The Problem with Christianity

The problem with Christianity

There is such a challenge when it comes to being, living, teaching life as a Christian. In my youth, there was a time when I so wanted to know how to "do it right" so that my sins could be forgiven, curses broken and I could live life in something resembling a normal way. I wanted to have enough strength to be "good enough" to deserve that love I would hear about every so often. No matter how hard I tried, though, I just never could seem to get it right. Deep within my spirit, I could sense whenever I erred, even in thought, and would wait with fear as I expected God's hammer to be poised above my head waiting to fall. I expected that each time I stepped out of line, God would immediately strike me in retribution for my sins, for not being good enough for Him, and certainly not deserving of His love. These punishments would take on several different forms. I would have bad days in school, maybe get beat up, fail a test or exam, something of mine would break, I would get yelled out, chased and beaten up in school or whatever else might for my way.

Later in life, it drove me to the point of deciding that what I had been taught can't be all there is to it. I believed in God, or a god(s), but felt that it had to have something that goes well beyond "this". There had to be a truth out there someplace that I could cling to. I researched, experimented, tried out this or that. All of which never quite satisfied the hunger within. I found this uncomfortable freedom in not being bound to any rules or regulations. I no longer had to be good enough or get it right. I could make mistakes and they were my own issue to deal with rather than waiting on that hammer to fall.

Yet, I never felt all that comfortable. I used a variety of what some call coping mechanisms to try to make up for it. Ultimately, I asked for the truth regardless of what that truth may be or what it might entail. I was answered and stepped back into the Christian faith. Then the problems really began……….

I had to come to understand that there is a Father who loves me. There is a Son of that Father, who is a King, Lord, God, Heir, Judge, Redeemer, and, through the Holy Spirit, my brother. All of this He fulfills at the same time.

I am at once condemned, yet I am forgiven and I cannot do a sticking thing to earn it, justify it, or rationalize it. No matter the number or type of mistakes I make, I am not under condemnation.

Great!!! That means I can do whatever I feel like doing, right?

Wrong

Though I am forgiven and live under Grace (unearned, unmerited favor—I get what I don't deserve), I am also called to be holy, because the Lord, my God, is Holy—perfectly without sin.

So, here is where the problem lies; I live by grace and love my brothers and sisters using the same love given to me. I don't hold their sins against them. I am willing to meet them where they are at. Yet, we are not called to stay that we. We are not given license to sin based upon this grace. The grace is supposed to be able to draw us out of the sin and begin to be transformed as the Spirit bears fruit in us.

On the one hand, with the wrong emphasis, it could be taken as license to sin. On the other hand, with the wrong emphasis, it could be taken as condemnation/rules that you must conform to in order to be "good enough."

And in the middle resides Jesus. I can't help but see him shaking his head, quietly saying to his dad, "they still aren't getting it. I never, you never, we never said it was either or. We have always said it was both. Mercy and grace to draw you away from sin into relationship with us they you may be more like us ultimately leading to you pouring out more and more mercy and grace upon those around you drawing them into relationship with us who then reach out as they are transformed by being in relationship. Then they in turn doing the same and they doing the same and so on, until the time comes when there is no more time and I have to return and the world will reap what it has sown. And, I will reap what I have sown."

I guess therein lies the problem, we still don't get it.