As a typical evangelical Christian, you’ve always heard it preached “your faith will reveal itself through your works!” You’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who did more. You wish you were more unconventional and stuck your neck out in tough situations. You’ve been longing for more – more joy in your service, more motivation to initiate good works unto the Glory of God, and a greater sense of the bountiful harvest around you that is waiting to be reaped. You wish you cared more. But the hard fact is – you don’t. You aren’t the person you wish you were. When you do serve, there’s little fulfillment in it. It’s not very effective work, as it pretty much dies with the day, and the types of services that you participate in are pretty easy and require little initiative. It’s been a while since you’ve led a soul to Christ, and when you did your soul did not throw much of a party, and you never heard from that person again. You cannot say you really participated in the great commission as you never put forth effort to create a disciple. You just created a Christian, and who knows what that means anymore.
Now you have this acquaintance. Perhaps it’s an atheist, or a Muslim, or an agnostic, or a Mormon. You know they do not believe a Biblical Gospel. But it seems like their life looks more like a Gospel life than yours. They are always involved in other people’s lives. They are always there for their friends. They are the first ones to cry with someone who is hurt. They tend to the pain of others. They are the ones who are the most concerned when even you are experiencing trouble, and will willingly come to your aid and provide their version of genuinely supportive counsel. They seem to be fulfilled when they have an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.
Right now you are probably taking this a direction that would include motives, intentions, and goals. And this, though it may be true, is not the direction I wish to take this. It is important to understand this: that we are made in God’s image. While sin has severely marred this image, we are still capable of loving. But the fact that we CAN love is not the issue. The issue is, what value is that love? Is it a detriment to the Gospel to say that an unsaved person can genuinely love his neighbor as himself and treat him that way?
I answer this question with a “no.”
In fact, an unbeliever could actually live a more impressive life than a redeemed individual, even though the redeemed are the ones who alone receive the Spirit’s enablement for redeemed daily living. Does this imply a weak Holy Spirit? Again, “no.” It implies weak faith among the redeemed. It implies lives that do not capitalize on the Spirit’s enablement due to fear and a sense of weakness. This is due to lives lived according to a false Gospel wherein we possess all available power within our flesh and bones to accomplish eternal work. Though we hear different every Sunday and shout our Amen’s to the proclamation of God’s almighty power, when we get to the grind, we buckle under the pressure and abandon hope in the One who sustains us.
Which gets me to my point. How is it that an unbeliever’s works are seen as unworthy, but the works of the redeemed, though perhaps weak in faith and less potent, are considered worthy? What if you did the exact same works as the atheist or the Muslim? When you stood up before God side-by-side with that unbeliever, what compels Him to choose you rather than him?
One word: Association.
And this is what hurts pride. When God accepts you, He is accepting Christ. He is not accepting you because of you or anything you’ve done or said. He is accepting you because of your ASSOCIATION. You are guilt-free by association. It’s a liberating thought to know that it doesn’t matter what you do, you are never going to be a better person to God. You don’t have to try. You left to yourself are, and always will be, putrid. So claim your stench as a person. But claim God’s love in Christ. He loved you and chose you even though you are offensive. The only way we can truly be liberated from the pressure of having to make ourselves into something good is to admit that we will NEVER make ourselves into something good no matter how hard we try. We will never make up for or cover our own offensiveness. But with that, as we are in Christ, we will NEVER be rejected. We are now righteous because of Christ’s cleansing blood. Those who stand up against us and look better are still guilty because they are associated with only themselves and themselves alone, leaving them very alone. They stand before God with all their good deeds, but they mean nothing to God. They provide no atoning influence on God’s wrath. Christ was sent as the atonement, taking God’s wrath so we could be free from it. What more do you want?
So stop living a heresy. You are not making yourself a better person. It’s not going to happen! Suck it up, humble yourself, and find liberating rest in your ASSOCIATION rather than yourself. This will give you the drive to live an eternally successful life. Stop looking for inspiration in 140 characters or less, self help books, exciting preaching, or magazines to drive you to be a better person. People looking for employment hate this reality, but for eternity it’s actually a good thing: “It’s all about who you know, not your resume.” So don’t live like you have to bring your accomplishments to God. That hasn’t worked for anyone…ever. Let Christ bring you to God. And with that, read John 17. What better authority than the testimony of our Great High Priest?