Imagine, for a second, the development of a shot that can protect you from sin.

It would require only a quick trip to your HMO. Roll up your sleeves, receive a jab from a needle, and suddenly you've got complete and permanent immunity to pride, greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

Call it an injection against iniquity! It sounds irresistible, doesn't it?

Well, the idea is not as far-fetched as it seems. The pharmaceutical industry is currently closing in on a new approach to treating addiction -- one that takes the temptation out of recreational drugs. Vaccines are being tested that would program the body to produce immune-system proteins called "antibodies" that can chemically disarm specific drugs in the bloodstream.

Now antibodies themselves are nothing new -- we've counted on them since the dawn of time to protect us from disease. But the antibodies produced by these new vaccines would do something never before seen: They would attack recreational drugs in the bloodstream and keep them from reaching the brain, or break these drugs into non-intoxicating chemical bits.

In other words, a vaccinated addict suddenly finds that his favorite drug has no effect on him. He can't get high, because an antibody is now removing the pleasure from his poison!

At least five drug companies and several university scientists are testing vaccines for cocaine, PCP, methamphetamine, and nicotine. Researchers are finding that rats and monkeys with access to cocaine continue to party away until they get the vaccine -- then they seem to lose their enthusiasm for the drug. Human tests are going well so far, and these drugs appear to offer hope to people who are struggling to quit smoking or snorting. (Tinker Ready, "High Immunity," Utne Reader, November-December 2000, 20-21).

This sounds pretty attractive, doesn't it? A temptation vaccination. Suddenly, a cocaine addict can snort all he wants, because the coke won't affect him. Parents don't have to teach their children to "just say no," because a vaccine will protect them from danger. But as big as this breakthrough seems to be, let's not get carried away. There's more to sin-control than an iniquity inoculation.

We shouldn't forget about free will. Free choice. The power or discretion to choose. Free will is the deeply-rooted Christian belief that human choices are ultimately voluntary, and not determined by external causes. Our will is not mandated by God, nor is it controlled by a vaccine. Even an inoculated addict has the freedom to make bad decisions.

Moral and ethical choices simply cannot be made by prescription. A vaccine may be a miracle for physiological problems, but it is not going to do a thing for psychological problems. Medical researchers are the first to admit that inoculated coke addicts are still required to have a motivation to want to quit using cocaine. A desire to STOP is the key factor of any successful treatment outcome.

The apostle Paul was one of the first to articulate just how tricky this business can be. "I do not do the good I want," he admits to the Romans, "but the evil I do not want is what I do" (7:19). Even when he wants to do what is good, he finds that evil is close at hand, leading to a conflict within himself between the law of God and the law of sin. Even when he absolutely delights in the law of God, he feels this war being waged within himself, making him captive to the law of sin. The human predicament seems to be that we want to love God with all our heart, but on the other hand we seem to do everything in our power to subvert this desire.

Can a simple shot lead to some kind of inner stability and serenity? Don't bet on it, counsels Paul.

As frustrating as this condition is, we shouldn't forget that free will is part of God's plan for us. Flip back to Genesis, and you'll see that the Lord did not install robots in the Garden of Eden, cyborgs who were programmed only to do good, never feeling moral and ethical conflicts being waged within themselves. No, God created Adam and Eve, fully developed and independent human beings who had the ability to make free choices from their first day on the job.

Of course, they chose poorly, and suffered the consequences. Going for the forbidden fruit is a habit we can't seem to break. I struggle with this in my own life, and I'm sure you do as well.

Help is clearly needed, if we are going to use our free will for good. That's why God sent us Jesus -- not only to save us from our sins, but to show us a way to AVOID them. In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes an important link between love and free will -- a link between love and the free choice to do good according to his word. "Those who love me will keep my word," he insists (14:23), weaving together love and obedience in his directive for discipleship.

We can't simply say we love Jesus and then do as we please -- both love and commandment-keeping are interconnected choices that we must make every day. Jesus doesn't force us to love him any more than he forces us to pursue good over evil. Instead, he respects us enough to give us the freedom to choose.

But why? Why not save us some heartache by making these choices for us?

Mainly because love and morality require an atmosphere of FREEDOM. In fact, love is always "the free exercise of choice," insists psychiatrist M. Scott Peck in his book The Road Less Traveled. "Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other." True love and authentic ethical actions require free choice. Jesus always wants us to love him and obey him FREELY -- not because we've received a spiritual shot of some kind.

When we make this choice, we are given a wonderful gift -- one that makes it easier to choose wisely in the future. This gift is the presence and power of a Lord who comes to us and makes his home with us (14:23). According to the Gospel of John, God and Christ dwell in all who live in love and obedience, the Holy Spirit comes to teach them, and Christ himself gives them his peace (vv. 25-27). That's an attractive incentive for anyone considering a life of love and obedience.

Not that such a choice comes easily. Or quickly. Sometimes it takes time, and arrives only after missteps and mistakes and even significant suffering.

Consider the case of a young Houston woman named Lia McCord. She was spending her days modeling lingerie and her nights doing the club scene, when one day a friend casually mentioned she was going to make $10,000 in cash for a one-time "top secret" business trip, smuggling diamonds. A few weeks later, the friend returned, full of stories of lavish travel arrangements as well as easy money.

The trap was set for Lia. Only one detail had changed: It wasn't diamonds she had smuggled -- it was heroin.

Bad choice.

Lia's destination was the capital of Bangladesh. There she was given a package of heroin, and told to take it on an airplane bound for Switzerland. She walked easily through a metal detector, but then was stopped and subjected to a body check. The heroin was discovered, and Lia was arrested and subjected to five days of non-stop questioning.

Convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to die by hanging, she spent years in prison. During that time her picture often appeared in local magazines as "the daring American who thinks she can escape the law."

Of course, she couldn't escape. There was no quick solution to her situation. But there WAS a purpose in her punishment.

When she entered prison, Lia felt far from God. But the Muslim women around her were so sure of their beliefs that they began to challenge Lia to prove her own. "Sometimes I thought, Am I right or wrong?" wondered Lia. "But I began to dig into a Bible I had received from the Embassy, essentially to find out what I really believed." The more she read and memorized Scripture, the closer God came.

As she grew in her faith, Lia also became more adept at sharing it. She never knocked her fellow prisoners over the head with the gospel, but just tried to work it into everyday conversations. She came to the conclusion, "This is where I am. I deserve to be here. But I need to make something good out of this."

Lia had an impact on the other inmates. They often made excuses to stop by Lia's cell, just to look at her, commenting she was "something bright to see."

She knew where the brightness came from. It came from Jesus Christ.

Finally, after four years, Lia was released. Looking back on her imprisonment, she says, "God put the brakes on my life because he cared enough to say, 'Lia, you are going to stop and think and listen to what I have planned for you.' My punishment, rightly deserved, only helped me see how brightly the light of Jesus shines in extremely difficult situations." (Bonne L. Steffen, "Free Again!" Christian Reader, January/February 1997, 22).

In a world of free will, some lessons can be learned only by making bad choices and then suffering the consequences. And sometimes these consequences contain unexpected and extraordinary opportunities for spiritual growth -- opportunities to choose love and obedience, and to experience the life-changing peace of Jesus Christ.

There's really no vaccination for temptation, or quick shot for sin. There's only a God who promises to come to us and make his home with us, in even the most desperate situations. The only cure for sin is the power and the presence of our loving Lord.
Amen.

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