by Pastor Patrick Cho
One of my favorite scenes from C. S. Lewis’s classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is where Edmund first encounters the White Witch. In case you haven’t read the book or don’t remember the scene, this is where, in an attempt to gain his trust, she asks Edmund what he most desires to eat. He responds, “Turkish Delight, please, Your Majesty.” When she gives him his wish, he proceeds to stuff his face full of the deadly dessert, but the more he eats, the more it leaves him wanting more.
When the box is empty, Edmund stares intently at it desperately craving more. Lewis explains, “At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it until they killed themselves.”
What a brilliant picture of what sin does to the human heart! The deadly bait of sin lures a person with the promise of complete satisfaction, and yet it leaves the soul feeling somewhat satisfied and unsatisfied. The craving is satisfied in that the individual gets a taste of his heart’s desire. But the soul is left deeply unsatisfied because he desperately wants more. All the pleasures of the world and the lusts of the heart promise the same satisfaction and fail to deliver. There is no such thing as the sinner who says, “I don’t need any more because I have received all that my heart desires.” This is one of the reasons for our propensity to continue to sin. We are left wanting more.
Interestingly, according to Scripture and in our own life experience, the believer’s heart for God also knows satisfaction yet with a desire for more. But this is in a vastly different and incomparable way. Unlike with sin, when the believer experiences the knowledge of God, there is the possibility of complete satisfaction. Nothing else in the world compares with knowing God and we are willing to lay aside all earthly things to know Him. Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven was like a precious pearl, and that the buyer of pearls would sell all that he owned to obtain it (Matt. 13:45-46). There is true satisfaction in God that the world can’t successfully forge.
And yet we do not know God as fully as He could be known. We see Him in Scripture, but our vision is limited by our finiteness. He is the infinite, Creator God, and we will forever remain His creatures. His mind is infinitely greater than ours and we could never successfully attain to it (Ps. 139:6; Rom. 11:33-34). His holiness alone sets Him apart from the rest of creation (Isa. 6:3).
But it isn’t only our finiteness that limits our ability to know God to the fullest. Our sin also keeps us from our goal. We are too easily satisfied by lesser things (cf. Jer. 2:13). Our hearts are too easily led astray. Though our hearts would desire to know Him, our sinful flesh constantly sets itself up as a barrier. Even though God has filled our hearts, we still struggle with a lack of desire for Him.
Still, with the believer’s heart, there will always be a deep-seated desire to know God more. Paul wrote that this was ever his goal (cf. Phil. 3:10). He was willing to lay aside everything else in order to attain a greater knowledge of His Savior. Every believer should identify with A. W. Tozer’s prayer at the conclusion of the first chapter of The Pursuit of God: “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more…O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.” Though we know Him really, we don’t know Him fully. There should always be an ongoing pursuit in our hearts.
Sin leaves us feeling somewhat satisfied and yet dissatisfied. It leaves us craving more and more without completely filling our hearts. God leaves us satisfied and yet somewhat dissatisfied in that our lives would be lived in a constant pursuit of Him. The Bible speaks truth when it says that both the backslider and good man will be filled with the fruit of their ways (Prov. 14:14).
But even though the two might seem similar, they are vastly different. If in nothing else, they are different in their ultimate outcomes. If a person pursues sin with all his heart, he will ultimately never be satisfied and his pursuit will end in death (cf. James 1:14-15). But when a believer pursues God with all His heart, he has an eternity of life to look forward to where his heart will be completely satisfied with the one he loves most (cf. 1 John 3:1-2).