God is Pefect but not a Perfectionist

One of the two polar extremes we as Christians take is greasy grace (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship). Greasy grace is where a Christian is not required to advance, and overcome sin, nor develop Christ like character, like the Romans that Paul rebuked, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:1-4). The other polar extreme is to view Christ as some kind of perfectionist that requires us to reform before we can be of any use to His Kingdom, this leads to asceticism, and self denial that the Apostle Paul also confronted, "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:23). While I have dealt much with Greasy Grace in my posts, I want to address the Perfectionism that is as deadly to a relationship with Christ. The fact is this that Jesus has through the centuries called imperfect to be ministers of his word, "Abraham was a liar, Jacob a Liar, Noah a drunkard, David a adulterer, Moses a murderer, Peter a denyer, Thomas a doubter, John who struggled with anger, and even Judas the betrayer who helped Christ fulfill His purpose of dying on cross for our sins." Had the LORD waited for these people to become perfect, no one would have settled in Promise Land and The Prince of Peace would not have come. But we are told, "It is rare indeed for anyone to die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8). Jesus did not wait for us to become paragons of virture and self discipline, He came and died for us while we were stinking in our sin.

There are many who rob the cross of its power, who make Jesus into a harsh task master, and who do not understand atonement and propitaiton. Jesus Christ died for our sins, He has made all the atonement, payment, and necessary sacrifice for our sins, "Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself," (Hebrews 7:27), and "Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Hebrews 9:26). 

When we sin as Christians it is written Jesus forgives, "My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world." (1 John 2:1-2). Its's a miracle! The Perfect God isn't a perfectionist! Rather He took our imprefections on Him (Romans 8:3), and did not Sin (1 Peter 2:22), but died for those sins so that we may come to Him, "Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence," (Ephesians 3:12), "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!," (Romans 5:10), "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation," (2 Corinthians 5:18), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault," (Colossians 1:22), "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes," (Ephesians 1:4), and "And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus." (Hebrews 10:19). The problem is that most teachers wanting to curb the error of the romans, those who think this glorious salvation is a free license to sin all the more and not reform at all, end up making a case for Christ that comes across merciless and doomsday. While we should have reverential fear of God, that is respect, "Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28). But for us Christians who earnestly seek Christ, and love Him, when we stumble in sin, and when we fail on a 10 magnitude, seemingly sinning at the level of some great heathen, we have provision for that Sin (1 John 2:1-2). Jesus is full of mercy, He knows we struggle, and wants to help, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." (1 Corinthians 10:13). Christ isn't waiting for us to be perfect like Catholics or Orthodox bleeive to approach him, He has already blanketed you in robes stained with His blood, and you may come near to Him, the Fathe,r and Holy Spirit without fear of judgement, for as the Apostle John said, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." (1 John 4:18). If you really know God's love, that He is love, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8), and that He so loved you He came and died for you, then you do not fear judgement, but enjoy the just desserts of being close to Jesus.

The Lord Trinity knew that we are incapable of being perfect. We can have the best inentions, we can read our Bibles, and even try to do practices to purge and repel our carnal desires, but even then we can find flesh very strong, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41). I am so sad when people make it seem that if you sin as Christian you somehow step out of God's Grace (how can God recoil a free gift?), when the truth is Jesus "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more," (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus bought you with a price, He died on cross to be with you and reconcile you to Himself, He did this knowing that you come with major baggage, sins, and are a sinner, but that's Ok, that's the reason He died in first place! To remove that barricade and burrier of sin that kept us out of His presence; it is now cloaked in His blood and He welcomes us with a big hug and kiss on the cheek!

I wrote this post because in our zeal to defeat sin in our bodies (our Spirit is clean in Christ), we can become domineering and lose the graciousness that draws people to Christ. I want to give you who are focused on conquering sin, a heads up, if you want to master it without Grace, you are antichrist; because you are saying Jesus' Death and blood wasn't enough to cover the mistakes you make, "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace," (Galatians 5:4),and, "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it." (Ephesians 2:8-9). If you so intend to defeat sin, then you need to realize you must suffer, and even shed yoru own blood and die, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood," (Hebrews 12:4), "So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin." (1 Peter 4:1), because as long as you live, you will sin, "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth." (1 John 1:8). Grace is about running a race that believes Jesus has doen enough, trusting His sacrifice for your sins and mistakes is enough, and that you don't need to lvie a life of perfection to be saved or to be accepted, reconciled and be in God's presence; all of this was achieved by Christ who is God. I want to end this post with some food for though from the Apostles, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst," (1 Timothy 1:15), "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent," (Luke 5:32), "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14). God doesn't want us to practice sin (knowin its sin and doing it), no he wants us to repent and turn to His Grace, His payment for those sins. That's what irks me, repentance is to "turn from sin" and I argue "turn to Christ and his loving arms of embrace, for He has marks of when he paid for your sin." So much is focused on what to turn from and not what to turn to. We need to be like tax collector, remorseful of our sin, but aware that it is not the remorse, guilt, or shame that makes us repentant, it is turning to the Redeemer and being close to him in spite of these feelings, and asking Him to wipe away out tears, and mistakes that He has already removed two thousand and seventeen years ago. The truth is that being repentant, feeling sting of our failures presses us into Christ more; it doesn't leave us outside a gate; it reminds us of our pressing need for Him and His forgiveness; but we should not practice sin that leads to death spiritually and physically, it can then so abuse and presume on Christ's Grace that you no longer see Him because your heart is not repentant, and wanting forgiveness, and to abide in His love, instead you are lost in self love. 

Let me give an analogy, Sin in greek means "missed the mark," as in an archer who shoots an arrow at bullseye but misses. Here is fact, we will never hit the bulleye, never. We will always fail, and rhat is why Jesus took the bow and shot the bullyeye because He is a perfect marksman, and if you can understand, He placed himself on bow (crossbow) and shot himself into bulleye to make a way and path to salvation through Him! For the Old Law and being righteous enough never works, we fail every time, as the Apostle Peter said, ""and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:9-10). I want to leave this last thought with you, this is what Jesus is like, "Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 11:28-30).