Good vs bad… this is how we normally think, we have been trained to think this way since we are kids, who doesn’t remember
- Superman vs Lex Luthor
- Batman vs The Joker
- G.I. J.O.E.S. vs Cobra Commander
- Thunder Cats vs Mumm-Ra
- Smurfs vs Gargamel
- Autobots vs Decepticons
- X-man vs Magneto
- Apple vs PC =D
And the list can go on forever.
We either associate ourselves as good or bad, we are part of the good team or the bad team, well,,, if you ask the bad team if they are bad most likely they will say no, we are the good ones, our cause is worthy of the sacrifices we make.
And the funny thing is that in our church world is the same, since the times of Jesus, the Pharisees and the leaders of that time truly believed they were serving God when they had Jesus crucified, in their minds they were defending God against this blasphemous dude named Jesus.
Most people do bad things out of a good heart as crazy as that might sound, they don’t mean to be bad or do bad and that is the trap with religiousness, we actually believe that we are good, that we can be worthy of God’s favor because of our good deeds or our good intentions, we miss it completely, we lose sight of the simple truth, and I love how Louie Giglio puts it, Jesus didn’t transform bad people into good people, He brought us from death to life.
As Ephesians 2:4-5 says:
4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
So if we don’t forget the fact that it is because Jesus is good and He gave His life in ransom for ours that we now have this new life, now we are called sons, daughters, not for anything of our own doing but His, it’s easier to love people, it’s easier to keep our feet in the ground and serve our neighbors even when they are still dead as we once were.
Instead of judgment our hearts will be filled with compassion, instead of arrogant we would be humble, instead of boasting in our selves we would boast in the grace that we found, the grace that bought us and brought us back home.
Let’s not forget that church was never meant to be a museum of saints but a hospital for the sinner and the broken, a hospital for you and me, a place where the doctor is not you, its Jesus.