Jesus never called us to be good people. When we attempt to live a life
good enough to be worthy of the calling of Jesus (or, more detrimental, when we
attempt to be good enough to earn our salvation) we are like the rich young man
who was so close, but missed eternal life because he thought it depended on his
actions.
We are also telling Jesus that He is not enough. His living a perfect life
is not enough. His sacrificial death on the cross taking the full punishment
for our sins is not enough. His resurrection revealing the power and glory of
God is not enough. His free offering of grace, mercy, and forgiveness is not
enough. His fulfilled promise of indwelling us with the very Spirit of the
Lord, Creator, and Sustainer of the universe is not enough.
It sounds good to say that we are good. That we follow the rules.
However, this causes some major problems (other than the main problem of essentially
slapping Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in the face).
One of those problems is rebellion. Remember, some people embrace rules.
Others fight them with every ounce of energy they have. They rebel, run, and
live reckless lives because rules are not enough. The church trying to be
perceived as good and reigning down judgment on those perceived as bad have
kept many, many people away from the kingdom.
Another problem that’s created is an atmosphere of “how much can I get
away with.” When rules are clear and people believe they just have to follow
the rules, there are going to be many who want to know how far they can go and still
stay within the technicalities of the rule. They will push boundaries and
limits just far enough to still be “good.” This mentality is dangerous because
if something isn’t found on the list of rules, it must be okay. Or it’ll be okay
until someone decides otherwise and I’ll still be “good” because I didn’t break
a “rule.”
I’m reminded of when a certain artificial sweetener was released. This is
the mentality I had. It was a great replacement for those other artificial
sweeteners that studies had shown could have adverse effects. I’d use it until
they found something wrong with it. And they eventually did. I’ll never know
how much damage I did to my body by ingesting that substance for a period of
years in ignorance.
A rules oriented way of thinking lead to the same problem. We will still
be looking out for our own interests and changing our actions only, not our
hearts.
So, if God’s desire isn’t for us to be good, as we’ve seen in scripture
and other examples, then what does He want from us?
The answer is much, much more difficult than a black and white list of
do’s and don’t.
What God wants is for us to be totally and completely surrender our very life and every aspect of it.
#transformed
