The Distortion of Truth

Christians are not bigots. Maybe you disagree. That’s o.k. Intellectual laziness, but o.k. There are a lot of reasons why people have that misconception. There are some who have just enough understanding of what Christians believe to assume they can fill in the blanks. Some watched a program on the “lost gospels” or read the “Da Vinci Code” and now think the Bible is just a collection of writings from Bronze Age ignorami that was conspiratorially edited by that nefarious Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. There are others who were raised in a church that didn’t understand historical, orthodox Christianity, or who had friends who called themselves Christians but clearly didn’t understand either. If you're one of the above, take a moment and be enlightened.

The Bible teaches (and Christians believe) that the world we live in is grossly disfigured. That man was originally created for a life without death, suffering, sickness, crime, and loss, but that because we rebelled against God, all of those things (and more) entered into our existence. Because we distanced ourselves from God through an intentional choice to disobey Him, we began to experience exponentially increasing consequences for doing so. Makes sense. Distance yourself from the source of goodness and perfection and you get evil and imperfection, in ever increasing measure. Precisely what we’re dealing with now. Mankind retains a longing for a life in paradise, but has insufficient means to return there. And so we construct every experience we can to escape those consequences. We pursue power, sexual pleasure, wealth, materialism, and more, to distract ourselves from the realities of the absolute brokenness of the world we live in. Death, drug addiction, divorce, promiscuity, birth defects, and (dare I say it) homosexuality, are all tangible indicators that we live in a world that no longer reflects the perfection of a flawless God. That’s the bad news. It matters not if we were “born that way”, nor would being “born that way” prove that God wants us to be that way. If that’s the case then God WANTS us dead, because our DNA deteriorates; God WANTS a percentage of children to have birth defects, and God WANTS many of us to get cancer. Sorry. If that’s YOUR God then you can have him. If you’re laboring under the delusion that this world is pretty close to perfect; that it’s not terribly damaged, and that every aberration can be ascribed to a God that wants things this way, then you’re the one with the rich fantasy life, not Christians.

Here’s where it gets tricky. How Christians respond to that truth. Are there bigots in churches? Certainly. I’m sure there’s pretty much a representative sample of most of the flaws and deficiencies of mankind in most groups of any size. But that’s not the point. The question is whether Christianity endorses bigotry. And the answer there is unequivocally “No”. This is where people get into arguments over whether Jesus reflected tolerance and love or whether He was the embodiment of a holy and righteous God that hates sin. The answer is both. God is not unaware of our condition, but that doesn’t change His. He is and always will be a holy God. His perfection could no more dwell eternally with our stinking rebellion and defectiveness than oil could choose to combine with water. Even we can’t stand to be around the decay of our sin – and we’re only human.  We hate the sight of crime. We move away from it. Even the worst criminals pursue a life of ease, pleasure and wealth, and do their best to protect themselves from other criminals. Think about it – if even the worst criminals want to insulate themselves from the effects of sin, why would we expect a perfect, unstained God to coexist with it? But there’s another dimension to God – His love. John 3:16 (you’ve probably seen it at sporting events) says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That’s the good news. Jesus didn’t come as a cosmic cover up, or to minimize the seriousness of our condition. He came to deliver us out of it. You think this world is bad because of sin-sickness? Buddy, you don’t want to see what forever looks like with it. If you think sin messes you up in the 75 or so years you’re exposed to it on earth, consider how badly it might be messing you up in 10,000 – and eternity will have just gotten started. That’s the love of God. He loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus to first show His love to us, to teach us the necessity of His coming, and then die in our place, because apart from being holy and loving, He’s also just (what would you think about a judge who let a guilty criminal go just because he was a “nice guy?”).

The Church therefore has the unenviable job of communicating this truth. That if you don’t have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, you’re on your way to an eternity that makes the worst neighborhoods on earth look like Disney World – on a perfect day with no crowds! Let’s be clear – people don’t go to hell because they’re adulterers, or addicts, or homosexuals, or because they got a divorce, or because they lust, or cheat, or lie, or steal, etc. We do those things because we’re broken and separated from the empowerment of God to reject them. All those things demonstrate that we’re headed there, but we don’t have to go there. The only people who will are those who reject God’s provision, through His Son, to avoid that eternity. All those things show that we no longer reflect the image of the great and perfect God that created us. They prove that we’re infected with the disease of sin. And we can either choose (as most of the world does) to deny the seriousness of our condition, or believe that somehow, though good works, religion, whatever – that we can overcome, on our own, the inevitable outcome of our condition. Jesus came and He loved. He wrapped His arms around the rejected and scorned to show that no one is beyond the reach of God’s love. But the cross makes it abundantly clear that sin is ugly and terribly costly; and Jesus’ own words make it clear that every evidence of our sinfulness must be repented of. That each of us must make a choice to reject the vestiges of the sin-sickness that remain is us. That we must all take a sober look at ourselves and reject the things in our lives that do not reflect our flawless Creator, and that we must confess that the puny attempts of fallen man to rise above the effects of sin are woefully insufficient. That’s why we call Him “Savior”.

We’re not against sexual sin because we’re bigots. That’s as absurd or lazy as believing that we’re bigoted against rapists, or murderers, or thieves. We simply believe that sin – all sin, of whatever degree or consequence – must be seen for what it is. Could we be deceived? Maybe. But we’re not bigots. And we don’t hate you. No matter what your particular symptom is, you simply have the same disease we all have. Or had. We’re just trying to point you to the cure. If you reject it, that’s your choice, and we’ll still love you. But we won’t pretend you’re all better just because you say you are, or because you’ll call us names if we don’t. If a doctor did that it would be malpractice. If a Christian does that, it’s spiritually criminal.

Peace!

Dave Gregg is the Lead Pastor at LifePointe Church in Mount Vernon, IL. He's incredibly happily married to Ruth, loves his family, his church, and the Miami Dolphins (on the rare occasion when they're good!).