Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash
LET me speak to you as a Christian
in the first person. Not pointing the bone at anyone, allow me to paint a picture
of the seventh chapter of Romans, verses 14 through 25, through my eyes, heart
and soul.
If Paul was a sinner who did at
times the thing he hated doing, and at other times did not do what he needed to
do, what chance to stand as “saints” do we have? If a litany of Old and New
Testament characters is immortalised as sinners in the most read book ever, why
do we go on pretending we have it all together? But we do. Us Christians have
that down to a fine art. We pretend and the world (as well as God and other
Christians) sees right through us!
Note well these truths:
Sin is a contagion all through me and all through my lifespan. I myself am a man who daily gets it wrong; the
things I think, what I say, how and why and when I do things. Not one day goes
past when I don’t intentionally or unintentionally get it wrong. I am
Christian. What this means in the simplest of terms is I have agreed with God
that I acknowledge that in and of myself I’m no good — I need His help and
saving, not simply to be saved into heaven, but to be saved from myself in my
life now. As a Christian, God challenges me to live truthfully as a sinner
saved by His grace. That means the masks and veneer and pantomime must go! And
for the most part they do, and have… but the drive of inauthenticity is powerful.
The Christian call is not to live some perfect, inspiring
life. No! That is a scam
of the enemy. We think we’re glorifying God when we look good. When we give the
impression we have all the right answers. That we’re a font of wisdom. Rubbish.
We deny God anytime we appear to have strength. His strength is on maximum display
when we’re weak and yet resist the deadly sins, greed, anger, pride, lust, envy,
sloth, gluttony. Yet, we can’t even get that twenty percent right with a lifetime’s
consistency. We all have a thorn (or thorns) in the side as Paul did, whether
we’re Christian or not. We must stop trying to get it right. We must start
admitting how wrong we are. Then the truth will liberate us!
Stop the guilt. Live! Godly sorrow which leads to confession and repentance is from
God; the guilt that runs beyond godly sorrow is from His arch nemesis. Wherever
we can we must stop living as guilty ones. That’s the irony of the good news;
we who know how guilty we are find the ultimate freedom in that knowledge.
Knowing we cannot get it right, that we need help, frees us of external or
internal pressure to be better than we are.
The world cannot understand. Stop expecting it to. To the world, especially in this Day, any God-righteousness
is self-righteousness. Our voices aren’t respected on any issue unless we first
respect all voices. As Christians, especially as Christians, we’re not better
than anyone else. Most non-believing people won’t believe that, but they unconsciously
need to hear it. Non-believers expect us to be better than they are, especially
morally, but they hate it when we attempt to perform to such a standard. We are
better to reverse the flow; express humble certitude and occasionally surprise
them with our devotion to godly ethics.
As Christians we’re doing it wrong.
We always have, and we always will. Being Christian is not about being right, but
it is about endeavouring to do right. There is a massive difference between the
two.
We are no better witnesses of God
and the Christian faith than when we admit we are wrong.
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