Musings on Christianity 19

Does God Accept Me For Who I Am?

The short answer is no. It sounds brutal and cruel, but that’s just the way it is. Neither is it true to think that Christ doesn’t turn people away. We want to think that He wouldn’t. We want to believe that we can do whatever we want (no matter how sinful) and Christ will just be “cool with it.” But, I say again, that just isn’t true.

There are many who might be outraged by this fact. They will talk about how Christ loved us and Christ died for us. Indeed He did. However, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to Heaven. I want to put a pin on that last clause long enough to finish this first, and most important, thought.

The words of Christ Himself:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Readers, if you are under any sort of impression that the simple lip service of “Christ is king,” or “I believe in Christ” is in and of itself enough, you are under the incorrect belief. Those of who you think Christ “doesn’t turn anyone away,” needs to read that entire chapter of the Bible much more closely. 

Who then will he not turn away? Christ gave the answer in the above passage: “ … the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.”

Sin is not in any way a part of God’s will.

Why then do we want to pretend otherwise? The answer is in the sin that you love. As a Christian, I want to seek out those sins I’m coveting. Those sins I love more than God. They exist. All people sin. The Christian seeks sanctification. The lost live in their sin.

“No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.” (1 John 3:6)

I’m of the opinion that we live in a world where we want to be able to sin and still get to Heaven. We want to pervert the love of Christ to mean, “He’ll let me do whatever I want and still take me.” 

It’s a very terrifying moment to realize that’s not true. It was for me. So the next thing people tend to do is try to minimize sin. They try to make some sins more terrible than others, and there are indeed sins God hates more than others, but that doesn’t make the other sins acceptable.

Our human rationalization is, “My sin isn’t all that bad, so I should be OK.”

Sin is bad. You’re not OK. If you live in sin, whatever it is, you don’t know Him, and you haven’t seen Him (see the above verse).

So, let’s go back up to that statement I mentioned above.

Assertion: Not everyone is going to Heaven. I think most would agree. I think if I talked to 1 million people, not one of them would claim everyone is going to Heaven.

But if you’re willing to acknowledge that not everyone is going, you have to then also acknowledge that Christ does indeed turn people away. Who then does He turn away? Refer back to the first passage I quoted in this chapter. Any who doesn’t do the will of the Father, will be turned away.

I’ve said several times that sin is sin. I even tend to not focus on any one sin. It’s just too volatile. Why? Because there are people who love their sin more than their brother (which is actually another sin). There are people who love their sin more than God (yet another sin).

So what happens is mortals rationalize. They say sin is sin from one side of their mouth, and then live in their sin as if that’s justification. Such actions then imply that one can do whatever he wants because sin is sin, but no rational person believes this.

To allow this mental debate to have a resting place, let’s pick a sin that no one fights for the right to do: murder. I’m not even talking about how Christ further defined murder in Matthew 5:21-48. For the sake of this mental experiment, I’m talking about the actual, physical murder of one person by another. I’m fairly confident no one is going to try and justify this act to me in any way. (Of course now some one is going to try some round about manner of justification such as the death penalty or self defense. Please just acknowledge then that all you’re doing is arguing for the sake of dissension and move along.)

I’ve never once seen a social media post or campaign topic that tries in any way to make it OK for people to kill, so I’m sticking with that to avoid more common, more politically acceptable sins.

  If saying, “I believe in Christ,” is enough to get into Heaven in and of itself, then do you believe that a man, a serial killer, could claim such and then continue to kill whomever the thrill of it called him to kill? Of course not! I’d venture to assert that even if a man had killed a hundred people and genuinely repented, falling down on his knees to beg Christ for forgiveness, paying for his crimes by turning himself in and accepting his punishment (You see, punishment by a court of law isn’t murder, those dissenters referenced above), never killing again, you would still want to condemn that man to Hell.

This is because killing is wrong. It is. It’s a sin, but so is the sin you’re holding on to. So too is the sin you want to keep and justify in doing so because that sin is more socially acceptable.

The truth of the matter is the angels rejoice over that murderer who repented and turned away from his sin. They do so more over him than the (self) righteous person who’s never killed a person, but committed several “lesser” sins, believing he is above the need to repent and turn away.  (This is a personal paraphrase of Luke 15:7.)

In my life, I’ve thought about people I wanted to go to Hell. They’d done things no one would argue are evil. I wanted wrath for that sinner and that sin. Then, I wanted grace and forgiveness for my own sin. Am I God that I should choose who goes to Heaven and who doesn’t? No, and neither are you.

Just as man can not condemn another man for their sin, neither can man declare another man righteous. We are not the way to Heaven; Christ is. (John 14:6) 

We only have the written word to guide us, but we need to pay attention to it. We can’t fall into the belief that lip service is enough. We can’t say we believe in Christ and continue to do all the things he said are wrong. We can’t do that any more than an abusive husband can claim to love his wife and continue to beat her. We can’t do that any more than an addict can claim to love her child and then lose him while drugged out of her mind. Even if those people mean what they say, and those statements have some immeasurable truth to them, they can’t argue they love their loved ones more than the sins they commit. No one in Heaven or Earth would believe them.

So then where is this leading to? I beg you to remember the two most important commandments given to us by Christ Himself:

“And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27. See also Matthew 22:36-40 and Mark 12:28-31)

Therefore, anyone who puts any sin above God, whatever that sin is, is in violation of what Christ says are the most important two laws. We have to cast aside our sin for the God we claim to love just as we have to do for our neighbors.

This explicitly tells us we do in fact have to change for those we love. If we refuse to change, we are in fact, showing how little we love them. How contrary to popular philosophy and self-help books that statement is! 

But don’t we do that? Don’t we break up with the boyfriend or girlfriend who wont’ give up smoking or some other undesirable habit? Don’t we leave the relationship where the person is selfish? 

So if we on Earth know to turn away those who refuse to love us enough to turn from the wrong they do, so don’t we also realize Christ will do to us?

And now for those who feel this truth is a little on the “unloving” side. All the cases I used above were clearly things anyone would accept as reasonable. But what about that guy who never, ever, puts the lid to the toilet down. What about that wife who works a bit more than you’d like and doesn’t have time to help around the house or even just offer time for affection that you’d like?

Well, this is where forgiveness and Christ’s infinite love comes into play. We mortals have all sorts of deal breakers. Think about this. We have several (sometimes difficult to understand and/or explain) things we will immediately end a relationship over. We want to do that, but imagine a God who would be OK with anything? How does that even make sense?

However, where we would summarily end any relationship over any number of deal breakers, God, through Christ, is much better than all of us. You see, Christ is forgiving. For those who repent and turn away, there is no deal breaker. There’s no crime so great one can commit that Christ’s blood can’t wash away. This, is how glorious he is. And in that grace and mercy, Christ understands us. He advocates for us. (1 John 2:1)

That means that murderer is indeed forgiven, even if you don’t like it. That means anyone can be forgiven, if he but accepts Christ into his heart and repents of his sins. He did this for a thief on a cross who minutes before was ridiculing Christ. (Luke 23:43)

Sin is sin. There is not greater or lesser sin you could choose to live in and do continually that Christ, in his perfect, righteous glory as king of kings, would ever accept.

However; Sin is sin. There is no sin Christ’s blood can’t wash way. We may stumble, but Christ knows our hearts. He knows our desire to change and be more like Him. Those who accept Him and obey Him are among his elect. Those who strive to live as He lives and do as He does will be welcomed.

Consider this as you look at your life and the sins you carry. I’m not beyond this scrutiny. I look at the sin in my life and it horrifies me. Some sins fell away, but it seems like sin is some sort of hydra, popping up with two heads more each time I turn from one sin. The goal is the keep growing. The goal is to aspire and live to be more like Christ. Then His grace and mercy will be with you, and nothing will take you from God’s hands when you are His. (Romans 8:39)

For our panel: How does one turn from sin? What does it mean if I repent of a sin (whatever it is) and then succumb to it? Is backsliding a real thing? Does being a Christian mean being perfect?

Musings on Christianity 12

Why Christ?

Inevitably, there comes a time when people speak of religion and begin to try and harmonize faith into one set of beliefs. The idea is that any path taken to honor God will lead to Him. This is most common for people who believe in a singular God. There are also times when people will question why one faith is superior to another. 

What I’m not going to do is tell you why my faith is superior to another faith. What I am going to do is simply explain why I need Christ.

Let me ask you a brutal yes or no question. Remember, you can’t explain or justify your answer; you must simply think, “yes” or “no.” Are you perfect? I didn’t ask if you were generally a good person. I didn’t ask if you’re no worse than someone else. I didn’t ask if you haven’t done anything truly bad. I mean, are you absolutely perfect?

I know I’m not. The first chapter covers this same theory. Remember, I’m not good, and neither are you. This is the first part of why I need Christ. I’m not perfect. I’d even go so far as to say I’d rather not even attempt to justify myself next to some other mortal men. I have regrets in my life. 

The next part of this explanation demands yet another important honest question. The same rules apply.  Do you believe you could earn your way into Heaven? Some religions do. Some people do. If you answer, yes, then there’s really not much I can tell you. Time will tell. I however, do not think I could earn my way into Heaven. Why? Because if I’m not perfect, I can’t honestly expect a perfect God to want to have anything to do with me.

Here is another issue that needs to be addressed. It’s perhaps comforting to think of God as someone who loves us. This is actually true. However, the idea of “love” is the one that needs clarification. There are those who want the idea of God’s love to mean, “I can do whatever I want, and he still loves me.” 

I don’t believe that’s true. First, let’s look at this as any Christian should look at a question. Does God love everyone?  He does love us in that he offered salvation to us (Romans 5:8).  But if you lean on that verse, then you must remember the whole thought. God shows his love for us (which is there) in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If Christ is the mechanism for which he showed his love, we must, therefore need him for that love to have been shown.

But why then did Christ’s death need to be? I’m coming to that, but first we must address the concept of God’s love.

God’s hatred does exist. There are those he hates. Who? He hates evildoers (Psalm 5:5).  He hates those who are haughty, those who’ve lied, those who’ve shed innocent blood, those who devise wicked plans, those who hurry to evil, a false witness, and those who sow discord among brothers (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Anyone as self defensive as I am would quickly shout, “I’ve never shed innocent blood!” They may say, “I’ve never devised a wicked plan!”

I’m not going to invest time to explain how God sees hatred of another itself as murder (the shedding of innocent blood) (Matthew 5:21-48).  I’m also not going to invest time discussing what constitutes a wicked plan. Indeed, I’m going to simply conceded those two arguments.

However, the items on this list I, for one, can not dispute condemn me are those who lie, and those who sow discord. Here comes another brutal question. Yes or no: have you ever, ever, lied? Welcome to the list of those God hates (or hated, we’ll come to that).  I’ve lied. I don’t have any idea of the number of times I’ve lied. From, “Mom, this sure tasted great!” to “You look fine!” I’ve lied. Those are just the “white” lies. Lies we tell for good. Let’s make something clear. You can not do something evil for good. You can not lie for a good reason. If you’ve lied, you, like me, are on the list.

What about sowing discord? Well, have you ever talked about someone behind their back? Have you ever vented to a friend about that guy you “just can’t stand?” Have you ever spoken about that boss who “everyone hates?”  That’s right, you’ve sown discord. Welcome to the list. Don’t worry, I’m on that list too. 

What then can we do? There are some who would say, “Sure, you’ve done some bad in life!” They conceded the first question above proclaiming, “no one is perfect.” Then they try to make that lack of perfection ok by either stating “God loves us anyway,” which we’ll address here in another moment, or they say, “the point is to try to do more good than evil.”

Here’s were that logic just falls short for me. Taking from the list of things God hates listed above, just imagine every “fib” every “white lie” you’ve ever told. I don’t know about you, but I lost count. So how can I know how many good deeds to do? If my single list of this one “bad” thing is already too difficult to count, how, exactly can I hope to know how many “good” deeds I need to do?

This line of thinking becomes even more mind boggling to me. What about the severity of the sin? I was a little thief in my younger days. Does that mean I have to give in these days? Does the “right” I’m obligated to do have to be at least equal to or greater than the “wrongs” done? It just gets too complicated. It also leads back to one very important thing. Do I really think I can earn my way into Heaven? If I don’t think I can, then no amount of good deeds is going to be enough anyway.

And I don’t. I don’t think I’m going to do a darn thing for the creator of the universe. I don’t have a resume item I think will compare with, “created all things.”

So I need help. If I realize I can’t earn my way into Heaven because I’m not perfect, I’m can’t even tell the amount of good I must do to outweigh the bad I’ve done, and I’m not able to do anything to impress the God who created the universe, I need someone or something to help me. Therefore, I need Christ. 

The next question then must be, “What does Christ do for those who believe in him?” There are several different ways to ask that question, but that version works for me.

The first thing he did for us what that very same demonstration of love I mentioned above from Romans 5:8. His very death, if we believe in him and his death, is a symbol of God’s love. Why though? Why did his death for us help us? Why is his death the symbol of God’s love?

Because death is the price for sin (Romans 6:23). In the days of Moses, a substitutionary sacrifice was enough to temporarily pay the price for a man’s sin. That substitutionary death was to be a lamb without blemish, a perfect lamb. 

These sacrifices had to be repeated though. They were offered at specific places in specific times and repeated because man continued to sin. This had to be repeated because an animal was never regarded as equal to man (Matthew 6:26 gives one example of this fact). So the only way for man to be permanently forgiven is for a perfect man to die.

Therefore, I need Christ. He was perfect. He did die. More importantly, he was raised. His death paid for my sins. His resurrection broke the bonds of death so that life everlasting becomes possible.

So I choose Christianity for a great number of reasons. The reason that’s relevant to this particular chapter is that I already know there’s nothing I can do to be good enough to get into Heaven. I need help. I know I need help because I already know I’m not good enough on my own. What Christ did is pay the price for my sin. What Christ does is advocate for me with his Father in Heaven (1 John 2:1). Rather than rely on myself to negotiate my way into Heaven, I rely on Christ to be the way.

Again, this isn’t where I say to those of other religions, “This is why you’re wrong.” Instead, this is where I say, “This is why I need Christ.” No other religion has a figure who, in perfection, provided me a means to be cleansed and a person to advocate for me.

Dr. John MacArthur once broke religion down into two ultimate groups: Faith based religion and works based religion. If you believe in your core as some do that you are the one who must earn your way, I’m not going to convince you other wise. I just don’t agree. I’m just too aware of too many people who did so many good things, but I can always find one guy who doesn’t think that person measures up. However, what I can choose to do is have faith in one who was perfect and paid my price and speaks for me.

I offer this prospective to you to help you understand why I feel the need I feel. If you don’t feel good enough, Christ is. If you don’t feel as though you can do enough, Christ has. If you don’t feel you’re perfect, Christ is.

For our panel: What are some other ways to demonstrate how Christ served as our substitutionary sacrifice? What is the relationship between sin and death? What was it that showed you the need for Christ? How is Christ unique as a savior in comparison to other religions? How does Christ serve as our advocate in Heaven?