In my last blog, in this two-part series, I wrote about a tendency in some people/churches to focus only on our sinful depravity (click here for that blog). This leads some people to have a difficult time believing God does truly love them. They wander through life with a worm theology thinking God, at best, tolerates them, but really can’t stand them.
This week, we’re going to look at the other end of that pendulum.
These are churches that are afraid to confront you with the reality of your sin. There is a mindset out there that people only want to hear encouraging, uplifting stories that build them up so they can face the upcoming week. And sadly (tragically) many people believe that is actually the goal of the church. Unlike the people discussed last week, these people have no problem believing God loves them. They believe the whole Bible is written about mankind—not God. They place “man/woman” at the center of the universe instead of a high and exalted view of God.
These churches are in a dangerous place also. Their only emphasis is “God loves you.” And that sounds ok. But it should utterly shock us that God loves us if we understand the complete gospel message. God does love us, but it is through amazing grace that He loves us because of each individual person’s onslaught of daily rebellion and sin against this Holy God. We need to be shocked, daily, that God loves us—which then turns into deeper awe and amazement and wonder and humility and praise and worship and honor and glory to Him.
If you’re in a church that never mentions your depravity or your sinfulness—there are several factors that may have led to that. I will go into two of those of the most dangerous factors (there are more—but I’m just hitting two).
1) Your leaders have bought into the secular (non-Biblical) “self-esteem” and “self-empowerment” philosophy that has been growing in popularity for the last two decades in pop-psychology. The culture of American Christianity saw people’s desire for this and started selling it in the church. It has grown large churches and sells millions and millions of dollars in books. Let’s examine this a little more closely.
—The idea has spread that since so many people are depressed and have had such difficult circumstances that we need to rescue them by reminding them of their high value in order to increase their self-esteem. Once their self-esteem jumps to it’s rightly elevated position, these people will be “cured.”
—What I am not saying: I am NOT saying that people with different forms of depression just need to pray and it will all go away. Depression/anxiety usually is a complex mixture of factors. Nor am I saying that people are wrong for facing depression due to either physiological or circumstantial issues. I’m not trying to speak towards the depression at all. I’m trying to speak towards what our “answer” is for so many people dealing with these type of issues.
—Problem: People’s low self-esteem is not our main problem. Sin is our main problem. And in saying that, I’m not saying that every person who has depression is living in unrepentant sin and this is their result. I’m saying that our answer is not to build up self-esteem, but to restore people to a gospel-driven identity.
—Jesus didn’t come to restore self-esteem. He came to “seek and save that which was lost.”
Look at the Man we want to follow:
Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
—Notice "we esteemed Him not." Jesus wasn't esteemed by people. Almighty God in the flesh was lowered in people's estimation and value of Him. It seems like part of God’s design for Jesus was not a focus on self-esteem, but humility. And if a person has humility and understands their identity in relation to God Himself—they will have a healthy self-esteem as a by-product.
—What if we restore ten million people’s self-esteem and yet leave them without a Savior or seeing their need for a Savior. We’ve only given them a misguided, but possibly happier trip through life and an eternal hell after this life.
—There are some cases where people have been abused (emotionally, physically, verbally, etc) so much in their own personal value estimation that they need to have a different perspective. But what is the Biblical perspective we want them to have? Is it merely to boost self-esteem and self-empowerment? And yes, because of the circumstances many people have endured, they do need to believe that they are not determined agents of ruin with no hope in the future. But again, what is the Biblical view of themselves we would like to see re-formed?
—We want people to have “gospel identities.” Meaning this:(follow closely) even though I have a heart that constantly disguises it’s motives and desires (Jeremiah 17:9) that is more corrupt and rebellious against God’s holiness than I can imagine—what Jesus did in my place on the cross both removes my sins (past, present, future), but also gives me hope for graduated change and transformation internally at the heart level as I continue to fix my eyes on Him (2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:17,21) and ask the Holy Spirit to work in me (Matt. 6:33; Luke 11:5-13). So, my perspective/thinking is not focused on me being the change agent nor me being the focal point—but instead the living, reigning Jesus Christ changing my thoughts/feelings through the Holy Spirit and Christ being exalted in my eyes and heart through that process. I respond, by faith, to shift my thinking to my new identity supplied by Christ (justification & sanctification). My identity is wrapped up in what Christ has done for me, in me, to me, and through me for His glory.
And even if I have been so abused and dejected and suffered through so much anguish that I think I’m a horrible person with nothing to offer—instead of having great pride about myself (which is actually one of our greatest sinful areas) I can have humility in identifying more with Christ as the tortured, abused, rejected, hurt, despised, and ultimately abandoned One. And again, with my identity wrapped up in what He accomplished and still looking to Him as my only hope for change—I am able to forgive my abusers and circumstance to trust in Him.
So, the first danger is buying into the self-esteem fixation instead of gospel identities supplied by what Christ has already accomplished.
2) Your leaders are afraid to offend you or hurt you. Everyone has heard something close to “I don’t want to go to a church that makes me feel bad about myself. I want to feel better about myself when I leave.” Like I said, something close to that.
But let’s examine that thinking and philosophy that drives and directs many churches.
—It has been clearly spoken of in videos and other media outlets that some leaders are afraid that speaking of sin—specifically, calling out sin in people’s lives, will drive those people away from the church. Therefore, since people do not want to hear about their hearts’ true condition, we will cater to that by instead telling people all of their good qualities.
—Some leaders have gone as far as to say that they purposefully refuse to bring up sin in the pulpit because people do not like to hear that or feel bad about themselves. But what is it that Jesus agonized over on the cross? People’s sins.
What was it that every living person could not free themselves from or remove from themselves? Personal sin.
—To proclaim God’s word to people requires us to highlight the good nature of God’s holiness and righteousness. God’s word is also very clear requiring us to speak to each other about our sin and to seek God’s forgiveness because it is an affront and injustice on His holy character. Now, if we stopped there and only told people how miserably they have sinned and how horrible they are for doing that it could lead back to the problem we discussed last week. But if we go on through the Bible to see that all of the OT and NT in the Bible were pointing to Christ and His cross. The cross was always ultimate before the foundation of the world. Therefore, people who are saddened, broken in spirit, and humbled by the reality of their sin against such a great and holy God—their natural response would be to treasure Jesus and what He has done. They go from sorrowful to rejoicing—from being brought low to being lifted high in thought and feeling because of the truth of Christ. None of that is possible if we do not see the reality of God’s high and holy standard contrasted with the wickedness of our hearts.
—Teaching from God’s word, therefore is not something that ONLY makes me feel bad about myself or my sin. It should do that however. But it should also lift my head up to the beauty of Jesus and what He has done.
—Some people feel like they have sinned so much that there is no way God could forgive them. They feel like God’s grace is for “better” people. People who haven’t blown it as bad as they have. The truth is that no matter how bad we’ve blown it—no matter the depth or degree of our sin—Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient.
So, the second danger is being in a place where your sin is not confronted. Remember, it is sheer grace to have sin confronted and done away with!
That truth and reality should humble us in spirit and at the same time restore our hearts in worship to this worthy King!
Sankie P. Lynch
sankie@nbchurch.info
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