Moral Failure

How do we reconcile our considerable moral failures and those of the Church with our new status in Christ? Aren’t we supposed to be new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17)? In The Reason for God, Tim Keller writes about this troubling paradox:

“There are many formally irreligious people who live morally exemplary lives. If Christianity is all it claims to be, shouldn’t Christians on the whole be much better people than everyone else?...A central message of the Bible is that we can only have a relationship with God by sheer grace. Our moral efforts are too feeble and falsely motivated to ever merit salvation…This means that the church will be filled with immature and broken people who still have a long way to go emotionally, morally, and spiritually. As the saying has it: ‘The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints’” (pgs. 54-55).

This type of message might be comforting, but I always struggled to find consolation in it. Aren’t we supposed to be children of the light? Doesn’t our righteousness have to exceed that of the Pharisees (Mat. 5:20)? Isn’t a good, born-again (John 3:3) tree supposed to bear good fruit, and a bad tree bear bad fruit (Mat. 7:15-20)? Hebrews 12 is particularly disturbing, because it associates this concern with the ultimate threat---eternal separation from God:

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (NKJV--Hebrews 12:14-15).

This always troubled me. How much peace and holiness did I have to achieve in order to secure a place in heaven? It didn’t satisfy me to know that Christ had become my holiness and peace. This verse (along with many others) clearly states that I have to “pursue” these things in order to make it into God’s presence. Was God giving me double messages? This command seemed to be clearly rooted in my performance. I had to make sure that I had no “root of bitterness!” Forgetaboutit!

To illustrate this truth, Hebrews then gives us the example of godless Esau:

“…lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Hebrews 12:16-17).

Esau too had screwed up. He put had food before his inheritance in the Lord. But which one of us doesn’t succumb to our misplaced, hungry priorities!! Don’t we too, on many occasions, place our appetites before all else!! What assurance of salvation can we then have?

However, Esau’s problem wasn’t his moral failings. Instead, it was his refusal to repent! Indeed, he wanted his father’s blessing and grieved when he didn’t receive it, but he steadfastly refused to acknowledge his own sin in this matter. Instead, he held on to his own self-righteous conviction of entitlement and tried to kill his brother Jacob—hardly evidence of a repentant spirit.

What makes us children of the light? Certainly not our moral superiority! John explains it this way:

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God” (NIV; 1 John 3:9; 5:18).

If we continue in our former ways without repentance, it proves that we don’t have His seed within us. Repentance is the sure and necessary fruit of the Spirit. It is also pleasing to God. Through it, God is always faithful to cleanse us (1 John 1:9). For this reason, everything hangs on it:

“So watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4).

It is also repentance that best shows off the work and glory of Christ. It takes us out of the limelight and says, “My hope and righteousness are in my Savior alone and not in myself!” and extends this same hope to others. The church is indeed a hospital for sinners, but only for those who avail themselves of the cure through repentance.

Daniel Mann