Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Is Christianity about being good? Part 2

Having established that we are saved by God's grace through Jesus, not by anything we do ourselves, it is important to look at the place of 'being good' in the life of a Christian.

After taking that step of faith to trust in Jesus, and giving your life over to Him, the way you live as a Christian is vitally important for yourself, for others and for God's glory.

When you become a Christian, you essentially undergo a complete transformation of identity. Before, you were a sinner, trapped in darkness. After, you are perfect in God's sight through Jesus, in the light. Before, you had no power to stop sinning. After, you now have the ability to say no to temptation, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit within you.

To become a Christian involves a realisation of how awful sin is. Believing the gospel message means believing that your sin is terrible and deserves God's judgement. Therefore it makes no sense for a Christian to go back to living life the way they want it, regardless of God. As Paul writes,

'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?' (Romans 6:1-2)

Peter argues that we should 'make every effort to add to your faith goodness... knowledge... self-control... perseverance... godliness' (2 Peter 1:5-6). These qualities prevent us from being 'ineffective and unproductive' in our knowledge of Jesus (2 Peter 1:8). This is a crucial point: if we as Christians carry on sinning without any repentance, we are not allowing God to change us, and we are being a very poor example to others of what being a Christian really means. How can you tell people that they need God's forgiveness if you're flouting His gift of grace by deliberately rebelling against His Word? The gospel message becomes 'ineffective' in us if we refuse to let it change every aspect of our lives. We can't just give God Sundays and then use the rest of the week however we want to.

The Christian life should revolve around giving God glory. He is not glorified when we live against Him. He is glorified when we praise Him for His grace in Jesus, and when we seek to live as Jesus did.

'This is how we know we are in Him: whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.' (1 John 2:5-6)

Notice the first part of that verse. John's basically saying that anyone can say they're a Christian. The real proof is in how they actually live life. Christians will still mess up and struggle with sin and their 'old self' (Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22), but the key word there is 'struggle'. Someone who isn't a Christian will not 'struggle' with sin. They'll just do it, without caring what God thinks.

In the light of Jesus' imminent return, we should live 'holy and godly lives' (2 Pet 3:11) to be found 'spotless, blameless and at peace with Him' (2 Pet 3:14). Imagine the embarrassment of Jesus returning and finding you doing something you shouldn't be doing!

And the key to fighting sin is really in replacing it with godly pursuits. Jesus says we should 'abide' in Him and bear fruit (John 15), so we should be seeking to use our lives to get to know Him better by reading His Word, share the good news of the gospel with others, and serve Him in everything we do by doing it whole-heartedly and for His glory, not our own.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Is Christianity about being good? Part 1

This question brings us to the heart of the gospel message. How can people be set right with God? How can people get into heaven? Is it through the things they do? Is a Christian simply a synonym for a 'good' person? Is that what Christianity is all about: loving your neighbour as you love yourself?

Well, to start with, Christianity is really all about how none of us are intrinsically 'good' as people. In fact, we're all naturally born into darkness, a spiritual ignorance and defiance of God. We want to make the rules ourselves (this is what Adam and Eve did when they took the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3). And this dislocates us from God, and puts us under His righteous judgement. You can't commit a crime and get away with it in God's universe. And the ultimate crime in God's universe is this: rejecting God as the King of that universe.

As humans our standards of goodness are very different to God's. We may define a 'good' person as someone who gives to charity, who loves their family and friends, who seeks to care for those around them. They may even devote their entire life to philanthropic work in developing countries. But, as the Bible reveals, the litmus test of true goodness is how a person responds to God. Loving the people around you but still ignoring God is like trying to live in a household where you love your siblings but ignore your parents. It's ludicrous! God wants us to love Him with our whole heart, soul and mind (Deut 6:5), and if we're honest, none of us have done that perfectly for every moment of our lives. If we're really honest, the only person we have ever loved that perfectly is ourselves.

I don't want to seem scathing of charity work and helping others -far from it!- but what I want to convey is how paltry these things are compared with God's absolute purity and holiness. Can you imagine if someone asked Obama 'Why should you be president of the US?', and he replied, 'Well, I can count to 10 and I know my ABC.' How ridiculous would that be? But that's what our 'good works' are like to God- utter childish simplicity compared with Him.

The truth is that the whole world is chained up and locked into a vicious cycle of sin and rebellion against God. Jesus said 'everyone who sins is a slave to sin' (Jn 8:34) and if you don't believe this, try going for one whole day without sinning at all. It's impossible! Even if you never rob a bank or kill someone, you probably still lie, and think corrupt thoughts, and in your heart want to rule your own life instead of worshipping God and letting Him call the shots.

The good news is that God did not just sit in heaven passively watching human history unfold. He had an action plan to bring about restoration and reconciliation between Himself and mankind. That's what the Bible is all about: Genesis shows God creating a perfect world, man rejecting God and falling into sin, and then the rest of Scripture shows what God did to 'undo' the cycle of degeneration.

God sent Jesus into the world, as His own Son, to be God-in-flesh (John 1:14). Perfectly human, perfectly divine, Jesus lived life as we never could: free from sin. He died as a pure sacrifice, taking on Himself the punishment that should have been ours, so that if we believe and trust in Him, we can be forgiven (John 3:16).

Therefore, Christianity is not primarily about being good; it's about accepting that you're NOT good in God's eyes, and that you need Jesus.