The "fifth column"

No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it (Romans 7:18-20).

When Francisco Franco was leading the revolution in Spain, he coined the phrase "the fifth column." He was trying to capture Madrid. He said that he had four columns of soldiers marching on the city, one from the north, one from the south, one from the east, and one from the west. But the most important column of all was his "fifth" column, the citizens of Madrid who would rise up and betray the city from within, welcoming him in.

Over the years, "the fifth column" has come to refer to any group that plans to betray their country from the inside. This is the most dangerous kind of attack in a war because it catches us by surprise, it causes significant damage by slipping past our defenses, and the betrayal from within hurts our morale. The highest crime a citizen can be convicted of is treason.

Christians are warned to be on guard for the temptations and attacks launched against us by the devil, but our worst defeats come about when we betray ourselves. Each of us tries to live a morally responsible life, but our dark inner desires have other ideas. It only takes a moment of weakness to cave into the addiction of smoking or drinking or gambling; it only takes a brief lapse of judgment to end up hitting someone you love, or become infected with a sexually transmitted disease. And when we betray ourselves by breaking a promise to "never do that again," we not only let down others, we sink deeper and deeper into the black pit of self-hatred for being weak and useless.

Sin lives in each of us. Our dark desires try to convince us that they are normal and natural, a part of us that makes us uniquely who we are. But our sinful desires are in truth fifth columnists; they plot to end our ability to control them so that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want. And every time that we let our dark desires express themselves, they get stronger and our ability to control them weakens.

This is why we need Jesus Christ. Jesus lived on earth to take the responsibility for our evil deeds. He suffered and died when God the Father punished Him in our place for these sins. But Jesus did not stay dead; He returned to life to prove that there is no evil deed of ours that has been left unpunished. Because Jesus lives, we have the promise that no matter how many times we betray ourselves, Jesus is willing to move into our hearts and restore the rule of God’s love.