Lies From the Church

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				We preach it. “Come to Jesus and trust in Him. He will forgive you, give you salvation from sins, clothe you in His righteousness.” And they come to Christ. “Now that you are a Christian, there are some things you need to know. Stop drinking and smoking. Be a good wife. Etc. Etc. Etc. If you are really a Christian then you will do these things.” “Oh, you don’t want to stop?? If you are really a Christian then you will want to stop. You will want to stop being short with you wife. you will want to stop drinking whiskey every night until you feel a little buzzed.” “Huh. . . maybe you are not really in Christian. Did you really repent?? Are you really trusting in the Lord??” And so it goes. We have all believed these lies to some degree or another. We witness to ungodly people, bring them to Church, tell them to come to Jesus as they are, and they finally put their trust in Christ. Sometimes we give them a little time, but then we slowly introduce them to ‘the list.’ You know the list I am talking about. Some of the things on our list, depending on our Church affiliation are from scripture, and some of them are not. And we try to be gentle at first. “You know how you like to pick up women at a bar and bring them back to your place? Now that you are a Christian, you probably shouldn’t do that anymore.” “Oh, you are struggling with that? That’s weird, I don’t struggle with that.” We have ceased to continue to share the gospel with those in the Church. We don’t bear one another’s burdens. We don’t love one another deeply. We don’t share our sins with each other. We have unrealistic expectations of others good works. And even our lack of grace is a sin struggle. And people don’t feel worthy. And our own self righteousness looks down on others because they still struggle with sins that we don’t think that we do. We don’t continue to preach the gospel. We see it as the beginning of the story, not that which encompasses our whole story. So what is the answer? Christ. We need to stop acting self righteous. We need to stop acting like we believe in works righteousness. We need to stop lying about Christ. The reality is that with each of us, even our good works are as filthy rags. We are each no different than Hosea’s wife, an unfaithful prostitute that Hosea continued to love, even though there was no good in her. Any real good in you comes from Christ. Any good works are the outpouring of Christ in your life. We all struggle with sins. I know each of you are thinking of something specific right now. And yet the only difference between you and the girl in Church who is now pregnant from someone she wasn’t married to, is that her sin has become public. Stop looking down your nose at her. You know, just maybe if we would stop relying on ourselves, and trust only in Christ’s finished work on the cross, as our only hope for salvation, and remind each other of this truth, the American Evangelical Church would not be in such crisis. Just maybe if we would stop being so completely self righteous, thinking we have figured out on our own power to not sin so much. Full disclosure here. I am mad today. I don’t get angry often, but when it comes to matters of the Church, I really get angry. I am watching a friend go through this right now. Yes, my friend is a wicked sinner. But somewhere along the way he was lied to, and he believed it. He thinks that God has punished Him for not repenting enough. For not being good enough. For not trusting Christ enough. Instead of being reminded of the gospel in his discouragement, he was reminded of how he has fallen short once again of God’s law. And while this fact should drive him to the cross, it has driven him away from it. And while he desires peace with God, he fears he will never have peace with God. While he desires salvation from sin and believes Christ is the only hope for that salvation, he fears it won’t be granted to him, because he continues to struggle with sin. All because we in the Church lie. Ultimately this is a reminder to each of you that know Christians who struggle with this same thing. Even as they continue to struggle. Even as they do things that are horrid, wicked, sinful. Bring them back to the cross. Preach the gospel to them. Over and over and over.