Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” This shows the horror of the human condition. Do you get that? Our lives without Christ are like a bad zombie movie. We’re walking around dead and too dumb to fall over. Or at least I was….my sin was killing me and I didn’t care. I set up this fake, arbitrary standard of goodness where as long as I could find someone I was better than, I was okay. Know anyone like that? This is what we fail to understand.
There was a picture of a church sign going around Facebook this week that said God prefers kind atheists to hateful Christians. The moral of the story according to the person who posted it was you don’t need religion to be a good moral person. I think the poster was missing the point and I think the church that posted it was way off. Should Christians be kind and loving? We should be the kindest most loving people on the planet… should be… and sometimes we’re not, but…
When I first read the sign and the subtitle, I wanted to laugh. Now don’t get me wrong I really don’t like religion either. I’d much rather have a relationship with the God of the universe than a bunch of lifeless rules, but I’m still kind of wondering where all these good moral people are, because, and I’m sorry to say this, but I’ve never met one. I mean come on, let’s just be real. Have you ever met anyone who could… forget God’s law for a second… have you ever met anyone who could even live up to their own moral code? I haven’t and that includes me. I know some wonderful people, people I really like, people I really love, people I’d do anything for and people who would do anything for me, (and incidentally they’re not all believers…yet) but I’ve still never met anyone but Jesus who hasn’t blatantly done something they know is wrong, on purpose. We don’t need religion to be good moral people, we need something much stronger than that. We need the living God. We need Jesus and we need grace.
God prefers kind atheists over hateful Christians? No, God loves kind atheists and hateful Christians and they both break His heart. Neither the atheist nor the hateful Christian can see his need for grace. One rejects His existence and the other rejects His love, both are sinners. God wants people who will turn from all of that and follow His son. Everyone needs grace.
If God prefers anyone, I think God prefers people who will love Him enough to really love Him and others and love them enough that they show through their words AND their actions, the God that can make even atheists change their minds.
From this Sunday’s message “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” NewCreationMuhlenberg.com
