1/15/16 Chang 19
Most
people who criticize Christians as hypocrites have one specific standard in
mind. Jesus! We fail to live up to his standard of
perfection, set both by his teachings and his life. Maybe they don't realize that we don't come
to Jesus because we are already saved from sin, we come because we are sinful
and need the Savior! If we compare
other religions with their human founders, or even with their gods, we don't
see the same hypocrisy in their followers, because they don't have the same
standard of perfection that Christians have.
But
what about people with no knowledge of Jesus?
Do they see Christians as hypocrites?
If so, what is their standard of comparison? Yesterday we talked with Chang, a physics
major from China who grew up in an atheistic household and has had very little
exposure to Christianity or any other religions. He had 45 minutes before his next class, and
he welcomed an explanation of basic Christianity. I began with "In the beginning, God
created…" and explained the biblical narrative of our creation, our fall,
and our redemption and restoration in Jesus.
Chang had one question when I finished.
"Why should I worry about heaven when I can just focus on being a
good person here on earth?" Though
he hadn't thought much at all about religion, he already sounded like hardened
atheists who say they can be "good without God". But why does he want to be good in the first
place? If Jesus isn't his standard for
goodness, what is? Paul wrote of this in
Romans 2:15 - "They show that the requirements of the law are written on
their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts
sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them." Whether we believe in God or not, we all have
the same basic general standard - our God-given conscience – too often we do
the bad we know we ought not do and we don’t do the good we know we ought to
do, and yes, we are all hypocrites and we all need the Savior.
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