Macbeth vs. the Apostle Paul: Why Sin Destroyed One and Not the Other

My Advanced Placement English classes are studying Macbeth, and one of the themes that Shakespeare, that master of human nature, pulls out in his tragedy Macbeth is that sometimes people choose evil instead of good. In the play Macbeth knows that it's not right to kill King Duncan in order to gain the throne of Scotland. As an audience we listen to him argue with himself and list the reasons why he shouldn't committ the heinous crime: King Duncan has been nothing but gracious, he's a good king, the people love him, and he's promoted Macbeth promptly in recognition of his miltary accomplishments. And yet still, with all this arguing, Macbeth still enters into Duncan's chambers and spills his blood.

Man, how I identify with Macbeth. The Apostle Paul and Macbeth could have been fast friends. As he says, in a letter he wrote to the Romans, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. Instead I do what I hate to do."

How many times has that happened to you? I really want to be the bigger person and not snap back in anger, but I let your anger fly anyway. I really want to get off my butt and lose weight but it's just easier to not. I really want to be honest but if I am, I might not be able to get what I think I really need.

But in their stories, one real, one fictional, their endings are completely different. They both end up being killed: Macbeth for his villany; Paul for his righteousness. Macbeth died a tyrant beheaded by a man whose family he killed. Paul died a marytr, and became a hero of the faith.

So what's with the opposite trajectory of their lives? How can they have the same root problem, and yet one overcome and one fail miserably.

I think what Jesus would say is that it has to with each man's spiritual choices.

Macbeth has chosen, in the words of Jesus, "the way that leads to death." Macbeth has chosen in the words of the Prophets of the Old Testament "people who do what is right in their own eyes" but who "have rejected the law of the Lord and his decrees." Macbeth has chosen, in the words of the Apostles in the New Testament to follow "the acts of the sinful nature." Macbeth has chosen, in the words of Yoda "the dark side."

Macbeth is not purely evil, and I think part of the reason that audiences like him is because he is so torn between these tough moral choices. He is conflicted, just as we are conflicted. And he makes the wrong call, just as often in our own life, we make the wrong call.

But Paul, who has the exact same root problem, the exact same leanings and tendencies overcomes them and is able to do good? Why?

Because he's connected to the water. He says in Galatians that if you're connected to God, like a grape is connected to the branch or plants are connected to water, then you will have a better character. It might be slow-going at first, just as all growth is slow, but it will happen. Instead of being a murderous, gluttonous paranoid tyrant, you can actually be filled with character that is just like God.

Love. Joy. Peace. Patient. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.

I suppose the lesson in all of this is: what kind of character are you? And if you're not, then Paul gives you the short answer: get connected to God.

Britsh pastor and author Oswald Chambers has this to say about sin:

"We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue—if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine—that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life."

This is what everyone has to come to terms with. Life has enough sorrow, but I think the greatest sorrow comes not in what happens to us, but what we do to ourselves. And perhaps the greatest sorrow and grief comes when you betray your own self by choosing to become a person who you don't even like that much.

Thankfully, there's an answer.

And thankfully, you don't have anyone else penning your life for you.