One night after Charles Darnay marries Dr. Manette ’s daughter, Dr. Manette relapse or “backslides” as Christians call it. He returns to making shoes for nine whole days. Eventually his friends, Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross have to destroy his shoe maker bench and bury his tools.
You may be wondering why I’ve just summarized a snipped of a Charles Dickens book. Well I’m reading it in English class so this is just like a study guide for me. Just kidding. I am writing about it because in some way I feel like the story of Doctor Manette can be an allegory for Christians. You may be wondering “how?” Or you may already have an idea of what I’m about to say.
Before we were saved and became Christians, we were dead in our trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1) just like how Doctor Manette was dead (not physically but mentally, similar to how we’re not physically dead, just spiritually). However, someone came to get us: Jesus. So we are saved from our condition of being dead not because of anything we did, but only because of Jesus.
Jesus brought us from being a crazy dead person and into a family (similar to how Doctor Manette was in a family with his daughter). We no longer need to go back to shoe making or our sinful addictions. Over time we learn that Jesus saves us from our addictions because we are a new creation.
I love how Colossians 3:1-17 talks about us being a new person in Him.
Colossians 3:12-14 (NKJV)
Therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness,
humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one
another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you,
so you also must do. But
above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
We are called God’s “holy and
beloved” so we become something more now that we are made alive in Him. As
Christians we are to put on all of the attributes of God. Ephesians 5:1 says we
are to be "imitators of God". That doesn’t mean we don’t sin, because we are not
God, but we are new creations.
But… something happens… at least it happens to me. I am free from this sin, this thing that’s been a hold over my life for years and suddenly… suddenly I don’t know what to do and I find myself sliding back into the swamp of sin and shame and guilt, wondering what just happened???
The Bible calls this “Backsliding” and it happened to the Israelites time and time again. Just like how Doctor Manette went back to his shoemaking, I go back to my old addiction. So what’s the answer? Lucky for us the beginning of Colossians 3 explains it. Just like Doctor Manette’s shoemaker’s bench had to be destroyed, we have to put sin to death.
But… something happens… at least it happens to me. I am free from this sin, this thing that’s been a hold over my life for years and suddenly… suddenly I don’t know what to do and I find myself sliding back into the swamp of sin and shame and guilt, wondering what just happened???
The Bible calls this “Backsliding” and it happened to the Israelites time and time again. Just like how Doctor Manette went back to his shoemaking, I go back to my old addiction. So what’s the answer? Lucky for us the beginning of Colossians 3 explains it. Just like Doctor Manette’s shoemaker’s bench had to be destroyed, we have to put sin to death.
Colossians 3:1-7 (NKJV)
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. (Bold added)
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. (Bold added)
But easier said than done right? How do you
kill your “members which are on the earth”? Well I have something hopefully encouraging
to say: YOU can’t! Encouraged? Let me finish that: YOU can’t, but God will.
And how does He put your sin to death? With a little thing we call the armor of God.
[Stay tuned for the end of "When We Act Like Doctor Manette" which is coming out next week and will feature the Armor of God!]
And how does He put your sin to death? With a little thing we call the armor of God.
[Stay tuned for the end of "When We Act Like Doctor Manette" which is coming out next week and will feature the Armor of God!]
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