Do Christians Make Christianity Less Credible

DO CHRISTIANS MAKE CHRISTIANITY LESS CREDIBLE

Let’s say that you know a person that seemingly every time he opens his mouth a lie comes out. In the words of some great philosopher (I have no idea where this comes from), he will lie when the truth would help him. If this person tells you that water is wet, does it make it any less true?

Mark 9:14-29 tells the story of a father who is in desperate straits and brings his son to Jesus. However, Jesus is busy when he shows up, and the man meets 9 of his disciples. The man’s son is possessed by something that causes him to have great seizures, during which he is unable to speak, becomes rigid, grinds his teeth, foams at the mouth, and makes him fall to the ground.

The disciples tried to help this young man and were unable to do so. This had caused a great dispute among those that were present. When Jesus arrives, he speaks out and calls them an unbelieving generation and asks how long must he put up with them. He then says to bring the boy to him. After a brief conversation, Jesus says, “Everything is possible for the one who believes.” Here the father is questioning the ability of Jesus as a result of the inability of the disciples. However, the ability of Jesus is not connected in any way by the inability of his followers to correct the problem.

It is at this point that the father looks at Jesus and says some of what I would consider the most profound words in scripture: I do believe, help my unbelief! How many times have the situations of life brought me to have doubts? But even more often, how many times have the actions, words, attitudes of professing Christians, who do not seem to reflect Jesus in any way, caused those same doubts? As I look at the world, and those who profess Christianity today, I look at Jesus and say, I believe, but I look at a lot of Christianity and say, help my unbelief.

1. God’s design

Genesis 1:28 says, God blessed them, [man and woman], and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Genesis 2:15 says, The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

So God created man and woman from the very beginning to work, and to rule over the earth with him.

In Genesis 3, we see man rebel against God, so that man could become his own god. But in this we get a small peek at the relationship between God and man in verse 8. It tells us there that the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking the in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. Thus, we have a picture of a relationship between God and man that allows them to walk together in the evening and enjoy one another’s company.

The idea of God using man to do work is continued into the NT in Matthew 28 when we see Jesus in his last words on earth telling the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (people groups) teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. So the plan from the very beginning to the very end is that God created man in his image to do his work of bringing all of mankind to him.

2. Man’s failure and God’s plan

In Romans 3, Paul quotes the Psalms in a haunting verse in which he points out, “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.”

Paul is telling us this in the context of teaching that the scriptures were given to us by God so that we would be able to know what sin is. He would go on in 3:21, 22, to tell us that the righteousness of God has been revealed and that it comes to man through faith in Jesus to all who believe. In v. 24, he tells us that this righteousness is by the grace of God through Jesus.

In verse 25 it is said this way: “God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

This language would have taken the first century reader back to ancient Israel, when once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest of Israel would go into the Holy of Holies of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant sat. He would sprinkle blood on the cover of the Ark (known as the mercy seat) to make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel. Jesus became the mercy seat (also known as the seat of propitiation, but I will let you look that word up) by shedding his own blood for mankind, so that whoever would accept his sacrifice as payment for their rebellion from God (sin), would receive, not their own righteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus himself.

Very simply stated, when I recognize my own sin, and ask for God’s forgiveness of that sin by accepting what Christ did on the cross to pay for that sin, I am given (imputed) the righteousness of Jesus in the eyes of God.

3. So what is a Christian??? But also, what is not one??

As stated above, someone who actually is a Christian is simply someone who has recognized their own sin, not that of others, and has repented, or turned away, from that sin toward Jesus. Christians are those who are willing to admit that they are failures. In the eternal sense, I am an abject failure, but the Creator of the Universe loves me so much that he made a way for me to succeed, not by what I do, but by what he has done.

So why do so many people who profess Christianity seem to be so unhappy, mean, and hateful people? There are several reasons:

The Bible tells us that not everyone who claims to know Jesus really does. Matthew 7:21-23, which are the words of Jesus, says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me you lawbreakers”

The Bible tells us that a true Christian recognizes that he is fallen and that he needs God’s help to be good. As Paul wrote the words of I Timothy, he was nearing the end of his life. It was a letter to one to whom he referred as his son in the faith. In I Timothy 1:12, he says he gives thanks to Jesus who strengthens him and considered him faithful by appointing him to the ministry. Yet in verse 15, right below he refers to himself as the worst of sinners. This type of humility comes from really knowing God and not just knowing about him.

The Bible tells us that if a man is in Christ, he will bear fruit. John 15:5. What is fruit? Galatians 5:14 says that the entire law is fulfilled in one statement, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. Later in the same chapter, Paul tells us that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the gifts by which Christians are to be known and that walking with God, really walking with God will allow the Christian to exhibit.

We all know the stories of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot and the denial of Jesus by Peter. When Judas recognized his failure, her responded by committing suicide. When Peter recognized his failure, not unlike King David in the OT, he did not make excuses for his actions. Instead, he repented and went back into Jerusalem, where he was afraid to acknowledge being a follower of Jesus, and preached one of the greatest sermons in history, which led to 3,000 being saved at one time. Acts 2.

Jesus has a lot to say about how actions are proof of whether someone is actually connected to God. In John 10, Jesus is attending a festival in Jerusalem and is surrounded by the Jewish leaders. They ask him to tell him clearly whether he is the Messiah, also called the Christ. Jesus response was, “I did tell you and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me.”

Later in John 14, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and one of them asks him to show them the Father. Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Phillip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say ‘show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”

Jesus clearly tells both the Jews and the disciples that even if they do not believe what he is saying to them, that they can look at the evidence that he provides in his life that he is intimately connected to God. Jesus’s biological brother James wrote one of the books of the NT. James starts off quickly in James 1:22, by stating the familiar phrase, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” However, he steps this up several notches in chapter 2 when he says, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?” He further explains this beginning in 2:17, when he says, “In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe and they shudder. Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

We could go on with Biblical citations and descriptions of this very concept. However, the bottom line is that it is not possible for a fallible human being to have a real relationship with an infallible God and not be changed. While works and actions do not save, there is no saving faith that does not produce real life change. This does not mean that every Christian will disappoint you if you watch them closely enough. None of us can be perfect until God cleanses us completely after our death. Those that do not exhibit the evidence of salvation, however, probably do not do so because they have never truly become Christians. There is a reason James said that those who are hearers of the word only, are deceiving themselves.

The worst experience I can imagine is coming to the end of my life and having the Creator tell me that he never knew me. When I was 18 years old, I met him. I have failed him many times, but he has not failed me. He has taught me that, though I am a failure, he becomes my strength when I am weak. As Jim Gardner reminds his congregation every Sunday, God knows all about me and he loves me anyway. As crazy as that sounds, I believe it.

So the next time you see someone who professes Christianity, do not just take their word for it. Look for the evidence. If you don’t see it pray that you will. If you still don’t, pray that you will have the opportunity at some point to walk alongside them and help them learn what true Christianity is. But never let the fact that I am many other Christians do not live up to the teaching of Christ cloud the truth of his teachings. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” The way is rocky and rough, but it is worth it.