By Katie Ginn
I recently read Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and I highly recommend it. Not only is it a quick, compelling thriller, but it paints a tragic picture of life apart from Christ.
Stevenson, or RLS as I’ll call him, grew up in the Victorian era, when people were judged almost entirely by how they acted in public. In other words, did they say, wear, and do the “appropriate” things? Deviating from social norms would get you ostracized, even if your actions weren’t inherently sinful – for instance, if a woman dared to be employed outside the home. How scandalous!
It’s in this context that RLS places his London protagonist, Dr. Henry Jekyll, who is highly respected both personally and professionally. To keep his reputation intact, Jekyll hides and pushes down any of his current desires or past actions that could be considered abnormal. The reader never learns what these things are, but Jekyll knows they could ruin him in the community. He strains to live by society’s laws and to act like he enjoys it.
Until Jekyll finds a loophole, or so he thinks: a concoction that turns him into Mr. Edward Hyde, who lacks all sense of conscience and looks nothing like Jekyll. Hyde romps around the city and commits (mostly) unnamed sins. Nobody suspects that Hyde and Jekyll are one and the same. Whenever he needs to become Jekyll again, Hyde drinks another concoction.
At first, Jekyll is delighted. He can do all the deviant things he wants in the guise of Hyde! Then Jekyll goes to bed one night and wakes up the next morning as Hyde – without drinking anything. The change has come involuntarily. Jekyll soon realizes he has to make a choice, or he’ll be stuck as Hyde forever. Jekyll narrates here:
“ … and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep it.”
I won’t spoil the ending, but I’ll tell you what this story reminds me of: Paul’s words in Romans 7.
“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (v. 18-20)
You might as well change the last part of verse 20 to “Hyde that dwells within me.” In fact, I’ve heard that RLS got some of his inspiration for “Jekyll and Hyde” from this chapter of scripture!
The difference is, Paul takes responsibility for his sin – and takes it to Christ. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 24-25a)
Jekyll thinks his only options are:
- Grit his teeth and hope he has enough willpower to be good (which he doesn’t).
- Give up and be evil.
The third and best option is to surrender to Jesus.
In the next chapter of Romans, Paul says “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (v. 2) and that Christians are “predestined to be conformed to the image of (Christ)” (v. 29). God doesn’t just forgive us when we trust in Christ: He empowers us to live by the Spirit, and He makes us more and more like Jesus.
The 21st-century South isn’t exactly Victorian England, but we still fall prey to Jekyll’s false dichotomy, even as professing Christians. On Sunday, we Jekyll: We walk into church with a painted-on smile and pretend we’re not as bad as everyone else. Monday through Saturday, perhaps with a break on Wednesday night, we Hyde (pun intended): We pursue our disordered passions in the shadows.
There is a third option. We can develop relationships with trustworthy believers, admit our struggles, and seek godly accountability, which is only possible in Christ. Maybe you’re bound up in legalism; maybe you’re living in the pigsty of rebellion. Maybe you find yourself ping-ponging between both! Wherever you are, please don’t settle for being Jekyll or Hyde. Surrender to Jesus and be His.