Love Actually...
Just my life and random ramblings.
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I was reading
this magazine I found sitting around my house today. It looked like something I read in middle school (and lo and behold, the edition said April 2007, not too far off). It was a Christian magazine with devotions and all that for every week of the month. Curiosity obliged me to pick it up and mentally travel back to my days as a high school Freshman. The “devotions” were based out of the book of Joshua, and this one in particular was focused on the time when Israel wiped the Canaanites off the face of the planet. I almost skimmed over this page when the last paragraph caught my eye. It said:
“We could all stand a healthy dose of fear when it comes to God. Yes, He is loving. Yes, He is kind. But He’s also just. That means He will fight for righteousness and punish sin. Always. Without exception.”
I read the whole devotion just to make sure I wasn’t reading out of context. Nope. The whole thing was about God’s wrath on sinful people. My first thought was: “do these people have any idea that they’re reading the Old Testament?” Obviously not. Because the whole passage was about God’s wrath for sinful people and how we need to eradicate sin to avoid God’s wrath. No mention of Jesus anywhere.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
This kind of thinking was completely true in the Old Testament. There was no savior. The Law was their covenant, and if they didn’t follow it, God had every right to punish them. But this article was directed at young Christians! Isn’t the whole point of the gospel to say that yes, we are hopeless and deserve punishment, but Jesus took the punishment of ALL our sins when he died on the cross? He eradicated sin for us. He took God’s wrath FOR us.
Maybe when Jesus said “it is finished”, he actually meant “it is finished”.
It would be unjust for God to punish us for sins that have already been punished. In the legal world it is known as “double jeopardy” and it reigns true in the Bible as well as our law. The disturbing line of thinking I’ve seen in many Christian circles is that Jesus died for our sins, but all that really does is get you into heaven. Here on earth, your sins are still completely unforgiven and God is more than eager to punish you for your unholy actions, which couldn’t be more untrue. Of course there are consequences for our actions. For example, if you punch someone in the face, they’re probably going to punch you back. But that’s not a divinely ordained judgement upon you, it’s just a natural case of cause and effect. God promised to punish sin, but he has already fulfilled that promise through sending Jesus to the cross in our place.
Maybe the paragraph at the end of that devotion should have read: “God has already fought for righteousness and won. He has already punished our sin so we, unlike Israel, do not have to suffer the wrath of a just God. Instead, we receive grace because that’s what Jesus deserved and gave to us because he loves us.”
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May in review
May is almost over. Woah. This year, much less this month, is already flying by. In the few weeks I’ve been back in Asheville, everything has changed. Some of it has sucked. But a lot of it is beautiful. People and friends are changing before my eyes. People I never expected to be close with are becoming my most trusted friends. In the midst of everything else, that is what I’m most thankful for. On the other end of the spectrum, Chattanooga, TN is turning my life upside down. This strange city is stealing my pastor, boyfriend, and so many friends away from me. My future is no longer as crystal clear as I thought it was. Watching everyone I love going on a new adventure without me is hard. Fighting bitterness, anger, and an impatient spirit is an everyday task. But Jesus is patient with me when I am not. Learning every day that love is the answer to everything. Watching my summer fly by. Eagerly awaiting the day that Chapel Hill becomes my home again (what a strange feeling!). And finding myself wanting to be more adventurous after realizing that my next summer will be my last in college. Who knows what the future holds?
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Hopeless.
Christianity isn’t a list of rules. The Bible isn’t an advice column, or some kind of weird self-help book that makes you smarter/richer/skinnier/more popular/happier/etc. If Christianity was just a list of moral guidelines to get you from point A to point B, then it’s really not different from any other religion on earth.
But it is different. We are different.
I’m a screw up. I’ve proven time and time again that I have absolutely no ability to be a better person. Even when I’m motivated to improve myself, I can’t do it. I go to church, volunteer in ministries, read my bible daily, don’t use “bad words”, stop saying hurtful things about people, and all of the sudden I’m back at square one before I even know how I got there. I’m hopeless on my own. But that’s why Christianity is different. All religions have rules. The difference is that God knows we are hopeless, but he didn’t leave us that way. He gave us Jesus, who kept all the rules when we couldn’t. Not only that, he died to pay for the rules we failed to keep. No other religion gives us a savior who obeyed the law to save those of us who can’t.
Our righteousness is then no longer dependent on ourselves. It is fully dependent on Jesus’ unending love for us, the most undeserving. Once we see that, Jesus can give us the power to do all those things we couldn’t before. In my weakness his strength is perfected. We can love our enemies. We can read our bible regularly. We can volunteer in ministry. Because Jesus is doing it through us. Even if we screw up, it still doesn’t matter. That sin has already been paid for. All God sees is Jesus shining through you. It’s really not about us at all. It’s about Him. And that’s the revolutionary difference.
In conclusion, I get really upset when Christians tell me to work to become a better person. I already tried that multiple times and failed, and I almost left Christianity altogether because this mentality left me so hopeless. I know many other people who did leave. There have probably been more people lost in my generation because of this works-based mentality than any other reason. There is so much at stake here that people stuck in that ideology don’t see.
So don’t you dare turn Christianity into a moral code or self help book. I’m sick of trying to help myself get better. We can’t get better. We don’t need self-help. We need a savior.
