"Believe you are a sinner, Believe that Christ died for you, and you are saved" In my sin of intellectual superiority, I have sometimes been very critical of certain people. An example of those people are those "fundamentalists" (for lack of a more accurate term) who I thought were unsophisticated. I am repenting of that and am revisiting this foundational statement of faith.  

     The reason I was critical of this statement of faith is that nobody really knows the depth of human sin. That is why we get defensive when somebody points something out to us that is wrong, instead of admitting that there may be issues in my heart that I need to look at. We chalk sin up to bad upbringing or traumas. Although bad upbringing and traumas may cause a person to sin, the sin is still the person's and whether we like it or not, God holds the person responsible for his reactions to the circumstances in his life. It takes time and soul-searching to really believe this profession. Sin ultimately is an heart issue and to really recognize sin, we need to be acquainted with our hearts- our desires, imaginations, etc. This means, nobody is really "saved" through that converstaion that ended in the person saying the prayer. Its a journey to even start with believing that you are a sinner.

     Another reason is that Jesus' call to discipleship starts with telling people "Come, Follow me" He did not ask them to believe that you are a sinner first. However, as Jesus walked on earth, he showed the depths of human sin in his teaching. He did this alongside assurances and demonstration of God's care for people. Jesus proclaimed that there is a judgment coming, which points to the devastating consequence of sin. Man's rejection of God, which is the foundation of human sin, culminated in Jesus' death on the cross, which we commemmorate on Good Friday. This moment in history is the moment of freedom from guilt.

     As Jesus showed the seriousness of sin, the audience were divided into two sides- those that trust in their own righteousness and those that recognize their sinfulness. Today, this battle continues. There are people on the church who trumpet their righteousness through legalism, thinking they can set up "rules" to be a good Christian. There are also people who trumpet their righteousness by changing God's standards, proclaiming things that were clearly declared to be wrong okay. Both sides deny human guilt, which makes the gospel make sense. The gospel (God so loves the world that he gave his only son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life) does not make sense without the reality of human guilt. The depth of God's love could not be fathomed without first acknowdedging the depth of human sin. Some may think guilt is unhealthy but I believe that biblically, it is the foundation of true spiritual understaning. If we truly want to experience God's love, we have to experience the depth of our sin. We don't deserve what we have (common grace or eternal life) but God gives them to us anyway.

    How do we then respond? I truly believe we are making light of sin by giving the gospel message as "Believe you are a sinner, Believe in Jesus, then you will be saved." It takes community and relationships to bring out the realization that you are a sinner. The invitation should be to join the community that listens to Jesus. This community should not be just a community that cares, important as it is, but a community that acknowledges sin- not trying to eliminate it by creating an atmosphere where people are afraid to acknowledge sin or trying to eliminate it by redefining what constitutes sin. In adition, it is not just believing that Jesus covers our sin that saves us, but belief in the sense of entrusting our whole lives to him, an acknowledgement of his deity. That also takes a lifetime to truly believe. Salvation is a journey and Christ calls us to join in that journey.