So I'm sure that many of you have heard by now of the show with the Duggars being canceled due to some disturbing things that have come to light. To be honest I have never seen an episode of their TV show, and I do not know much about this situation, however I read a couple of articles about it, and basically what has happened is that many people have looked at Christianity and said that Christians are a bunch of hypocrites and so that's why we should ignore Christianity. Well it's true all Christians are hypocrites, I would argue that this does not say anything about the Christian religion other than that Christians fail to live up to the high standard that Christianity sets for it's believers. The standard that Christianity sets for believers is to be Holy as God is Holy. Now anyone with any kind of sense would see that this is impossible for any human to do. In fact the Bible makes this clear that it is impossible in Romans. "All have fallen short of the glory of God." This is what sin means, to miss the mark. So why would Christians set such a high standard if they cannot reach it? First Christians did not set this standard God did, and second Christians can reach it, but not in their own power. Christ are Holy as God is Holy because they are united to Christ through faith. The righteousness of Christian comes ultimately from Jesus Christ. It is not something that we have earned, and in fact is the exact opposite of what we deserve. Christians trust that Jesus is the one the makes them Holy, that justifies them before a mighty God. So while Christians can call our actions sin, we understand that it is through our savior that we have been redeemed. "So are you saying that what we do doesn't matter because we are forgiven?" May it never be, was Paul's response to this same question. What we do matters very much because of it's effect towards people here. The Christian seeks to not sin out of love for their neighbor. Sin is destructive, it hurts us and the people around us. Even though we are forgiven for our sins, if we should willing continue to sin it demonstrates our lack of understanding of what Christ did on the cross and shows a lack of love for God, and for our neighbor. Perhaps is reveals our lack of belief that the sins we are doing are in fact wrong, which is a fruit of unbelief. As humans with a sinful nature we are going to sin, but this should grieve us when we do. We are no longer at peace with our sin, but are at war. We fight every day against desires of the flesh, however we have to remember that we do not achieve righteousness by our own power, we must every day look to the one who saves us. I believe that when we stop looking to Jesus as the reason we are saved and we trust more in our own power and our ability to combat sin, that is when we open ourselves up to temptation to do all kinds of evil, because like everyone else who seeks to justify themselves, we have to change the standard, and make excuses, and cover up our wickedness so that we look pure in our own strength. This is how and where Christians fall, however it should be pointed out that they are no longer being Christians consistent with the word of God. It is so vital that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, because if God will send his people a savior it makes sense that He would speak to His people in a clear way, and that it what we have with the word. It is the standard by which Christians must conform their life around, because it is in his word that we learn, that while we are sinners falling short of God's glory, we are redeemed by the saving work of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. It is from this standard that we understand what sin is, and how to see in our lives, and it is from this standard that we are commanded to love God and to love our neighbor which leads to us fighting against sin, because of how it hurts us and our neighbors. If one is to judge Christianity, then it should be judge by it's message through the word of God, and not to people's ability to stick to it. This does not excuse when Christians sin, however just because a person screwed up part of the quadratic equation does not mean that the quadratic equation is wrong, or should be disregarded, it means that person working the problem has some more work to do. The same is true of Christianity. What do you think, comment below and let me know.
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OverviewHere you can read various thoughts and discussions that come from the mind of our Pastor Archives
February 2023
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