“Nip it, Nip it in the bud!”
That of course is one of the famous sayings of one Bernard P. Fife. His philosophy of the law is evidenced in the episode Barney’s Sidecar. Here Barney is patrolling with his new toy—a motorcycle. He decides to crack down on the trucker drivers going 5 over the speed limit just to get up a hill.
(The clip to watch starts at about 1:50 and ends at about 2:40)
Barney may be going a little overboard as far as the laws of Mayberry are concerned, but I think he is right on when it comes to sin. As John Owen once noted:
Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, if it has its own way it will go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could, every thought of unbelief would be atheism if allowed to develop. Every rise of lust, if it has its way reaches the height of villainy; it is like the grave that is never satisfied. The deceitfulness of sin is seen in that it is modest in its first proposals but when it prevails it hardens mens’ hearts, and brings them to ruin.
We see this pictured in Pharaoh. As you read through the Exodus narrative each time he desires to keep at least a little influence over the Egyptians. At one point he says “I’ll let just your men go”. Then he says, “I’ll let everybody go, but I’m keeping the livestock”.
That won’t do. God is not satisfied with only a partial redemption. All that He promised to deliver out of Egyptian slavery will be rescued. It is the same way with our redemption. Christ will not be satisfied until His sheep are absolutely rescued—both in number and extent.
Total Deliverance
But as you know we do not yet live in total deliverance. Yes, Christ has struck the death blow and has certainly secured our total redemption. But we are not there yet. We are positionally rescued out of Egypt but our hearts still have remnants of rebellion and our flesh still carries the stench of Egypt.
I think if given the option, on their own, the Israelites would have settled for just a little redemption. They, like us, would have probably been satisfied (at least at first) with the pain of slavery ceasing. It doesn’t have to be total redemption—just enough to keep me from being totally miserable. It is true, “we are far too easily pleased”.
And it is because of this ease of satisfaction that we refuse to “nip it in the bud”. We flirt with sin and dance with demons of deception. Rather than running out of Egypt we tend to walk with one foot towards the Promised Land and the other dragging itself out of bondage. We assume that we can let Pharaoh keep his livestock without that leading to a return to slave labor.
Just like Pharaoh, Satan wants us to allow him to keep just a little control. He is satisfied with that, because he knows that even one little seed of doubt can blossom into absolute rebellion, a destruction of humanity, and a defaming of God’s glory. He’ll take that “little”.
Thankfully that is not the end of the story. Even though we are content with just a little redemption, Christ is not. With the entire force of the Trinity, the Godhead is working for our complete redemption. Someday Christ will without question triumph and finally once and for all “nip it in the bud”!
