Reverse engineering. It is the process of creating a device after observing an the original and ascertaining its technical specifications. Of course, it is not only a “thing” that can be reverse-engineered, this process can take place in behaviors and relationships as well. People who want to lose weight will often hang an old picture of themselves on the bathroom mirror or set a goal to wear and old pair of jeans. Once you know the end goal, you can then work to figure out the processes involved to get there.
I have a friend who has encouraged me to reverse engineer my sin. He occasionally imagines what it would do to his wife and sons if he were involved in an illicit affair. He imagines the destruction and damage his sin would cause, and then, thinks through the potential steps that could lead him into such sin. These exercises help him to identify the potential pitfalls in his life and to set a guard around them.
In his book, Tempted and Tried, Russ Moore writes,
Most people don’t “choose” fiery tempers or alcoholic binges or torturing prisoners of war or exploiting Third-World workers or dumping toxic chemicals into their community’s water supply. Most people don’t first conclude that adultery is right and then start fantasizing about their neighbor swinging from a stripper pole. Most people don’t first learn to praise gluttony and then start drizzling bacon grease over their second helping of chicken-fried steak.
It happens in reverse. First, you do what you want to do, “even though you know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,” and only then do you “give approval to those who practice them (Romans 1:32). You start to see yourself as either special or as hopeless, and thus the normal boundaries don’t seem to apply.
We do not begin in gross sin, our sin begins in the smaller, seemingly more mundane things of life. It is often difficult in the midst of temptation to see where our sin will lead (ultimately, death). We must not wait until temptation comes to consider its ultimate end and resist accordingly. Rather, we must envision the ends of our sin and reverse engineer the steps toward that sin so that we may avoid the path to destruction. I encourage teenagers to cling to sexual purity, but I also warn them that their spirits may be willing, but their flesh is weak. Therefore we put safeguards into place to protect them from temptation toward sexual immorality (do not be alone in the dark, never be horizontal, date in groups, etc…).
What are the destroying sins that you hope to avoid at all costs? Adultery, drug addiction, homosexual encounters, murder? Have you carefully considered the processes that would lead you into such sin and have you worked to avoid not only the sin, but the path that leads to that sin. The potential is present in all of us to embrace sins that we never dreamed possible. Imagine the possibility that you could do terrible things, imagine the steps that would lead you into that sin, and then put a plan in place to avoid those sins.
