This presents a problem for the average human being do to the fact that we have an overwhelming reputation of being creatures of habit. Doing the same things over and over again and wishing for a different result is what we do best.
- I wish I could have more money, so I apply for an increased limit on my credit card.
- I wish I could feel better about my health, so I watch shows like "The Biggest Loser".
- I wish I could feel loved, so I enter into yet another new relationship.
- I wish I could get more out of Sunday mornings, so I start attending a new church.
- I wish I could stop sinning in a certain way, so I zero in on that sin, read some good books on how to overcome said sin, and commit to a plan of eradicating it from my life.
These are only a few of example of the variously "insane" ways we approach our lives.
This is why I believe the church's approach to preaching a gospel centered on the forgiveness of our sins so we don't have to go to hell, leaves us with a very small view of God. For many, the answer to this problem of a small view of God has been to try and magnify the problem of our sin so we can see just how badly we have offended God and how much more we truly deserve to be punished. Just this week I listened to a sermon preached to pastors on how we need to be preaching more on sin so that people will begin to comprehend the weight of how badly they have offended the holy God of the universe. When we live lives of continued and unrepentant sin, we invite the angry wrath of God which He is eager to dish out on those who have violated Him.
I see this as kind of reverse bullying. This is our attempt to feel worse about ourselves so that we can have a better view of God.
The problem is...it simply doesn't work.
If I focus on how terrible I am, if I focus on how horrific my sin is, if I focus on how to eradicate sin from my life, than Who am I not focusing on? Is this then merely a new form of self centeredness cloaked in the guise of trying to make God look bigger?
The other problem is that this truly does result in much insanity in my life. Even if I do succeed at eradicating one sin from my life, I only discover another lurking beneath the first layer. Often times the harder I work at this project of eradicating sin from my life, I later realize I have only embraced new sins to take the old's place; pride, contempt, judgment, anger, and the list goes on.
Certainly we cannot just accept the problem of sin in our lives, can we? Sin truly is a damning cancer in the human being, isn't it? Certainly I cannot just sit around waiting for God to fix me so I don't sin any longer, can I? Wouldn't that be like sitting around watching a marathon of weight loss shows for a solid week only to be surprised on Friday evening that I haven't lost any weight?
Where then is hope?
In a word, the name, the person, Jesus.
Jesus never once called us to crucify our sins, He called us to crucify ourselves. The problem with trying to take care of our sins by attempting to crucify them is so often we go on living the same lives, and the lives we live are sin manufacturing machines. The depths we can sink to in finding new ways to violate and deny God know no limits. Our hope then is not in trying to purify the well, our hope is in learning to draw living water from a new source, Jesus. In fact we abandon the well all together and choose to plant ourselves next to the stream of living water. When my focus stops being about cleaning up my own well and instead becomes about drinking deeply from His living waters, I find myself healed and whole and pure and righteous and holy, not because of what I have eradicated from my life, but instead by what, or Whom, I have embraced.
This is why I take such issue with any so-called gospel (good news) that begins with trying to make one feel terrible about themselves. How good can this good news really be if it doesn't look good on its own? Besides, trying to feel more terrible about the depths of how I have violated God doesn't really accomplish anything but more guilt and condemnation.
This is why Jesus' gospel of the availability of life in the Kingdom of God is such profoundly good news. It is a life that is available to anyone and everyone no matter what their life may have looked like before, and the only requirement is that I give up that pointless pursuit of life lived on my own and embrace Him in all of His fullness and goodness and grace.
Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to not hold my sin against me, which is forgiveness.
Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to empower me to live in a way that is glorifying to Him and good for me, which is grace.
Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to enter into deep and meaningful relationship with me, which is eternal life.
Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to do the hard work of transforming me into His image, which is sanctification.
Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to involve me in His good work throughout all of creation, which is mission.
Jesus truly is the way the truth and the life, the only one through whom we have access to the Father. He really is the only pursuit worth pursuing. I can stop the insane project of trying to stop sinning and instead put my effort into drinking deeply from HIs living waters. Only then will I truly begin to understand how magnificent He is, and what joy that He desires me to live life with Him! I call that some really good news...
