According to some preachers, God desires us to constantly be improving ourselves and that this is necessary for salvation. Is there ever a moment when a Christian can rest from their anxious self-improvement and settle for being a decent human being?
So that’s a very sweeping and glorious and wonderful and precious promise. If you can confess your sin authentically, agree with God that it is sin and that it stinks, hate it, turn from it, and fight against it, you will be forgiven (John Piper, What is the sin not leading to death?)
There is a common mentality in church that Christians must be in a constant struggle with sin. That it is not enough to believe and be saved. We must war with our sinful nature all our lives and “try” to overcome every temptation we face to the best of our abilities and even if we fail to get back up and continue to fight.
We know the Bible teaches salvation by faith. On that we all agree. But what about when you hit verses like these:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11: “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
As a grace advocate, I was left scratching my head thinking, isn’t salvation by faith alone? Why would he list out specific sins that disqualify you from heaven? And “drunkards?” Why is that in there? If there is a Christian who gets drunk often do they miss heaven?
Now most Christians would agree that although salvation is received through faith, that faith will naturally result in actions that prove you believe what you believe. Afterall, if a person hears that God loves them and died for them so their sins could be forgiven, how could that person turn around and say I’m going to go murder dozens of people and take their family members away from them. Obviously if you believed in God’s love for you you would also feel a sense of love towards others. In the words of John
1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
There is a real sense in the scripture that if you believe in God and trust in his love for you, then you will feel gratefulness in your heart and thus act in line with that gratefulness.
So in summary you are not saved by your works, but your works prove if your faith was from the heart. Let me put it another way. Say you are an unbeliever and you are told a deadly hurricane is going to hit Florida from the news where you live and you need to evacuate because the whole area will be under 15 feet of water. Now we know the weather can be wrong sometimes, we don’t fully rely on what it says. But if that person evacuates Florida wouldn’t that prove that they believed the report was true or at least felt it was very likely to be true? Thus faith will always result in reasonable actions that demonstrate what you truly believe. You believe there is one God. Does it make sense that you would go worship other gods? How could you genuinely worship other gods who you genuinely believed didn’t exist?
Thus when Paul says these types of people will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, he is not saying our works save us, but is saying that sinful lifestyles like these are obvious signs that a person doesn’t truly believe. Let’s look at a few of the examples:
- neither the sexually immoral
We have a much stricter definition of sexual immorality today than I believe was preached in that time. Sexual immorality represented some of the worst sexual sins of that time, not like the common temptation to masturbate that people experience today. Sexual immorality was tightly associated with Pagan worship of foreign gods. In Paul’s day people who believed in fertility gods thought they had to sleep with the temple prostitutes to please and worship that god so the gods would bless them. In the Bible sexual immorality was tightly coupled with worship of foreign gods.
Someone who practiced in these things obviously didn’t believe that God is the one true God.
- nor idolaters
What is an idolater? Someone who worships idols. That would be a strong sign they didn’t believe that God was one.
- nor adulterers
Again you have to be pretty heartless to have a lifestyle of stealing other people’s spouses, obviously not the sign of a heart that has been shown the love of God.
- nor drunkards
This one got me. Afterall I wouldn’t think it’s fair that if a Christian gets drunk multiple times they can’t go to heaven. Afterall, didn’t Jesus turn the water into wine? But being a drunkard was much more than getting drunk every now and then during a celebration. Consider what a daily occurance of getting drunk said about your faith:
(1 Corinthians 15:32) If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Drunkards who continually live for getting drunk do so because they don’t believe in God. They don’t believe there is any meaning to our existence here on earth, so they waste away their life trying to escape their pain and living for their daily pleasures unconcered with the needs of others. Being a drunkard is a strong indication that the person believes in a meaningless existence without God. Keep in mind this is a daily lifestyle, not a periodic slip.
But what about our other sins not mentioned? If a Christian has a bad sinful habit of any kind that they didn’t tend to or feel remorse over as John Piper demands, wouldn’t that also exclude them from the kingdom and prove that their faith isn’t genuine?
The problem
In the next few paragraphs I am going to be deeply honest and straightforward and I know it will likely offend some people. Keep in mind I’ve had a hard time in the past articulating this but it’s deeply troubled my heart.
The Bible tells us that good works are a sign of faith.
But we also know that humans are weak and cannot always carry out righteousness.
Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
We also know that as long as we live on this earth we will never achieve perfection.
Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;”
But how is that fair? The proof of my faith depends on something I’ll never be able to fully carry out, even with the Spirit’s help. We are promised imperfection as long as we live here. So what’s to keep a fired up pastor from coming to me and saying, “Because you still have these minor sins in your life that’s proof you aren’t saved!” What’s to keep someone with a sensitive conscience from constantly wondering if they ever had genuine faith because of the sins they haven’t yet found victory over? Do I feel guilty and hate the sin enough? Do I try hard enough to defeat it? These aren’t hypothetical situations. This is how many people including many people I’ve talked to and myself would live their lives.
In John Piper’s world you are not forgiven just by trusting in Christ (though he says you are in other places), but here he says you must also:
- agree with God that it is sin
- think it stinks and hate it
- turn from it
- and fight against it
So what about decent people who have loving hearts but realize their subtle imperfections? Those impure or prideful thoughts that you wish you didn’t have? The desire to be selfish and not help on every occasion you could? The lack of motivation to preach or help someone in need? The irrational anger or impatience over someone’s flaws or traffic? These are things we don’t like about ourselves, but it seems these more subtle problems never fully go away.
So most pastors will agree that if you feel enough guilt over your sin and do your best to fix every little wrong thing about yourself then you can be forgiven, regardless of if you succeed. Perhaps the worse the sin is the more demand that you successfully overcome it. That also implies that if you don’t feel guilt for all your sins you can’t be forgiven.
But wait? Aren’t we promised we will never be perfect on this side of heaven?
What this boils down to is this:
- If you don’t feel guilty for every sin and give up trying to fix yourself then you cannot be forgiven and saved.
- We will always be imperfect and never sinless in the flesh on this side of heaven.
- Therefore we must always feel guilty on this side of heaven.
The logic in their arguments are unjustifiable. According to them you cannot be forgiven without enough guilt and you must feel guilt for every sin and we know we will never be free fully from sins on this side of heaven. That demands, and there is no other way of getting around this, that you must always feel guilty as long as you live.
But can I be frank? That’s tiring. It’s dead tiring! I feel no hope in that. I feel no peace or joy in that belief. I am promised a lifetime of guilt and a never ending self-help effort for something that the Bible says is impossible to achieve. So when can I rest? When can I feel like I’ve done enough? When can I be happy with who I am and stop feeling this guilt over all the little things I’m not and may never be? We’ve already established we will always have sin in our lives even if we fix the next one in the series. So is there no rest for the Christian? Some salvation… Even under grace I felt a constant pressure to be more, to do more, not because I wanted to be justified by works but because I wanted to make sure I was doing enough for God and not abusing his grace. Truthfully, I loved and needed God’s grace but hated actually using it. It felt like God was having to tolerate me and I felt guilty for not doing more to fix my faults no matter how small or difficult it was! There was a part of me that said, “If I am needing his grace then that means I’m not doing something that pleases him and I can’t continue living this way.” And to me that meant I was being a burden to God and his kingdom. Thus accepting grace for me was very humiliating, it meant I wasn’t pleasing God in the ways I truly desired to. Accepting his grace meant that even though I was forgiven and loved I felt an obligation to make myself feel more guilty.
The reasonable proof of faith
But now let me ask a question. Do you think it’s fair to expect other people to not cheat with your spouse?
Of course! You would feel angry at them and rightly so. Why? Because even an unbeliever with normal human self-control can be expected to at least be that decent. At that point it is not merely a weakness all humans have but something we can be expected to have some personal and deliberate control and choice over.
What about the friend of yours who struggles with masturbation? Is it fair for you to expect them to fully conquer such a private habit before they can be saved? No! Because at some point you recognize that everyone is imperfect in their own way and you yourself will never be perfect. You know that there are certain expectations that are beyond the ability of humans, even Christians to achieve.
Why would you judge someone’s salvation over something as small and personal as masturbation? Or do you expect them to live in continual guilt for every small, internal sin their whole promised life?
We have to conclude then that when 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 listed out those sins, it was not referring to every sin a man can struggle with, otherwise we couldn’t tell that anyone is saved! It’s referring to reasonable expections for a decent human being that demonstrate faith.
That bring us to our conclusion:
Faith will result in reasonable actions signifying that faith. It wouldn’t be fair for a pastor to say everyone who masturbates isn’t saved. It also wouldn’t be fair to say anyone who murders over and over is saved.
Once again, we are not saved by our works, we are saved purely by faith, but the Bible puts it in works-y terms percisely because those works are a clear indication of what we truly believe.
Saved by guilt?
What about what John Piper said? Do people have to spend their whole lives feeling guilty over every little sin of which they might always have? What about grace? Doesn’t that count for anything? Is there a time in my life that I can receive grace that I’m needing and not have to feel guilty about it? How many of us are willing to live every day in guilt? What about your inner not so perfect thoughts? Do you feel guilt over those? Shouldn’t we all give ourselves slack at some point? Can the Christian ever rest from their self-improvement efforts? Can they ever accept that they are pleasing enough to God and live with their imperfections in peace? Or are we doomed to an eternal-guilt cycle because we live on this side of heaven and will always have sin.
This was the source of my pain even as a grace advocate. For years I strived to achieve perfection in my life. Why? It’s not because I wanted to be justified by works. It’s because I felt if I could only achieve perfection then I wouldn’t have to constanly feel guilty. I could finally rest and take a deep breath. And you know, for a season I thought I got there, but then the pride set in and I was back to square one. I’m not sure so much if it was pride or envy. At a time in my life where it seemed I had a handle on every temptation, at a time when I seemed to be doing everything God expected of me, I became jealous of those around me and prideful. Why were they let off so easily? I was killing myself so I didn’t feel guilt. But they didn’t feel guilt and they didn’t try half as hard as me. In fact, they were committing much worse sins in their life than I was, and I saw signs of God’s continuing grace and favor in their life. And I was angry in my heart. What right does God have of me to demand my life be so miserable with no end to my guilt without perfection while so many other people live comfortable lives not worried about all their sins?
The fact is, there is a time when you are good enough. There is a time where you can be an imperfect human being and live peacefully. There is a time where you can be proud to call yourself a decent human being and at the same time not worry about being perfect and not be constanly trying to fix yourself. You can rest and be satisfied in who you are knowing God’s grace covers your weakness!
Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Matthew 11:28-29 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
At a fundamental level, the Christians believed that even without trying to follow all the rules, grace would still save you. You weren’t expected to be actively fixing every sin problem in your life.
Acts 15:5,8-11
Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”…
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
What did James then say?
19 It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
28-29 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Notice this: it seemed good to the Holy Spirit not to over-burden the Gentiles with rules that were very difficult to keep because it would make it difficult for them to turn to God.
Now people say God is unbending. Did God not bend? People say that people who live in sin are abusing grace. They say those who are not actively trying to defeat sin cannot be saved. Were the Gentiles permitted to abuse grace? If God has an available standard for Holiness out there shouldn’t everyone be expected to keep it?
God lowered the standard for them to help them turn to him.
Matthew 23:4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
At my old church, every sunday we would hear messages about raising the bar of godliness, accountability, about pushing ourselves harder to achieve the super-godly life, because if we were obedient enough God would perform miracles in our church. I followed along with it until I couldn’t anymore. I got burned out! Was I taking every ministry opportunity presented to me? Was I making the most of every occasion? Was I stepping out in faith everyday in courage to heal the sick? Was I constantly improving my thought life so my thoughts always reflected the love of God? I needed rest. I needed to feel like there wasn’t more expectations being placed on me that were hard to perform.
The Gentiles were not required to keep the law like the Jews were. They were relying on justification by faith. Faith permitted a lax standard on them.
In fact, wasn’t the law even designed this way? Didn’t the law contain provisions that were softened so man could find some sense of peace?
Matthew 19:8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Jesus was saying the law wasn’t as tough as it should have been because God permitted and sympathized with man’s weakness. He allowed man to not feel guilty over rules that were too burdening to keep. He even instructs parents not to be overbearing with their children for this same reason:
Colossians 3:20-21 Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.
If you push someone to feel guilty all the time for not meeting unrealistic expectations they will quickly loose heart. This is a timeless principle of God and shows his heart towards us. Therefore God must be tolerant of our weaknesses and allow us to feel content with ourselves to some extent even while we have weaknesses we are aware of.
So it boils down to this.
- You will never be perfect on this side of heaven.
- You don’t have to feel guilty over all that or strive to change it because God’s grace will cover you and forgive your weaknesses.
- You can have a happy and peaceful life as a decent human being!
Yes, God wants you to finally rest. He wants you to feel like you’re ok with him. You can stop the perpetual self-improvement cycle over the smallest sins. You can stop being pressured by the church to feel guilty for everying you’re not able to perfect. You can accept yourself and permit some failures and you can show grace to others in their failures.
Once again, I’m not condoning sin. Sin is still wrong and we will naturally feel some level of remorse and discomfort if we continue in it. But it’s ok to settle for being a decent human being showing the love of God and not feeling guilty for the things too hard for you to attain. But at the same time, we shouldn’t give up hope that God will continue to produce good fruit in our lives and that some of the things we struggle with today God will give us success over tomorrow. But while we hope for those things to come to pass, it’s ok to rest and put our confidence in God’s grace and put those expections into his hands.
Again, this depends on the level of sin. If you are practicing adultery continually then it’s appropriate to feel guilt over that and seek for God’s help to turn from it. That is a reasonable expectation of any decent human being not just Christians. But instead of thinking that you must always pressure yourself to be better for those hard to attain things, learn to forgive yourself, to trust in God’s grace and be ok with where you are. It’s unfair to demand anything more than that. And the way you judge yourself is the way you’ll judge others. When you allow yourself to rest and truly receive God’s grace guilt-free you will be able to show God’s grace to other people from the heart!
You can’t hate yourself into a version of yourself you can love