In the 80’s, a co-worker told me that he liked going down to the Vancouver airport to watch planes take off from the perimeter road located to the south of the runway, going north and south.
Planes departing in this direction fly over a body of water, and from the road one can get a really good view of the take-offs. One hot summer day, he was watching a Boeing 747 taking off. He was aware that there is a point on a runway called the point of no return. Pilots know about it, even though it is not marked by a big sign and pointing arrow. When that point is reached, the pilot can still abort the takeoff safely in case of an emergency, without running out of runway. Once this point is passed, he must attempt the take off.
My co-worker observed that the Boeing 747 was lumbering down the runway, not gaining much lift due to the hot summer air which is thinner than cold air, and it passed the point of no return. The plane was not lifting off and was running out of runway. It slowly gained a bit of elevation, but with the wheels still down, he thought the wheels would hit the perimeter barbwire fence around that part of the airport. This would have caused the plane to crash into the water of the Bay.
The pilot retracted the wheels way before he normally would do, and the plane cleared the fence. Once over the water, the air being a bit cooler and more dense, the plane slowly began to get more lift, but it seemed that it took forever to gain enough altitude to make its turn towards its destination.
This episode may remind us of our experience with sin, because there is a point of no return that we should be aware of. This process is outlined in the book of James:
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:13-15).
First we are drawn away by our own desires or tempted by our desires and enticed; that is, sin doesn’t look so bad, in fact, it looks good. Notice, once the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, so the time to put on the brakes is before it conceives because by then one may be in danger of passing the point of no return. After conception, our desires give birth to sin—not to immortal life, but to sin—and when sin is fully grown, it brings forth death. It is like a little leaven which grows until the whole body is leavened. Likewise, the end result of sin is death from which, if not repented of, there could be no return. That is why it is important to control our desires and to resist sin early on.
We know that Christ was tempted in all things, yet He never sinned. Hebrews 4:14-15 tells us:
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Christ never passed the point of no return—for Him, it was never a close call. He never allowed desires to take hold of or conceive and settle in His mind, and He never allowed them to give birth to sin. Since He could overcome temptation, we can do likewise, when Christ lives in us, helping us to attain that state of being free from sinful behavior. Let us never lose sight of the fact that with Christ’s help, we can overcome temptation and abort actions leading to sin, and if desires have conceived and have given birth to sin and death, we must quickly repent by “retracting the wheels” and attempting the lift-off from and rising above sin, so as to avoid going beyond the point of no return.
