I could have also titled this message, “Why I Teach the Bible”.  Obviously God has uniquely gifted each of us to encourage and edify one another in our faith, and so some of my desire to teach is an innate desire to be helpful to others in teaching coupled with some measure of ability to do so.  The fuel for my desire to teach, however, is the Biblical misunderstandings that I see permeating much of Christian teaching today, especially in the South, where we have this phenomenon of “cultural Christianity”.    Well-meaning churches have regressed from personal accountability and teaching salvation that produces a love for Christ that overflows in a desire to obey Him, to support a more emotive-based love for God that is “experienced” through worship on Sunday.  These are the churches where the people can’t remember what they learned about God from the Bible that week, but comment on how great the songs and band were.  Others have moved away from personal accountability to support a “social gospel” message.  Persons at the church are told to “live like Jesus lived”.  “Who cares if he’s cheating on his wife?  He serves at the soup kitchen every week, tithes generously, and volunteers at the orphanage monthly.”  Now my cynacism here is meant to highlight a problem in the theological teaching of sin, salvation, and repentance, rather than a condemnation of those messages entirely.  We should strive for authentic joy in our worship, we should strive to live like Jesus lived; but how we achieve those things cannot be by changed behavior merely.  If we want to call ourselves true Christ followers, we have to push the battle deeper, where we seek to change our heart’s affections by God’s grace.

Now, if someone comes up to me and confesses they are cheating on their wife, and asks me what I think they should do, the first thing I’m going to do is to tell them to… stop cheating on their wife.  I’m not discouraging altering behavior so as to limit the hurtful impact of your sin on yourself and others, I think that is wise to do that, and commanded Biblically.  What I do want to argue for, however, is the same thing Jesus argued for with the Pharisees – don’t be content with external changed behavior.

Matthew 23:25-28 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Even more important, and deadly is what I see happen often in the life of professing believers.  A believer will seemingly come to Christ, and start making life changes.  After a while, the fire that burned within that person has dwindled, and they coast on prior “victories” over sin, content in their changed life, as if they had achieved righteousness.  Don’t allow changed behavior to pacify your thirst to root out sin in your life.  I’ve said this many times before, but it cannot be said enough – sin is not a matter of behavior, but a matter of the heart.  If your heart is sinful (it is) then that sinful heart will manifest sin in all sorts of different ways in your life.  Did you ever play that game as a kid “Whack-a-Mole” where moles would pop up from the machine, and you would have to hit them on the head to knock them down, then others would pop up?  That’s how most people attack sin.  They see a sinful behavior, and they try to stop it.  The only problem with that game-plan for sin in your life, is that as soon as you “overcome” one sinful behavior, another is ready to step in and take it’s place (usually pride).  Satan is much more clever than people give him credit for.  If Satan can keep you from Christ by removing the sinful behaviors in your life, he will.  If Satan can make you proud that you’ve “overcome” sin, causing you to relax your guard, no longer looking to Christ and the cross in total dependance, he will.  Satan is perfectly content with outwardly righteous “Christians”, as long as inwardly they are not totally dependant upon Christ for their righteousness.

Be encouraged by the words of Paul, the self-confessed “greatest sinner that ever lived” – Philippians 3:8-15 – “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have alreadyobtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”

Those words are so clear I barely feel the need for any exposition.  Paul’s exhortation to his readers is my exhortation to us all.  See, meditate on, and savor the person and worth of Christ in the gospel and strive after Him for the rest of your life.  You will never be righteous based on your outward behavior, you need to get to the root of sin, the heart of it.   Christ, who lived perfectly in every thought and intention of his heart, has called us His own.  We too should strive inwardly for changed hearts, pleading with our Lord and Savior to grant us the grace necessary to be increasingly conformed into His image, from the inside out.  Christ has died so that we might be reconciled to God, let us purpose ourselves to that end, always beginning with our hearts.  My sin will end when my heart is perfectly satisfied and joyful in God alone.  Be encouraged, that is a battle the Holy Spirit in every believer has already accomplished.  Saturate your hearts with the truth of God’s Word and may it end in your perfection, that you would radiate the glory of God from a fully transformed heart.  Pray for grace, leading, and encouragement from your fellow believers – it is a lifelong joyful course of struggle for us all.

Grace and Peace,
Adam