Illustration of the Windshield

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Unto

A (Pitted) Windshield

Windshields are a great thing you know. Have you ever thought what life on the road would be like without them? And if you keep them clean of dirt and film the bright sunlight on a clear morning will not glare in your eyes.

Once upon a time I had a perfect windshield, as windshields go. Yes, it was often dirty and sometimes had too many fingerprints and smears on it. But nothing, really that a little soap and water wouldn’t take care of in a few minutes.

Then one day as I was driving down the road, minding my own business and obeying all the traffic laws, I heard a sharp crack that startled me. I looked around and soon I spotted it — a small, little pit in my once transparent windshield. I was outraged! How could that truck in front of me be so thoughtless. But there was nothing that could change the new reality. I now sported a little defect in my windshield just off to the side of my main viewing area. I would just have to accept it and keep on driving.

As I contemplated my options I wondered what I should do. Replacing the whole windshield seemed unreasonable and too expensive for such a little defect. I decided to just ignore it. After all, it didn’t bother my driving view significantly and the little bit of glare caused by the sunlight glinting off that little pit could easily be ignored.

Days and weeks passed. One day I noticed I now had more than just a little pit in my windshield; I now had a small crack coming out of the pit. And as the days passed the crack grew and grew until it spread over a wide area. Now the morning sun glared from the long, irregular line into my eyes and sometimes made it difficult to see out clearly. I began to worry about being stopped by police and being fined as friends informed me to be a real possibility.

One day a friend stopped by and we talked about the large crack in my windshield and the problems it was causing. He said, “Why didn’t you seal the pit when you first saw it? Then it wouldn’t have spread into the problem you now have.”

I thought about that for a long time. If I had only taken the time to put sealer into that little hole I might have been spared the dangers I now experienced and the impending expense of a whole new windshield. Then I read something in James that made me think about how much my life is like a pitted windshield.

You see, if a small pit in a windshield goes untreated, moisture gets into it. Day after day that moisture expands and contracts with the heat and cold and begins to weaken the glass around it. Soon a crack or two is started and more moisture seeps in. More expansion, more moisture, more cracking and soon the damage becomes too obvious to ignore any longer.

James 1:14,15 says, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” This verse tells me that temptation is when the attraction of the lust living in us answers to an opportunity outside of us. My life has lots of little pits; weaknesses to sin that respond all too easily to certain opportunities when they come along.

But God offers us an alternative to reduce the attractiveness of temptation. He wants to seal us with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). Revelation talks about those in the end who are God’s special people who will be sealed in their forehead and in their hand. If I allow God to seal all of my defects, then sin (moisture) cannot find a place to enter and spread its deadly work through my character.

“Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight. Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan; and whoever in any way departs from the straight line of truth is betraying himself into the power of the wicked one. Yet it is not a light or an easy thing to speak the exact truth. We cannot speak the truth unless we know the truth; and how often preconceived opinions, mental bias, imperfect knowledge, errors of judgment, prevent a right understanding of matters with which we have to do! We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth.” MB 68

I see the pits in my windshield as the inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil that I possess. But when I look at Jesus’ life I find something very interesting about His “windshield”. In the upper room with His disciples He told them “The Prince of this world comes, but finds nothing in Me.” John 14:30. Jesus had no pits in His perfect “windshield” or character, that would respond to anything Satan could use to entice or threaten Him. He had no inherited or cultivated tendencies to evil that Satan could use to leverage sin into His life.

While I may not have a sinless nature until this body and brain are glorified at the Second Coming, Jesus offers me something that will protect me just as much as He was when Satan approached Him. He offers to seal each and every fault that I am willing to offer Him for examination and cleansing. This is good news. While I may not have a perfect nature, I will be safe for the terrible storms that are about to break on this world and will test every soul.

What about the confusion some feel when they hear statements that talk about one sin keeping you out of heaven. I personally have a very traumatic history in my own experience with the effects of this theology wrongly understood. As a young teenager I spent countless hours searching my memory for any possible unconfessed sin that God might find to use against me in the judgment. I prayed without ceasing, sometimes endangering my life. I would go so far as to close my eyes momentarily while riding a bicycle in heavy traffic to gasp out another confession when another temptation would cross my brain. This caused me to fear God and I even came to dislike Him, though I could not admit even that because then it too could be used against me as an excuse to keep me out of heaven.

Are we to supposed to spend all our time and energy focusing on perfecting character to get us through the time of trouble? Can one sin keep us out of heaven? This all gets into the sticky battleground of faith and works that is currently dividing much of our church body these days. Consider the following statements and look carefully for the balance between self-examination and depending completely on God.

“Worldly policy and the undeviating principles of righteousness do not blend into each other imperceptibly, like the colors of the rainbow. Between the two a broad, clear line is drawn by the eternal God. The likeness of Christ stands out as distinct from that of Satan as midday in contrast with midnight. And only those who live the life of Christ are His co-workers. If one sin is cherished in the soul, or one wrong practice retained in the life, the whole being is contaminated. The man becomes an instrument of unrighteousness.” DA 313

“We may flatter ourselves that we are free from many things of which others are guilty; but if we have some strong points of character, and but one weak point, there is yet a communion between sin and the soul. The heart is divided in its service, and says, "Some of self and some of thee." The child of God must search out the sin which he has petted and indulged himself in, and permit God to cut it out of his heart. He must overcome that one sin; for it is not a trifling matter in the sight of God.” RH 08-01-1893

“If we would indeed become children of God, we must renounce at once and forever, every sinful indulgence. We must close every avenue through which Satan may gain control of our thoughts or our affections. Many persons manifest determined hatred of some sins denounced in the word of God, while they at the same time indulge their favorite sin. Not so did the Ephesian converts. Their particular sin was magic. By this means Satan held them in his power. They might have been earnest and vigilant to correct other evils, but had they spared this one sin, they would erelong have yielded their faith. But they laid the ax to the root of the tree; they renounced the hidden things of darkness and destroyed that which had led them into sin.” The Signs of the Times 05-18-1882

“Be sure, my son, dig deep, lay the foundation sure. Do not . . . [be deficient in] thoroughness in your efforts to seek God. Do not seek to cover up or gloss over one sin, but search deep. Guard against moving from impulse, calling it religious zeal. Surrounding influence may affect the feelings of many. The good example of others may have weight for a season, but if the heart is not renewed, if it is not thoroughly converted, it will return naturally to its own element. Watch, my dear children, against self-deception. Selfish ends may want to creep and insinuate themselves into the best actions, but give no place to the devil. Stir up your souls with daily fears of sin. Connect with heaven, and angels will minister unto you. . . .” UL 208

“This union with Christ, once formed, must be maintained. Christ said, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.’ This is no casual touch, no off-and-on connection. The branch becomes a part of the living vine. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the root to the branches is unobstructed and constant. Separated from the vine, the branch cannot live. No more, said Jesus, can you live apart from Me. The life you have received from Me can be preserved only by continual communion. Without Me you cannot overcome one sin, or resist one temptation.” DA 676

“Satan will come in many ways to tempt the soul away from Christ. He will first tell you that you are good enough of yourself; that you do not need a work of reformation wrought for you. He will suggest to you that you have made but few mistakes in your life, and that these will be overbalanced by the good you have done. If you have lived such a life as he would make you believe you have, it would be like a chain with unsound links in it, wholly worthless. One sin unrepented of is enough to close the gates of heaven against you. It was because man could not be saved with one stain of sin upon him, that Jesus came to die on Calvary's cross. Your only hope is to look to Christ and live. He came to save to the uttermost all who came unto him; and he is fully able to do all that he has undertaken to do for you. He will lift us up from the degradation into which we have fallen because of sin.” The Signs of the Times 03-17-1890