We do not like to acknowledge...
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Object:
We do not like to acknowledge our sin. This is evident in our confidence that we are good enough to do a sufficient number of works to earn salvation. Such attitudes were reflected in a 2001 Barna Research Group poll indicating that 7 in 10 Americans believed that we must do works to be saved. No doubt little has changed regarding these attitudes in the last decade.
In fact, we human beings are self-addicts, unable to act or love selflessly. It is as Martin Luther once wrote:
The reason is that our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them (as is evident in the case of legalists and hypocrites), and indeed it even uses God himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of the very fact that in acting so iniquitously, so perversely... it is even seeking God for its own sake.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 291)
In the same spirit famed modern theologian Karl Barth wrote about the human condition:
For not even at the most exalted moments of my life do I fulfill his commands. Does any single thought of mine express the all-compelling power of the Spirit?... All my products are foreign bodies testifying to my inadequacy.
(The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 260-261)
Barth also remarks that religion disrupts our lives (Ibid., p. 266). The forgiving agape love of God disrupts or selfishness!
We are still so addicted to our selfishness that on this side of the end times the forgiving love of God does not totally our sin. This will lead us truly to appreciate what God has done, for we see that salvation is all God's work and as a result we can be certain of it. Luther writes:
Therefore we define a Christian as follows: A Christian is not someone who has no sin... he is someone to whom, because of faith... God does not impute his sin. This doctrine brings firm consolation to troubled consciences amid genuine terrors.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, pp. 133-134)
To this John Calvin adds:
Removing, then, mention of law and laying aside all consideration of works, we should when justification is discussed, embrace God's mercy alone, turn our attention from ourselves, and look only to Christ. For the question is not how we may become righteous but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous.
(Institutes, III/XIX/2)
An awareness of how trapped we are in sin makes being a Christian a lot easier. Realizing that we cannot contribute anything to our salvation, we can more readily recognize that we don't do any more to get God's gifts than a child does to receive her Christmas or birthday presents. Life is very sweet for children at Christmas and birthday time, and so that is the way life is for Christians every day they remember their sin and revel in God's forgiveness.
In fact, we human beings are self-addicts, unable to act or love selflessly. It is as Martin Luther once wrote:
The reason is that our nature has been so deeply curved in upon itself because of the viciousness of original sin that it not only turns the finest gifts of God in upon itself and enjoys them (as is evident in the case of legalists and hypocrites), and indeed it even uses God himself to achieve these aims, but it also seems to be ignorant of the very fact that in acting so iniquitously, so perversely... it is even seeking God for its own sake.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, p. 291)
In the same spirit famed modern theologian Karl Barth wrote about the human condition:
For not even at the most exalted moments of my life do I fulfill his commands. Does any single thought of mine express the all-compelling power of the Spirit?... All my products are foreign bodies testifying to my inadequacy.
(The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 260-261)
Barth also remarks that religion disrupts our lives (Ibid., p. 266). The forgiving agape love of God disrupts or selfishness!
We are still so addicted to our selfishness that on this side of the end times the forgiving love of God does not totally our sin. This will lead us truly to appreciate what God has done, for we see that salvation is all God's work and as a result we can be certain of it. Luther writes:
Therefore we define a Christian as follows: A Christian is not someone who has no sin... he is someone to whom, because of faith... God does not impute his sin. This doctrine brings firm consolation to troubled consciences amid genuine terrors.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 25, pp. 133-134)
To this John Calvin adds:
Removing, then, mention of law and laying aside all consideration of works, we should when justification is discussed, embrace God's mercy alone, turn our attention from ourselves, and look only to Christ. For the question is not how we may become righteous but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous.
(Institutes, III/XIX/2)
An awareness of how trapped we are in sin makes being a Christian a lot easier. Realizing that we cannot contribute anything to our salvation, we can more readily recognize that we don't do any more to get God's gifts than a child does to receive her Christmas or birthday presents. Life is very sweet for children at Christmas and birthday time, and so that is the way life is for Christians every day they remember their sin and revel in God's forgiveness.
