Christianity and Inconsistent Realities: This past week I listened to a recently posted message from a dear brother whose website, and especially the many books and writings posted there, were helpful and beneficial to me many years ago. I have long regarded him as a strong defender of grace. Yet as I listened, I was surprised by how much of the sermon centered upon what Christians ought to be doing: obeying Scripture, loving the brethren, avoiding worldliness, and displaying those outward marks of spirituality so often expected within religious circles. None of those exhortations are wrong in themselves. Scripture certainly speaks of such things plainly. And yet afterward I found myself wondering whether Christ had been preached as our righteousness, or mainly as the pattern we continually fail to imitate. “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jeremiah 23:6.
There is all the difference in the world between Christ preached as the believer’s standing before God and Christ preached mainly as the standard by which we continually judge our own failures. The result is that many believers spend their lives beneath a continual burden of spiritual expectation, forever examining whether they are sufficiently obedient, sufficiently devoted, sufficiently separated, or sufficiently spiritual. Scripture certainly calls believers to follow Christ, love holiness, and walk worthy of Him.
The gospel does not begin with an improved version of ourselves, but with Christ freely given to sinners as righteousness, peace, acceptance before God, and complete standing before Him. “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” I Corinthians 1:30. And unless that foundation remains central, many believers will spend their lives looking inward at continual inconsistency rather than outward to their completeness in Christ. Colossians 2:10.
For much of my life as a follower of Christ, I have listened to other believers describe the Christian life in ways that often seemed deeply confusing, using language that sounded spiritually triumphant while standing strangely at odds with the reality they themselves openly acknowledged. “The evil which I would not, that I do.” Romans 7:19. Many times I found myself puzzled by how confidently certain things were proclaimed, while the daily experience of believers seemed to tell another story altogether. “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Romans 7:14.
The emphases may vary from group to group, yet the overall atmosphere frequently feels the same: if a man truly belongs to Christ, his life should now display enough visible spirituality, obedience, victory, separation from the world, love for the brethren, doctrinal soundness, and practical consistency to reassure both himself and others that he is genuinely saved. And yet many believers go through life burdened and inwardly conflicted, because they know the contradiction they carry within themselves. They hear constant descriptions in sermon after sermon of how a believer is to think, speak, feel, dress, desire, worship, behave, and respond, while simultaneously discovering within themselves weakness, vanity, carnality, inconsistency, wandering thoughts, earthly affections, inward corruption, and constant failure.
One of the great contradictions many believers carry is this: the more they desire holiness, the more deeply they become aware of sin. “In thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9. Not because they are becoming less spiritual, but because increasing light exposes what was always there. The believer who truly loves Christ does not become comfortable with pride, vanity, selfishness, wandering affections, and inward corruption. Rather, he becomes increasingly aware of them; and perhaps this is why so many weary believers have found comfort in Romans 7 through the centuries. Paul speaks there honestly about a conflict many believers know well, yet often feel afraid to admit openly.
In many ways, this conflict often becomes more deeply understood as believers grow older and more honest concerning themselves. The longer a believer walks through this world, the more painfully honest he often becomes concerning himself. Beneath all the language of spiritual victory and outward consistency, he discovers that he is still earthy, weak, wandering, and painfully inconsistent in himself. He finds within his flesh no perfection, no inward righteousness capable of standing before God, and no stable foundation upon which peace can rest. “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” Romans 7:18. And strangely enough, it is often through this very discovery that Christ becomes increasingly precious to him. For the more deeply a man realizes what he truly is in himself, the more glorious becomes the standing freely given to him in Christ. Philippians 3:9.
It increasingly seems to me that many believers spend much of their lives looking inward for peace in a place where peace was never meant to be found. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. Perhaps this is one reason so many struggle to find peace; they are continually being instructed how they ought to live, think, feel, respond, and behave, until their own spiritual condition becomes the dominant object of their attention. Every struggle becomes evidence against themselves. Every failure raises fresh doubts. Yet Romans 7 and Romans 8 seem to move in another direction entirely, continually turning the weary soul away from self and back toward Christ — the One in whom alone our peace, righteousness, and acceptance before God are found.
The longer I have thought upon these things, the more they have caused me to reconsider much of what is commonly presented as the Christian life. Perhaps this is why passages such as Romans 7 and Romans 8 have increasingly occupied my thoughts through the years. For in those chapters Paul speaks honestly about realities many believers know well, yet often struggle to reconcile within themselves. What exactly is Christianity? Is Christianity primarily the successful outworking of spiritual principles in human behavior? Or is Christianity fundamentally Christ Himself — Christ our righteousness, Christ our peace, Christ our acceptance before God? “For he is our peace.” Ephesians 2:14.
Perhaps one reason Romans 7 has brought such comfort to troubled believers throughout the centuries is because Paul refuses to pretend the conflict is not there. He openly acknowledges weakness, contradiction, and inward struggle, while at the same time refusing to place his peace in himself. The chapter does not end with Paul celebrating victory over every inward corruption, but with thanksgiving through Jesus Christ our Lord. And immediately afterward comes that glorious declaration: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1.
This does not make sin less serious, nor does it lessen the believer’s longing after holiness. If anything, it often deepens it. But it does mean that the weary believer must eventually learn to distinguish between Christ as the ground of his acceptance before God, and his own imperfect experience as a sinner still dwelling in flesh and blood. For if peace before God rises and falls with our inward condition, few troubled believers will ever dare draw near with confidence. Hebrews 4:16.
Perhaps this is why believers through the centuries have continually found themselves returning to Christ again and again with deeper need, deeper honesty, and deeper gratitude. The more painfully they discover what they are in themselves, the more precious Christ becomes to them. Not merely as an example to follow, but as righteousness freely given to sinners. “The gift of righteousness.” Romans 5:17. And perhaps true spiritual growth is not always found in learning to think more highly of ourselves, but in learning more deeply why Christ Himself must remain our entire peace before God. MPJ