And as is my custom in these here parts, I am going to bring my moment of brilliance to the web. So now it becomes your brilliance. See? Isn't sharing a good thing? Just make sure I get all the royalties.
Let me start this party off with a verse. It's a verse that the Lord gave to me while we were praying before service yesterday. Actually, it wasn't an entire verse. And quite honestly, it could have just been an amalgam of some teaching stuff we were listening to on Saturday night and the awesome t-shirt idea that my worship team comrades have. Regardless, here it is:
Isaiah 61:10- I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
The idea here is that if we are clothed with God's righteousness (Galations 3:27), then God doesn't see us when he looks at us- He sees Christ. It's like when Frodo and Sam donned the Orc garb when they were walking through Mordor, except it doesn't look like our parents mated with the guys from Spy vs. Spy
Anyways, that's the backdrop. So fast forward a tiny bit. Charlie starts talking about grace. Not the grace that we flash when the morality officer asks us if we have a license to sin, but the grace that gives us power over sin.
And that's when it hit me- what we do doesn't really matter!
That's right folks- throw out everything you've learned about how to be bad and good- it's all rubbish. Actually...don't throw it all away. We'll probably use some of it later. That was a rash statement on my part. Let's just set it aside for now and pretend like I didn't say that.
Now I expound.
There's a doctrine that is fundamental to some, which states that humanity is inherently sinful. That people are born evil, wretched beings. I don't subscribe wholly to that- I do believe that there is good in all of us as well as evil. But let's face it- most of us are not John Lennon- or even Paul McCartney. Most of us are more like Ringo.
For the sake of argument, we're going to just go with the idea of humanity having an inherently sinful core (I'll explain why later). So whether we follow all the rules to a 't' or break them all with our fists of fury, then we still have the same internal processor- and it's churning out sin at lots of gigahertz (sorry- I know just enough about computer terms to totally use them poorly). Sin, then, is not something that we do- it's who we are.
'Great. That's it then. Throw in the towel'
That doesn't completely render the system of morality obsolete. There are reasons to do the right thing. The series of 'rights' and 'wrongs' help us to make sense of the world. It helps us to navigate the myriad of situations we encounter. All of us have animalistic instincts and needs- the need to feed, the need to procreate, the need to exert our dominance and protect what is ours- the need to survive. But as humans, we have the ability to exist with each other in a way that transcends those needs. We can grocery shop with other people without having to bring a club to beat off the others. We can walk along the beach without mating with every gorgeous blond in a two piece that we see. And we can survive without having to kill others to make sure that happens. Morality makes that possible.
By and large, each culture has a moral structure that determines what sorts of things are 'right' and what sorts of things are 'wrong'. Those ideas are hopefully passed on from generation to generation, and if they're not then there are systems set in place (such as the legal system) to make sure that people toe the line.
What is my point? Well, my point is that we all have a sense of right and wrong that is handed down to us from external sources. Along with this is the implication that there are benefits to behaving well, and consequences for behaving poorly. So as children, we are subtly taught that life is a game. To win the game, you play by the rules. Do more 'right' than wrong' and you're gold.
The problem with this system is clear- if our goodness is truly determined by the weight of our actions against each other, then Christ's sacrifice was pointless. There would be no need for God to clothe us in His righteousness, because on our own we could just do something to overcome or blot out our bad actions. If our sinful actions could cause us to be unrighteous, then couldn't we earn righteousness when we do good?
Am I right? Or am I crazy. Answer- both.
But if the issue of righteousness and sin is not one of external behavior, but of internal composition- well then, that's something completely different. The things we do have no real significance in relation to our spirituality- it doesn't matter what I do and what I don't do. I'm still a sinful man. Killing goats doesn't change that. Helping old ladies cross the street doesn't change that. And cheating on my taxes doesn't change that. Sin is encased in my genetic code.
That's why Christ came. He didn't just come so our sins could be forgiven. He came so our sinful essence could be completely wiped out and replaced with His righteousness.
See, when Christ comes into us, there is a fundamental shift in our being. We become a new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Look it up. BAM. Now just because the hardware is all new, that doesn't mean that we upload a completely new operating system- the Christian life is all about learning how to walk in that newness. It's one of the disadvantages of not being robots- our old programming is not just rebooted. It gradually gets weeded out as we keep learning and keep growing. It may not make for efficient computers, but it makes for fascinating television.
This is why I believe that Paul talked about Christ like He is oxygen and not like a behavior checklist. Jesus didn't come to change our actions. He came to change us. Completely. So that's why he needed so badly to know Christ. Not so he could behave better as a human being, but so that He could live as Christ did. It may seem like semantics, but it's an entirely different ball game.
It's not about what movies I watch, or whether or not I play video games or take my kids out Trick-or-treating on Halloween. It's about two things:
1) Will I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength?
2) Will I love my neighbor like I love myself? (Matthew 22:37-40)
Now we don't just disregard the teachings of right and wrong. I'm not promoting anarchy. I'm not saying 'if it feels good, do it'. Usually there is a decent reason for the morality that we are taught, and none of us live in vacuums. Our behaviors, right and wrong, have consequences not only for us but for those around us. But on a whole, my actions don't matter. I don't need to go to church to have someone tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing. If I'm going to church, then I should be learning how to know Christ and be a blessing to other people. Life is not some sort of quantitative exercise, where we evaluate our existence based on some formula that determines our rating. We do the best we can. We live, we love, we hurt others. We're not perfect. We fall short. It's beautiful.
So teach the children what is right and what is wrong. Tell them how to live in this life. But more importantly, teach them to love God- and to love other people as they love themselves. Do that, and they'll be gold.
Pics- Frodo and Sam- http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/ShirelingUK/JOURNEY/CH%2017%20MT%20DOOM/limitededitionrotk185.jpg
Ringo- http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsS/16419-3123.gif
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