If your anything like me, you find yourself affected by other peoples' actions. There are times when others don't 'behave' in the manner you expect. It's as if there are rules of the road that you want society to follow. This makes total sense to have this inner code of morals that we hold people to, but I think we are in for a great letdown if we expect this code to be followed perfectly.
The origin of the 'moral code': I believe we are all made in the image of God and desire perfection. This is engrained in all cultures - from tribal Africa to the metropolis. We often complain about people not acting the 'right' way. We can even look at how children are taught to know 'right from wrong' in early childhood.
Well who created this dance of rights and wrongs? Why is it so consistent across all cultures? If it were survival of the fittest, shouldn't we all be after our best interests?
We should expect everyone to be wholly selfish. But we don't. We desire more from people. As mom and dad say, "I expected more out of you".
Why do I always fall short? Or why do others always fall short, and why are we constantly aware when others don't play by the rules?
I've been reading Tim Keller's Reason for God lately. He has a solid insight on the subject.
Socially, Christians are expected to be morally superior to others. They are expected to live by a higher standard, and it's when they fall short of this standard that non-believers throw up their hands and affirm themselves in their atheism. A lot of times atheist claim hypocrisy as their foundation for disbelief. They have countless stories of how the Church and it's believers are so flawed and don't live by Christianity's core principles.
This argument doesn't work for me. Actually, it only further validates the Gospel message.
The Bible teaches not that we have to live a certain way to achieve salvation. It actually teaches that we as humans are all screwed up, and we cannot possibly live perfectly. Keller highlights that: "Jesus came to forgive and save us through his life and death in our place. God's grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior."
He didn't came to save those who don't need a Savior. That's like a Doctor coming to heal the healthy. Jesus came to heal the sick. That's why our churches look more like hospitals and less like hallways of the holy.
Now I also believe that those who are truly impacted by Jesus and the cross will begin to take on the life of Jesus. We will start to mimic His characteristics and personality traits. The Cross shouldn't be a get out of jail free card, or a license to do whatever our sinful hearts desire.
But we can't expect this metamorphosis overnight, nor can we justly hold this expectation over each others' heads. We need to truly believe that we and everyone else are sick. In need of a Savior.
Derek Webb states: If our sin is small, our Savior will be small. But if we truly believe our sin is great, we will see the greatness of our Savior.
Romans 3:23 - all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.
Believe that, and we will find ourselves spending less time pointing out the flaws in others, and more time rejoicing in the beautiful gift of the cross.
And who knows, maybe this will lead to us dying to our nasty characteristics and taking on more appealing ones. Characteristics of Jesus.
It will also lead us to showing grace to others when we are deeply offended by their iniquities...
Through the Cross I can hope to get better at this, cause Lord knows I need a reminder everyday.
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