Rationalization Man's Kryptonite
Leviticus 1:3
3 'If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.
Kryptonite is a mineral from the Superman comics. The material is usually shown as having been created from the remains of Superman's native planet of Krypton, and generally has detrimental effects on Superman.
The word Kryptonite is also used in modern speech as a synonym for Achilles' heel, the one weakness of an otherwise invulnerable hero.
If I had to put my finger on man's Kryptonite it would be rationalization, which is part of the free will of man. From our reading in Leviticus 1:3, the law of God states in part "he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD."
The definition of free will is: The power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will.
Why is it so challenging to live upright? This is not an excuse; it is because man has free will. Man has the power to make free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or God's divine will.
Now let's transition - Our reading is an excerpt of Old Testament law. In order for man to take that law into consideration; it must be true that man has the ability to reason.
Would we all agree that:
- Man has the ability to be guided by reason
- Man has the ability to be guided by principle
- Man has the ability to be guided by logic
God created man to be rational. In doing so God gave man the ability to reason. This strength to reason also has a disadvantage. With this strength from God; man has the ability to rationalize. Rationalization is man's weakness, rationalization is man's kryptonite. This is an explanation, not all the explanations but an explanation of why men struggle to continuously walk in God's ways.
Definitions of the word Rationalize are:
To devise self-satisfying but false reasons for one's behavior, especially as an unconscious defense mechanism
through which irrational acts or feelings are made to appear rational to one's self.
Essentially rationalization is an evasion of fact, an evasion of reality. It is the exercise of that alarming power of the human mind which we call rationalization, the ability to clothe wrong so that it looks right and evil so that it looks good.
Man may rationalize his behavior by giving reasons that make him seem exempt from punishment in his own mind. Who of us has not experienced this? We are all experts at it. Douglas Bell once wrote:
"All human beings have an innate propensity for denial, self-deception and rationalization. Some of us are at war with this dangerous proclivity, and some of us are trying to get a PhD."
We know well how to invent reasons to do what we want to do, and invent equally valid sounding reasons to avoid what we want to avoid, and all the time make it sound as though there is really nothing we can do about it.
The point of the matter:
If God made us rational, who wants us to rationalize? Who wants us to deceive ourselves? The great deceiver!
To deceive involves the deliberate misrepresentation of the truth. When we are lured into rationalization, we deceive ourselves. We cause ourselves to somehow believe what is not true.
Example 1 Eve and the forbidden fruit:
Genesis 3: 1-6
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Eve rationalized that there would be no penalty, she wanted to be like God so she took the fruit of the tree and ate it.
Example 2 Israel, rationalized the idol:
Exodus 32: 1-2
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." 2 Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
In this Golden calf example the people rationalize that since it was taking Moses so long to come down off the mountain that they should make gods to follow. The people clothe evil so that it looked good.
In both examples people sinned but were telling themselves that they had not sinned.
To close, let us examine the case of the man who rationalizes the sin which the light reveals. It is described for us in 1 John Chapter 2, Verse 10, and, ignoring the chapter break, the first two verses of 1 John Chapter 2:
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
The person is saying, "Of course, I can sin as a Christian, I know this. I do need light. But when I stop to look at my life, and examine myself, what I see is not sin, weakness and failure perhaps, but not sin. I may have to admit that I have been weak, but I have not sinned." Now, that is what John means: "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Satan knows God's instruction too. The great deceiver wants us to rationalize away God's instruction.
John tells us that he is writing so that we may not sin. If we do sin we have an advocate with the father through Jesus Christ. Christ death is the compensation for our sins, and not ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
God sent his Son Jesus as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of man's sin. Don't rationalize that putting off the Lord's invitation is something that something you can do later. Don't deceive yourself that forgiveness comes to everybody automatically. There is an urgent need to do something - We need to call on the name of the Lord. We must appeal for mercy and ask for His forgiveness on His terms not ours.
Question: What did we learn men?
Answer: Our Kryptonite is rationalization. Rationalization is our weakness and our Achilles' heel.
Conclusion: Protect yourself with His word at all times, your soul is the ante in this contest. The win for you is eternal life. The loss is . . . I think you know what the loss is.
P.S. You would be doing your friends a favor if you politely called them out when they are rationalizing. If they are wise they will thank you for it. If they are foolish they will get angry for the referee call.
Contributors: Unknown Author; Indiucky
Special thanks to my buddy Jim for his inspiration and encouragement.