While watching my mechanic put new brake pads on my car I remembered something I heard from one of my friends who races stock cars. He mentioned that the brakes on his car were the best he could find. When he saw the puzzled look on my face he said, “Unless you have the best brakes and can quickly stop you cannot (should not) go as fast as you might otherwise.”
Jesus, a man without a massive army, a man without a great university, a man without a personal legacy of writings divided history. His personal purity among friends of questionable character propelled Him to the heights of history. Had His personal life been stained with the failures of humanity this would not have been so. He would have been a flash and then lost in the unknowns of billions who have breathed our air. It was His moral brakes. He could mingle. He could race. He could as expressed by Jeremiah 12:5 run with the horses. He could go head to head with Satan himself and yet not sin. In Hebrews we are clearly told He was tempted in all things just as we. The difference was His brakes. He knew when to stop. He knew where not to tread. His daily time spent with His Father gave Him the best brakes.
All of us are tempted. All of us sometimes think how sweet certain forbidden behaviors might taste. The difference between those who fall and those who are successful in stopping prior to the disastrous accident are those with the best moral brakes. And just where can we obtain such? They are available to us at the same place Jesus found His.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 2, 2013
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org