HOW GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH?
How good is good enough for God? How moral does one have to be to be acceptable to God and continue to receive His blessings? I ask this question because when you start talking about God’s grace, inevitably someone will bring up the fact that they feel that if you focus too much on God’s grace, you are giving people the license to sin or do as they please without fear of consequence, the ultimate being hell. But then this brings up an interesting question. Because if we all say that we agree that no one is perfect, and if we claim that even being “saved” or “born again” does not mean that we will not still have areas in our lives where we struggle, then the question remains, “how good is good enough?" I got into an online debate about this this past weekend with someone who said that for us to remain “acceptable to God” even after we “give our lives to Christ” we have to live holy lives. And while I agree that our desires change once we come to God and receive Jesus’ by faith, I often wonder, how holy is holy enough for God? How many impure thoughts does it take to disqualify us from God’s love? How many good deeds must be done to nullify any bad deeds or thoughts we have had in the past? How many improper deeds does it take to disqualify us from God's love? What if, unbeknownst to me, I do something wrong bad, or thought of something improper and have not confessed it before I die even though I am “saved”? Does that send me straight to hell?
I remember when I became a Christian in my mid-teens, and started voraciously reading the Bible, arrogantly thinking that I could actually accomplish the task of obeying every word that I read, I was shocked to realize that certain things that I had taken for granted were sins: doing the right thing with the wrong motive is just as bad as doing the wrong thing (Prov. 16:2), hatred and bitterness is the equivalent of murder in Gods eyes (1 John 3:15), lust is as bad as the actual physical act of adultery or fornication (Matthew 5:27-30), breaking just one rule in the Bible makes you as guilt as the compulsive sinner who has broken them all (James 2:10). What am I getting at? If your primary objective is to obey all the rules in the Bible, good luck, but I can assure you that you will drive yourself to near insanity, because unless you deceive yourself and cherry-pick the rules that fit your agenda or ideology, you are in for a very bumpy ride.
Think of all the differences that exist in the world of “Christendom” based on denominational differences. Some denominations believe there are two baptisms that are necessary, one the “water” baptism the other for the holy spirit, others believe in only one baptism (water) because they believe we receive the Holy Spirit automatically when we get saved; and when it comes to baptism, some denominations think it is near heresy if you are not immersed in the water, others think that sprinkling is okay; some denominations that speaking in tongues is the primary indicator of whether you have the holy spirit, others do not; some denominations believe that all alcohol must be prohibited, others believe Jesus drank real wine, albeit less potent, and so alcohol is okay in moderation; some denominations frown on all things secular, including the music, others believe you can use such media to deliver a spiritual message; some denominations frown on drinking anything with caffeine, including coffee, because it is technically a drug, others say such drinks are okay; some denominations say tithing should not be mandatory, because we are no longer “under the law", others say tithing is mandatory because it was done even before Moses went to Mt. Sinai. Do you see where I am going with this? Even in Christian circles, we can’t agree on which laws are the most important, because everyone cherry-picks from the Bible. Put ten theologians in a room and I am sure you will come up with significant differences in their theology.
The bottom line is that regardless of your philosophical or spiritual views, if keeping the law could have made us righteous-enough to be acceptable to God, then Jesus’ mission would have been meaningless. The more we accept this fact, the less we would look at each other through self-righteous lenses and more though the prism of love, because ultimately, that is what being a child of God is supposed to be about, seeing each other through the prisms of love and grace. Ultimately it is the lack of this kind of love that leaves many people disillusioned with organized religion.
“I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” Gal. 2:21
Stephen O. Akinduro
How good is good enough for God? How moral does one have to be to be acceptable to God and continue to receive His blessings? I ask this question because when you start talking about God’s grace, inevitably someone will bring up the fact that they feel that if you focus too much on God’s grace, you are giving people the license to sin or do as they please without fear of consequence, the ultimate being hell. But then this brings up an interesting question. Because if we all say that we agree that no one is perfect, and if we claim that even being “saved” or “born again” does not mean that we will not still have areas in our lives where we struggle, then the question remains, “how good is good enough?" I got into an online debate about this this past weekend with someone who said that for us to remain “acceptable to God” even after we “give our lives to Christ” we have to live holy lives. And while I agree that our desires change once we come to God and receive Jesus’ by faith, I often wonder, how holy is holy enough for God? How many impure thoughts does it take to disqualify us from God’s love? How many good deeds must be done to nullify any bad deeds or thoughts we have had in the past? How many improper deeds does it take to disqualify us from God's love? What if, unbeknownst to me, I do something wrong bad, or thought of something improper and have not confessed it before I die even though I am “saved”? Does that send me straight to hell?
I remember when I became a Christian in my mid-teens, and started voraciously reading the Bible, arrogantly thinking that I could actually accomplish the task of obeying every word that I read, I was shocked to realize that certain things that I had taken for granted were sins: doing the right thing with the wrong motive is just as bad as doing the wrong thing (Prov. 16:2), hatred and bitterness is the equivalent of murder in Gods eyes (1 John 3:15), lust is as bad as the actual physical act of adultery or fornication (Matthew 5:27-30), breaking just one rule in the Bible makes you as guilt as the compulsive sinner who has broken them all (James 2:10). What am I getting at? If your primary objective is to obey all the rules in the Bible, good luck, but I can assure you that you will drive yourself to near insanity, because unless you deceive yourself and cherry-pick the rules that fit your agenda or ideology, you are in for a very bumpy ride.
Think of all the differences that exist in the world of “Christendom” based on denominational differences. Some denominations believe there are two baptisms that are necessary, one the “water” baptism the other for the holy spirit, others believe in only one baptism (water) because they believe we receive the Holy Spirit automatically when we get saved; and when it comes to baptism, some denominations think it is near heresy if you are not immersed in the water, others think that sprinkling is okay; some denominations that speaking in tongues is the primary indicator of whether you have the holy spirit, others do not; some denominations believe that all alcohol must be prohibited, others believe Jesus drank real wine, albeit less potent, and so alcohol is okay in moderation; some denominations frown on all things secular, including the music, others believe you can use such media to deliver a spiritual message; some denominations frown on drinking anything with caffeine, including coffee, because it is technically a drug, others say such drinks are okay; some denominations say tithing should not be mandatory, because we are no longer “under the law", others say tithing is mandatory because it was done even before Moses went to Mt. Sinai. Do you see where I am going with this? Even in Christian circles, we can’t agree on which laws are the most important, because everyone cherry-picks from the Bible. Put ten theologians in a room and I am sure you will come up with significant differences in their theology.
The bottom line is that regardless of your philosophical or spiritual views, if keeping the law could have made us righteous-enough to be acceptable to God, then Jesus’ mission would have been meaningless. The more we accept this fact, the less we would look at each other through self-righteous lenses and more though the prism of love, because ultimately, that is what being a child of God is supposed to be about, seeing each other through the prisms of love and grace. Ultimately it is the lack of this kind of love that leaves many people disillusioned with organized religion.
“I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” Gal. 2:21
Stephen O. Akinduro
posted by Stephen O. | 9:16 AM
1 Comments:
You wrote: “The bottom line is that regardless of your philosophical or spiritual views, if keeping the law could have made us righteous-enough to be acceptable to God, then Jesus’ mission would have been meaningless”
I want to comment about atonement.
(le-havdil) How to live in order to enable the Creator in His loving kindness to provide His kipur –atonement- is outlined in Tan’’kh ; and was also taught by the first century Ribi Yehoshua from Nazareth (the Mashiakh; the Messiah).
Read it here: http://www.netzarim.co.il
Anders Branderud
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