Last night Tricia and I watched a “Christian” movie. One of the major themes was that even though some people in the world are evil, people are basically good. Sadly, I have allowed myself to be brainwashed with a surplus of Christian material that tells me that sin is not that big of an issue, that I’m basically good and capable of doing good apart from God. We see such teaching in the vast majority of Christian resources for children, which merely encourage kids towards moralism, (i.e. be nice to your brother, share with friends, obey your parents etc.) The residue of this belief can also be seen in Christian worship music in which we tell God all we are going to do for Him. Even one of today’s m
ost influential pastors, Rob Bell, explains in a video that God believes in us so much that He puts the fate of the church in our hands when Jesus says to the disciples, “Go and make disciples of all the nations,” (Matt 28:19.) (Read v18, 20 to see his error)What is wrong with this picture? It is untrue. In the biblical narrative, other than Jesus, God does not use moral and capable people, but rather sinful failures. Among our heroes of the faith are Noah the drunkard, Abraham the liar, Moses the murderer, David the adulterer, Peter the denier and Paul the genocider. These descriptions typically are not given in children’s Bibles. However, the real Bibles tell us that we are sinful from conception, (Psalm 51:5), apart from God we are only evil all the time, (Gen 6:5), and if we claim to have no sin we make God out to be a liar, (1John 1:10.) Do you make God out to be a liar? There are indicators of such an arrogant heart, which I know from personal experience.
v Vagueness ~ You confess, “I am a sinner,” but don’t really believe it, you cannot describe particular sins to God, to yourself or to others.
v Apathy ~ You are indifferent towards a Savior because your sin is not that bad.
v Unforgiveness ~ You expect everyone to be perfect and understanding like you.
v Unconfession ~ You are not consistently asking your spouse or kids or parents to forgive you, because you are unaware of how you have ever sinned against them.
v Minimize ~ In prayer, (by yourself or with others), your list of confessions is much shorter than your lists of requests and praises.
v Consolidate ~ You unite all your sins into one particular sin that you struggle with. Therefore, when you conquer that sin on a particular day you deceive yourself into thinking you have conquered all your sins.
I want to share something with you because I love you and because you will not hear this from any place other than from God’s Word. No matter what the Christian movies, Christian music, Christian Children’s Bibles and Christian preachers tell you, your “sin problem” is much worse than you could ever possibly imagine. Both your sins of commission, (doing what is prohibited by God), and omission, (not doing what is commanded by God,) are abhorrent to your heavenly Father. Furthermore, your sins of commission and omission are found not only in what you do, but also in what you say and even in what you think. Such an understanding should lead us to cry out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God- Through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24-25.)
Your deepest need is not to act better, but to be forgiven. Do co-workers, neighbors, friends and family perceive you merely as a good person, (like the Pharisees), or as a forgiven person who is broken by your sin and amazed by the unconditional love of God? You can’t fake this, it must be genuine. Hang out around those who see their own sins, pray diligently that God would show you more of your sins, confess your sins to others, (so they might share in your repentance,) and then confess your sins to God.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins”
