THE LITTLE BIG LIE BEHIND RELIGION
God saves sinners.
‘Evangelical’ means ‘preaching good news’, and “God saves sinners” is the good news that we evangelicals preach. Five of the fourteen points of our church’s statement of faith cover God’s saving of sinners, and I’m spelling out those ideas in this blog series. We’ve started by trying to understand the problem: sin.
The most common misconception is that ‘sin’ is ‘crime’, i.e. impactful destructive deeds that do serious harm to others. There are certainly sins like that – thou shalt not kill (murder), thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not steal.
But not all sins are crimes. Among the commandments is thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods. Merely wanting things that are not mine is an evil. Jesus based several points of the Sermon on the Mount about the evils of the heart on the truth of this commandment.
Most people believe refraining from evil – not doing harm to others – makes a man good. If a man doesn’t harm others, we think he hasn’t sinned.
That is how many people see religion. Religion (Christianity and otherwise) is really just about learning not to hurt others. If you don’t hurt others, you are good and have God’s approval. Go beyond that to perform good acts toward others and you get yourself a standing ovation from God!
This view of religion only requires that I not be bad enough to warrant condemnation. There is no “salvation” required in such a religion!
But this type of religion is a lie, the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
Most people know John 3.16: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Less familiar are the next two verses:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3.17-18)
The world stands condemned already. We all START OFF condemned – because we love darkness (evil) rather than light (John 3.19). The problem is not our deeds, but our internal love for darkness that precedes our deeds. We don’t do evil by accident; we do evil because we love evil.
When we say evil (or darkness), we’re not talking merely about horrific crimes against humanity. It is, for example, evil for a child to disobey her parents. Honor your father and your mother. To fail to honor them – first in our hearts and then in our acts – is a darkness within us that shows that we are at odds with God.
If you try to minimize this darkness, you are arguing with the God who gave the commandment and telling Him He doesn’t belong on the throne. You know better than He does.
This is the very thing from which we must be saved, and God sent Christ to save us from it.
‘Evangelical’ means ‘preaching good news’, and “God saves sinners” is the good news that we evangelicals preach. Five of the fourteen points of our church’s statement of faith cover God’s saving of sinners, and I’m spelling out those ideas in this blog series. We’ve started by trying to understand the problem: sin.
The most common misconception is that ‘sin’ is ‘crime’, i.e. impactful destructive deeds that do serious harm to others. There are certainly sins like that – thou shalt not kill (murder), thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not steal.
But not all sins are crimes. Among the commandments is thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods. Merely wanting things that are not mine is an evil. Jesus based several points of the Sermon on the Mount about the evils of the heart on the truth of this commandment.
Most people believe refraining from evil – not doing harm to others – makes a man good. If a man doesn’t harm others, we think he hasn’t sinned.
That is how many people see religion. Religion (Christianity and otherwise) is really just about learning not to hurt others. If you don’t hurt others, you are good and have God’s approval. Go beyond that to perform good acts toward others and you get yourself a standing ovation from God!
This view of religion only requires that I not be bad enough to warrant condemnation. There is no “salvation” required in such a religion!
But this type of religion is a lie, the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
Most people know John 3.16: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Less familiar are the next two verses:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3.17-18)
The world stands condemned already. We all START OFF condemned – because we love darkness (evil) rather than light (John 3.19). The problem is not our deeds, but our internal love for darkness that precedes our deeds. We don’t do evil by accident; we do evil because we love evil.
When we say evil (or darkness), we’re not talking merely about horrific crimes against humanity. It is, for example, evil for a child to disobey her parents. Honor your father and your mother. To fail to honor them – first in our hearts and then in our acts – is a darkness within us that shows that we are at odds with God.
If you try to minimize this darkness, you are arguing with the God who gave the commandment and telling Him He doesn’t belong on the throne. You know better than He does.
This is the very thing from which we must be saved, and God sent Christ to save us from it.