Does preaching sin really fit in the gospel?

I would like you to consider that making sin the centerpiece of the gospel is not biblical. It is not necessary, it is counterproductive, and it is potentially harmful.

I don’t expect you to take my word for it, but how about Jesus? Here is what he said. Everyone is familiar with John 3:16, “For God so love the world that He gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” But what about verses 17 and 18?

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

There are two key things I would like to point your attention to in these verses. First, he did not come into the world to condemn that world. (Sometimes I feel like Christians think they have to pick up the slack. God isn’t condemning enough, so we add that part back in.) But here’s the point. Part of this message is not condemnation. Why? Because the world stands condemned already.

How does this translate into reality? There are two kinds of people in the world: those who don’t really need to be convinced that they are less than they should be, and those who you are never going to be convinced. People may not be willing to admit it, but they know that they are moral failures. Why belabor the point? The person you are trying to convince may not admit this to you (especially if you are lecturing him on his sinfulness), but deep down he knows.

It’s not about sin; it’s about unbelief

But read on; verse 18 says what the real condemnation is. Why is man condemned? Because he hasn’t believed. I would even argue that unbelief is the only real “sin” left. Why not work on that rather than trying to convince them of a condition that is beside the point anyway. Afterall, someone who believes can be accepted though he is far from perfect, but someone who does just about everything right, but does not believe, will be rejected. Focus on the real problem: belief.

Still don’t believe me? Perhaps you would hold up the story of the woman at the well as an example of Christ focusing on someone’s sin. Ok, let’s take a look. First, Jesus opens up his conversation with the woman by making his offer. She is there for water, but he offers her a water, that if she drinks, she will never thirst again. Far from just a clever opening line, it get right to heart of her condition. She has a need that only God can fulfill.

Ah, but you say, he very quickly moves to confront her sin, but does he really? First, the conversation appears to go on for a bit, so he isn’t in a hurry to get to the “sin” part. Yet, there it is: he asks her to bring her husband. This is the closest he gets to addressing her sinfulness. He knows that she has had 5 husbands, and is now living with someone. But there is a huge difference between what he talks about, and why he talks about it. He doesn’t bring it up to make her feel bad, or convince her that she is bad and in need of a saviour. She is very aware the she lacks something in her life; she just doesn’t know what it is.

It’s not about sin; it’s about what you lack

So why ask her husband to come join them, especially when he knows she doesn’t have one? The answer is that it directly relates back to the living water metaphor. What is the well that she keeps going back to and then thirsts again? It is relationships. What she is thirsty for is a love that will completely satisfy her. Her problem is that she thinks she is going to find it in a relationship with a man, but we see how that turned out.

She “thirsts” again because the relationships didn’t satisfy her. She marries again because she assumes that she just married the wrong man. She never questions that a man is the answer. So, she tries it again and again, only to “thirst” again.

Why? Because what she is really missing is a love that only God can give. Of course, her marriages fail. She is expecting them to fill a void that they were never meant to fill; they collapse under the weight of her expectations.

She thirsts again, because in her spirit she knows there is a relationship that will fill that void, she just doesn’t know that “Mr. Right” is Jesus.

And that is his point.

He brings her past into the conversation, because it directly relates to her lack and is the best way to show her that her problem is not bad relationships, but trying to solve a spiritual problem socially. Can you see that he has no intention of condemning her? Can you see that he does not want to berate her, or establish that she has “fallen short of the glory of God.”

No, behavior is not the reason for her lack of a relationship with God, her lack of a relationship with God is the reason for her behavior, her “sin,” if you will. The answer is to fulfill that need and the “sin” will take care of itself. The point is that his conversation with her is not about sin as sin, but a deeper understanding of how she got into her present condition and the way out.

Can you speak with that level of discernment? My argument is that you can achieve your goal, as Jesus did, without the yammering on about some vague notion of sin and without trying to convince someone that they are bad.

So, it is unnecessary, because most people on some level know that they have failed. It is unnecessary because they just need to believe, to meet him. He will take care of the rest.

But it is also counterproductive for the people who think they are “good.” They cannot allow themselves to admit they are lacking and they will argue with you tooth and nail to avoid that admission. Why waste time going down that rabbit hole? There are far better ways to approach that person rather than getting bogged down on this one issue. If you could introduce them to the person of Jesus, they will see for themselves how far away from “good” they are.

So, what’s the harm in focusing on sin?

Lastly, but important to me, is the potential harm in such a sin centered gospel. I plan to write about this more, but I see a tendency in Evangelical Christianity to subvert the focus of the  gospel into the idea that the ultimate goal is for you to be a good person. When we preach a sin centered gospel, that the problem is sin, it is only a baby step to the assumption that what God really wants is for you to behave better. Behavior is not the goal; it is the evidence. The goal is relationship.

“But,” you say, “Sin separates us from God.” Actually, no it doesn’t. Go back to John 3:17: a lack of belief separates you from God. Sin as a separation, has been removed. That is the actual gospel (1 Peter 2:24 and a million other verses). No one who knows the real gospel should ever even hint that a person should change their behavior as a prerequisite to a relationship with God. Anyone who understands would laugh at the concept: the idea of changing yourself. There is no better example of putting the cart before the horse.

Anyone who suggests otherwise is a danger to all. Nothing does more to separate man from God more than the idea that you must “get right” first. Remember what Isaiah said, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:6). Your own deeds is stink and it’s only his sacrifice that opens the door for you. So, please, do not even hint that someone’s behavior is the key to opening that door.

You don’t change your behavior, he does

Just as with the woman at the well, any change in behavior is a response to the relationship. Drink his water and then you will never thirst again. That’s why Jesus is called “the author and finisher of our faith.” He begins the relationship, and he carries it through to completion (Hebrews 12:2). Any change in your behavior for the better happens through him (Philippians 2:13).

Again, the point is that it is not about behavior. It is about relationship. Why did he sacrifice himself? To make it possible to have a relationship with you, not so that we could all behave better. So, does it matter how you behave? Only in that anyone in a real relationship with him will find themselves behaving better. If that’s not you, don’t try harder. Get more living water.

“Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better”

“Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better”

I heard a comedian say this years ago. I swear it was Emo Phillips, but I can’t confirm it.

In a strange way it makes sense. You hope for so many things, material things; you hope for so many things to happen, outcomes. You live your life divided, with one foot in the future, stealing from you the Now. So, you live without satisfaction, robbed of the present by something that may or may not happen. In the worst case scenario, when it doesn’t happen you are doubly devastated. First, you lose in not getting what you hoped for. Second, you lose in that you wasted time and energy spent in a false hope.

When you give up this hope, life becomes so much easier. No more longing for something that may not happen. No more devastation when it doesn’t. You are free. Anything good that happens; any good thing you receive, is a bonus.

False Hope

Am I saying should you give up all hope? No.

Didn’t get that promotion, that relationship, that object you desire? Without hope, there is no disappointment. Life goes on. There is no picking yourself up off the floor when that thing doesn’t happen. But there is much joy and thankfulness at the unexpected blessing when it does.

Go back and insert the word false before the word hope. The problem is not hope, but the wrong definition of hope. What is hope? It is NOT crossing your fingers. Hope IS an expectation, but hope is NOT an expectation without foundation. If you hope for anything without a promise that it is going to occur, you are engaging in false hope. Likewise, if the promise does not come from someone who can guarantee it, that is a false hope.

Do Not Let Hope Be Tied to Outcomes

What I’m suggesting is that you let go of outcomes. You do not know how things are going to turn out, and usually there is no promise of a certain result. Let what happens happen. I’ve heard many stories of people who have left a church, or the church, because of something that happened. A pastor had an affair, or another member did something hurtful, and the person lost faith. This comes from a false hope of what churches are supposed to be like. It comes from an assumed promise of a certain outcome.

Likewise, who hasn’t heard a story about someone who is mad at God, or has lost faith because they thought God promised them something, and it didn’t happen. Rather than focus on the theological problem here, I want to point out the problem in that false hope. What so often happens is that God says, “Go here,” or “Do this,” and the person hears, “If you go here, or do this, this great thing will happen.” When the great thing doesn’t happen, the person feels that they have been lied to. But He never said anything about what the outcome would be. He just said, “Trust me. Go.”

Divorce yourself of this tendency to be tied to the outcome. Let go of that “hope.” If I could change one thing about those around me it would be to stop trying to force things to go the way you “know” they should go. You don’t know, and even if you did, it’s not your job to make it happen. Do what is in front of you to do and leave it in his hands.

Do you have another choice? Admit that you have no control over the end result. Once you let go of that vague hope that the world around us sells as a valid endeavor, you will feel better. All of the pressure, all of the striving, all of the uncertainty will fade away. You can rest.

This is peace.

Another Kind of Hope

The apostle Paul says, “...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.…” (Romans 5:3-5). This is clearly not some vague baseless hope that things will turn out the way you want. Our world’s idea of hope is certainly not produced by the ability to suffer in such a way as to build character. This is a different kind of hope that has a solid foundation based in experience, and more importantly, based on a promise from someone who can deliver.

I give you this definition of hope: Hope is the expectation of something that you know will happen. You know it because it is promised by someone who can and will deliver. The best analogy I can think of is the sun coming up, or my paycheck showing up in my checking account. I have through years of experience come to believe that the sun will come up. The same with my paycheck. It’s there every fourth Friday.

Now you might say that is not “hope.” But in the biblical definition of hope, the only thing that makes it hope is that you don’t have it yet. Just like tonight, I don’t have the sun, but I “hope” (expect) that it will come up tomorrow.

Why does this matter? The obvious answer is that I don’t spend all night worrying whether the sun will come up tomorrow. I can sleep tonight. But the more important answer is that it affects how I live today. I live with the expectation that there will be a sun tomorrow. I live as though I will get paid on Friday. I don’t hoard my money until the next check arrives. I spend what I need to.

These seem like obvious banal analogies, but it is even more important spiritually. You need to let go. Don’t worry about tomorrow (outcomes). The promise is “all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose…” (Romans 8:28). Just like trusting that the sun will come up, or any one of the million things we expect to happen, live accordingly, and do something more fruitful with your time. If you really believe that no matter what happens, it will all eventually turn out for good, it changes the way you live your life.

If you really believe what you believe. If you really trust in the One who can be trusted, you will live differently. Let go of all of the hope in outcomes that are unknown..

And you will feel a lot better.