Faulty Solutions
By Anthony Casperson
11-1-25

The crew from the TV show Firefly got one last ride in the movie Serenity. A large part of the plot revolves around the connection that one of the crewmembers has to events on a planet called Miranda. And for the sake of those who have yet to watch it, I’m going to spoil the big secret of the movie here.

When the crew land on this planet—which is deep in the territory of the enigmatically dangerous enemy, who are called Reavers—they find a ghost town, filled with the bodies of its former habitants. And a search of the area finally shows that the planet was a part of an experiment. One which was meant to help people across the galaxy.

Those conducting the experiment intended to eliminate aggression in the population. They sought peace among humanity, and figured that aggression was the problem. If they could remove the combative elements from humans, then they’d achieve the harmony that they sought.

But the problem was that, for the majority of the planet’s inhabitants, the chemical agent removed their drive and motivation completely. So much so that the test subjects gave up living. They dropped right where they’d stood, having lost the desire to continue on with life.

It seems that some aggression can be a good thing after all.

Yet there had been one last group of the population who ended up with the opposite issue. Instead of decreasing their aggression, it increased. Those incredibly lethal Reavers were the remainder of the test subjects. Frenzied by an experiment gone wrong.

In both cases, the experiment failed. What the scientists had set out to do didn’t work. It actually created the opposite effect. Rather than peace and harmony, they wrought death and destruction.

Failed experiments like these happen a lot, to be honest. Especially when our perceived solution is the wrong one. When we think that a change needs to happen in one place, but don’t realize the repercussions of that faulty area of correction.

Or, when we don’t even take a couple of minutes to question if our solution could be the wrong one.

Fictional scientists aren’t the only people to make faulty presumptions about the right way to deal with a problem. Everyday people fall for the same trap. And we followers of Jesus stand among them, even if it’s in our own spiritual way.

The problem we followers of Jesus face is called sin. Rebellion against the ways of God. And since we (hopefully) want to overcome this issue, we have a few solutions. Many modern renditions of a solution for this deny the definition of specific actions as sins at all. They attempt to speak theological doubletalk in order to claim that God doesn’t actually have a problem with this one specific action. Or, they claim that any ancient statement against it was only a cultural thing that modern Christians are free from now.

Giving up on the motivation for a pursuit of godly holiness—motivation for seeking to live a truly pure life, as God designed—they end up with a death-like glaze, until the corruption takes them over.

But they’re not the people I intend to talk about today.

I was recently reading through the book of Colossians and was reminded of those who so aggressively pursue the “wisdom” of godly holiness that they fail to recognize they’ve totally missed the point of it all.

Throughout the end of the second chapter of the epistle, Paul writes against those who attempt to add anything to the gospel of Jesus. Actions that they say make a person actually holy, as if Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient for that job by itself. Specifically, Paul’s speaking against people like the Judaizers, who claimed that a true Christian had to follow the Law of Moses as well, including circumcision.

Verse 16 includes things that these Law-demanders judged as necessary. Regard to proper food and drink. Adhering to certain religious festivals and new moons. Even enforcing people to keep the Sabbath day. All of these, Paul tells the Colossian followers of Jesus to not let others judge them about.

They need not submit themselves to the regulations quoted in verse 21. “Do not touch. Do not taste. Do not handle.” These regulations make the idea of holiness nothing more than a list of do’s and don’ts. As if God is only interested in us mechanically doing as he demands.

But the problem is that this perspective might appear as godly wisdom, at first. If we don’t touch, taste, or handle, then we can’t sin. Because we’re nowhere near it. Building a fence can keep a person from getting too close.

But Paul refers to this in verse 23 as an appearance of wisdom. It’s nothing but a worship of one’s own will, or a self-made religion. Paul’s distaste at this whole thing makes him seem to create a compound word in the Greek that had never existed previously for this self-willed-religion.

All of this asceticism and severity against the body might look like it’s helping, but all that it’s doing is feeding the sinful flesh. It’s not spiritual self control, but a gluttony of selfish religiosity.

Those who perform this list of rules lift themselves up, rather than the God they supposedly worship. Do’s and don’ts become the focus of their worship, rather than their Creator. Jesus becomes nothing but a bludgeon to use against those who don’t live up to this imposed, human-made standard.

Pursuing holiness leads them to create victims of religion rather than saints with a relationship with God.

Some might be asking, “If godliness and holiness are the goal, but neither redefining sin nor enforcing regulations are the answer, then what is? How do we actually overcome the problem of sin?”

To these questions, I point us to verse 15, verse 17, and the first part of verse 20. These verses lead us to consider Christ, to the work of Jesus on the cross. His cross disarmed the demands of regulations, because he transmits his holiness to those who submit to him.

We still should seek holiness. But that’s because our Savior is holy, not because we’ve been we have to complete a list. His work on the cross made us dead to sin, and so, in gratitude for it, we should seek to be more like him. A desire to pursue holiness should be an effect of salvation, not the way we achieve it.

Those rules and regulations were only a shadow of the true ways of God. We have something better than do’s and don’ts. We have Christ as our example. And the Holy Spirit dwelling in those who are his.

Therefore, since we’ve been separated from the basic elements of this sinful existence, we should live like it. Those rules and regulations are for those without Christ, without the cross. Those still dead in their sins. What we have is so much better. It’s not a re-definition of what sin is, but rather a power and purpose that makes us capable of what we never thought possible.

Our problem with sin is that we misunderstand how to deal with it—and I very much include myself in this. We don’t need to focus on the sin, either changing its definition or demanding we follow a list of rules to keep far away from it. Rather, we should focus on Jesus, on his saving work.

Where we place our focus defines our path.

If we continue to look at the sin, all we’ll find is death and destruction. But if we look to Jesus as guide for how to live, we will find life.

So, let’s stop looking for solutions that are not really helpful. Stop focusing on the problem. And instead put the solution in the center of our gaze. Look to Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. And follow his example, not as a list of do’s and don’ts, but as our guide to holiness.

He’s the only helpful solution.