Condemnation and Failure

I meet and hear about people all the time who say that they are failing to live up to the "Christian standard". Our churches are full of them. For instance, there is a man (we will call him Dale) who always talks about how he just doesn't have the motivation to get up before work to read his bible and have his devotions. Dale can't pray enough, can't witness, can't do enough to feed his insatiable drive for righteousness in trying to please God. Dale also can't overcome sin in his life, mainly his addiction to pornography. All the while Dale is tremendously proud of his righteousness to the point where he said to me, "If someone accused me of not being man enough, I would tell him, you try living the Christian life". In his attempt to come across as humble and contrite, you can see his pride come oozing out of every orifice. It is sick folks. Almost certainly Dale's problem is, he is still under the law. His thought process is that if he does enough, if he strives hard enough, God will be so pleased and will want him in his heaven for eternity. This is also what most of modern Christianity teaches. That is just plain old natural religion. It is not Christianity and it is not gospel because Muslims believe the same thing. Most of our churches teach that if you keep striving, grasping for one commandment after another, as a knot in a rope, that you will reach God. There is no gospel in that. Most of the emphasis and focus in church meetings is living holy lives and feeding this inherent desire we have to make it right with God. We know we haven't lived right and now we want to say sorry to God and try to live right, to please Him. That is not Christianity. All religions teach that. So if you are in this boat of trying and failing, what do you do? Just give up and quit trying? That doesn't seem right.

What Dale and everyone else like him need to understand is that your righteousness will never measure up. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter that you haven't sinned as much as the next man. It doesn't matter that you lived a pretty righteous life. A world class longjumper still could not jump over the Grand Canyon. He would fall short every time he tried. The same way, you cannot go to heaven on your own righteousness. If you are trusting in your good works, you will fail. You will fall short. If you're trusting in the way you have lived to get you to God, you will utterly fail. So you say, "What must I do?" Well the problem is it is too late to do anything to make it right. Your problem is your question. Let me ask you, WHAT DID JESUS DO SO YOU COULD BE SAVED? He died on a cross, right? Where did all your sin go? On Jesus and then into the grave, right? So if Jesus died and shed his blood so you could be saved, then why all the striving? Why keep trying to make it right with God when Jesus already did? Just put your trust in what Jesus did and rely on that with all your heart. Stop trusting in your good works! Stop focusing on living right and start focusing on Jesus! Stop being beguiled with enticing words that tell you that what Jesus did is insuficient. Jesus is all you need. You don't need counseling. you don't need self help. All you need is Jesus. That is it. I am done. This is the cure for all that ails you. You put your trust in Him and you'll find you have all the motivation you need to overcome any sin or whatever else stands in your way.