51%

51%

I have never in my life heard a sermon quite like the Christmas eve sermon at LCBC. Which is a good thing actually. Dave used the phrase “51% Christianity.” Incredibly astute of him, because that, in essence is the answer, I believe, to my last post.

I have no idea how this happened, and maybe its only here in our Western consumerist culture where to be a Christian does not, inherently, mean you sell all of your possessions or face death or exile. And somehow, watered down and ignored, we have managed to turn the “God cannot stand the sight of sin and you therefore, if you want a relationship with him, should do everything (in His power, which is endless) not to sin,” message into “well, as long as you try pretty hard and only do not-so-bad sins that you can’t help anyway, you’ll be good.”

As Jonas would say “To try means to fail.”

And, as I think maybe even God Himself would say: “I did not send my only son to die to give you a life to live so that 51% of the time you can act like Christ and fall more in love with us every day.”

It’s rather shameful to take on the mindset that as long as we’re more good than bad, as long as we purposefully do good things to make up for the bad ones, or as long as we pretend to keep trying, it’ll be okay. We’ll still be 51% good. God will still get us into heaven to enjoy the 100% purity of Him every day.

Maybe the message got lost in the media, or the reaction against the older, puritan movements, or just in our whirlwind speed of life. But the message is not, and never was, about being 51% good. The message is about being all good. 100%. All the time.

Impossible! You say. We are human beings! You say. We live in an imperfect world! You say.

All of which are true. I am not negating the fact that we all have sinned and are sentenced to death without the blood of Jesus.

I am trying to dispute the attitude we have adapted of well, if I do just enough to make it by, then Jesus will be satisfied.

Jesus can only be satisfied, as He was only satisfied to give, with our all. Everything. 100%. 100% good. 100% on His strength. 100% giving up our bad habits, fears, chronic addictions whatever. From lying to your mother-in-law to having sex with your boyfriend. From cheating on your time card to manipulating your friends or spouse. From swearing while you’re driving to drinking too much yet again.

God will not accept lukewarm Christians. That is not what He created heaven for. He did not set up a scale outside the pearly gates and weigh everyone to see if they are 51% good before they go in.

God died for us.

God lives for us.

And I think we owe it to the amazing gift and immeasurable strength in Him to not just try, but succeed in being the best that we were created to be.