The wisdom of spiritual progress VS the folly of spiritual perfection

The sages of AA say, “We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection,” knowing that the former leads to a sustainable and achievable spirituality, while the latter leads to a path of inward destruction because it demands a masquerade.  The former has indelible beneficence; the latter always produces harm.

Recently I had someone confess that they were truly afraid that they could never achieve perfection, feeling that the authentic Christian life would be unattainable, and that people would be able to see straight through them.  I responded by saying that I’m incredibly sad when I hear non-Christians say that they can’t be Christian until they are good enough.  Then I said, “I have to tell you that I’m not good enough.  But can I also say that accepting I’m not good enough has been central to living free in Christ.  This is the authentic Christian life.”

The irony is that only when we accept
that we aren’t good enough — that we’ll NEVER be perfect
can we ever be ‘good’ Christians.

THE FOLLY OF STRIVING FOR SPIRITUAL PERFECTION

Spiritual perfection is unattainable, and anyone who believes that it is attainable has been deceived by the enemy of God.  Only the devil wants us to believe that we can become as perfect as Jesus was and is.  Christian faith is nothing about this kind of achievement.  Indeed, Christian faith is quite the opposite; it is believing upon the only perfect Lamb of God as the One who saves us.  If we could be perfect, we’d not need saving.  And no matter how long we are Christian we continue to need saving.  It’s called surrendering to God.

We are saved from perfection; we are saved because we are sinners.  We don’t stop being sinners the moment we become Christian.  The moment we become Christian is the moment we accept we are sinners needing saving.  We spend the rest of our lives striving to live more like Jesus through the very act of being honest when we sin.

Whenever we pretend to be spiritually perfect (because it is not an endpoint any of us reach even for a moment) God’s Spirit departs, and instantly we find yet again — if only we’re honest — we are working in our own strength, which is spiritual futility.  If ever we want an exercise in frustration, we only need to work in our own strength for a relatively prolonged period.

Whilst there are definitely periods of enormous spiritual contentment for those genuinely committed to Christ, imperfection is our default characterisation.  Only when we accept this do we thrive.  Only when we accept this can we be real with other people, and even as we are real with them, we give them permission to be real with us.  Do you realise how precious this authenticity between human beings is?  It’s what the church is called to be. 

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS IS THE WISE GOAL

One of the hardest things to do in the human life is to live honestly before others and God.  But if we live honestly, every single one of us will feel like we are falling short.  Yet, to fall short, and to be honest before God and others about it, is as close to spiritual perfection as we’ll ever get.  See the paradox in that?

In Christian terms, we get closer to God when we are most abundantly aware of the massive chasm between a holy God and the mortal, fallible creatures we are.  And yet, God has reached down in and through Jesus to pluck us out of eternal obscurity, to give us a home, and to reconnect us with the God of our creation.

Spiritual progress is about routinely coming to the end of ourselves in order that the power of God can work in us on a process that will not be complete until we make the journey into eternity.  God cannot work in a vessel that is filled or even half-full of itself.  God only works in an empty vessel.  Spiritual progress, therefore, can only begin when we stop working in our own strength and admit we can’t do this life without God.

The best news about spiritual progress is that we don’t need to pretend to be better than who we are.  We don’t need to be another (or better) version of someone else.  We don’t need to masquerade.  Indeed, to masquerade or to try and be another version of someone else or to pretend to be better than who we are is to completely miss the point of what God intends to do in and through us.

Our journey with God has much less to do with what we contribute than we often think.

Actually, the more we get out of our own way, the more we will find that God will do works in us that we never could by ourselves.  This is spiritual progress and, all credit to God, it is beautiful to watch.

Photo by Liane Metzler on Unsplash