Here is my report and affirmation to my twelve-step sponsor this morning:

“Dear _____,

No violations.

Today, by God’s grace, I am taking good care of myself.  This way, I will honor God and act caringly toward others.”

My sponsor replied to my report and affirmation as follows:

“Subject: Re: REPORT AND AFFIRMATION

As my mother used to say, ‘God helps those who help themselves’.”

I replied to my sponsor as follow:

“Dear _____,

Your mother was right!  God does indeed help those who help themselves.  That is one way of speaking about accountability.

But also, God helps those who can’t help themselves.  That is a way of speaking of saving grace.

Without both of those truths in balance, we are all like a person who is trying to run a race on one leg.  He or she may get to the finish line eventually, but it’s going to be slow and ugly.”

So, after the above email exchange this morning, I printed off, just now, the discussion and action questions for the community group that my wife and I lead.  The pastoral team is preaching a series of sermons on “False News.”  (Originally, the series was going to be “Fake News,” but they realized that this was rather offensive to the two or three of us at the church who are somewhat politically liberal, and decided on “False News” instead.  Pretty catchy, eh?!  But I do appreciate their sensitivity.)

And what is the “False News” for this week?  “God helps those who help themselves.”  I don’t think that this is a coincidence!

Often, things that are false have some element of truth in them.  The problem is that, if those elements are not balanced by other elements, they become very destructive falsehoods.  The fact that they have some truth makes them even more insidiously dangerous.

Nevertheless, “God helps those who help themselves,” encapsulates a wonderful truth.  Human actions do matter.

But without the opposite truth, God helps the helpless, human actions are inherently ineffective, and even demonic.

And if you asked me which of the two sayings has more biblical warrant, my answer would be that God helps the helpless.  Hands down, that is the emphasis.  I don’t know if the speaker tomorrow will reference Romans 5:6-11, but he very well could.  In any case, I will conclude this post with Paul’s words to Roman Christians from The Message Paraphrase, followed by a one-sentence comment of my own.

“6 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway.

7 We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.

8 But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

9 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way.

10 If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!

11 Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

We can help ourselves, at least in some measure, but only after God has helped us in Christ.