1.21 blog

This past Sunday, Pastor Stephen preached from Jonah chapter one. One of the things he noted was that, in this passage the “man of God” (Jonah) is a much worse person than the idolatrous pagan sailors with whom he’s trapped on a sinking ship. As they perish on deck, crying out to gods who cannot save them, Jonah is comfortably below, taking a nap. They call upon him to pray, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t even tell them about the true God, the LORD, who could save them (he sort of grudgingly gets around to giving them a half answer about God later in the text). And when he reveals that the only way for them to be saved is to throw him overboard, they still do their best to row back to safety and save his life. These pagans are better people than him.

It’s still like that today. I’m not sure where Christians get the idea that they are the “good” people and everyone else is “bad,” but it’s a pervasive attitude. I, on the other hand, agree with Carl Trueman, who in a pretty funny piece, writes, “The bottom line: in my experience, Christians can be horrible people; and, basically, they cannot be trusted to sell you chewing gum, let alone a used car.” Often times we Christians are sent on mission to people who are much better than we are. Why is this? Why are Christians often so lousy, and non-Christians often so much better?

The answers are actually related. Christianity is a religion for sinners. And sin isn’t just the bad stuff we do. It’s who we are, it’s what we think, it’s how we feel, it’s what we want, it’s what motivates us, it’s what we leave undone. It’s a pervasive reality. As Christians, we believe that all have sinned (Romans 3.23), and that as fallen men and women, our sin has perverted every aspect of who we are so that we are totally depraved. So we shouldn’t be surprised if Christians are often terrible people. This is exactly the sort of thing that we should expect, given what we believe about sin.

But what about when non-Christians are good? How can we believe in total depravity when so many people are doing such good things?

Here’s where we can get off base. We hear “total depravity,” and we understand that to mean: people are as bad as they could possibly be, and they never do anything good. But that’s wrong. Total depravity means that every aspect of who we are is affected by the fall. Our actions, our words, our thoughts, our desires, and especially our wills are twisted and tainted by sin. It doesn’t mean we never do anything good, instead it means that we never do anything good enough for God. These are very different ideas. If I help someone out, but have a selfish motive, am I doing something good? Yes! The person really gets helped. We don’t have to pretend it’s bad to help people. But when God comes into the picture, the answer is no. God sees my bad motives, and therefore my “good” work isn’t good enough for him. But in his common grace, it’s still good. It still helps people. It still makes the world a better place.

The answer to realizing that our best works are tainted by sin is not to stop doing good works. Instead, it’s to stop looking to our good works to score us points with God, and instead to rely on the good works that Jesus did in our place (especially by his death and resurrection). These works are imputed to our account, as though we had done them, so that because of Jesus we are “good enough” for God. And this frees us to love and serve our neighbors with our imperfect, sin-tainted good works.

So don’t be surprised when you find that non-Christians are better people than Christians. This is exactly the sort of thing we should expect. As Christians, we should be growing and maturing, and making this less true. But in the end, Christianity’s not about “being good.” Instead, it’s about the one truly good Person in all human history laying down his life for screw-ups like you and me.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger