According to 1 Peter 1, our futures are secure. We have an inheritance to end all inheritances. It’s in heaven, reserved for each one of us, and nobody can rob us of it. Not only that, but God guarantees our safe arrival so we can receive it. He preserves us by his power while we live out our lives here one earth. So knowing we are heirs to his kingdom, how do we live? You would think Peter would tell us to get out there and become missionaries, or get busy feeding the poor, or dedicate ourselves to endless hours of prayer or serving the church. He does none of that. Instead he says we are to intentionally live holy lives that reflect the character of God. How do we do that? It means a renewed mind in God’s Word, and a knowledge of Christ and his gospel, and an understanding of our justification and sanctification in Christ. It’s believing and rejoicing in the answer to question 60 from the Heidelberg Catechism (see below). Armed with those truths, we can refuse to conform to the culture of the day, we can struggle against sin and unbelief, and we can rouse ourselves in the Holy Spirit to be conscientious about our lives as Christians.
The Gospel Is Scandalous!
Q. 60. How are you righteous before God?
A. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.
–From the Heidelberg Catechism
The Old Testament Is About Jesus
Christ in the Old Testament – Tim Keller
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.
Enjoy Your Life
Q: If we’re sure to be bad Christians no matter how hard we try, why should we try at all? It all seems so pointless.
A: We ought to try hard to love God and serve our neighbor, but we don’t do these things to become better Christians in this world or brighter saints in the world to come. We do them because God deserves our love and our neighbors need our service. Unlike self-help programs, the Gospel frees us from ourselves, our failures, our successes, and best of all, from our performance reviews! Have you ever been on a diet? Oh, what a life! You become obsessed with results. Every morning you wake up worried about what the bathroom scale is going to read. If you’re down a pound or two, you’re giddy; if you’re the same, you’re disappointed; but if your weight is up, you fall into despair and turn to the fridge for comfort. The Christian life is not a diet, it’s a feast! What Christ has done for us is so good we don’t think about our enjoyment of it, but the thing itself, and in doing that, we truly enjoy it.
Do your best. Accept your failures. Trust the Lord. Enjoy your life.
Is There Any Hope?
Q: Are you saying then that we’re destined to live lives of spiritual defeat with only little respites along the way, and that’s as good as it gets?
A: Not at all! God’s goal for us is to be like Christ. At the moment, Jesus is triumphant and glorified at God’s right hand, and God’s guarantee to us is that we will someday share in this magnificent image. But when Jesus lived where we do, His life was not the glittering thing it is now. It was marked by weakness, suffering, and by a genuine and daily dependence on His Father in Heaven. Not even He could rise from the dead until He first died. The road to Glory runs through the Cross, both for the Lord Himself and all who want to be His disciples.
Q: What about the verses that say we are more than conquerors in Christ, that we can do all things through Him, etc.?
A: We believe the verses, of course, but the success and triumph they promise look a lot like failure and loss: ‘tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, being killed all day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter’. In this life God does not give us victory over these things: He gives us victory in and through them. Just as He did for His Son who learned obedience through the things He suffered.
Why Do You Call Yourselves ‘Bad Christians’?
We call ourselves ‘bad Christians’ because that’s what we are. By ‘Christians’ we mean people in relationship to Christ and other believers. By ‘bad’ we mean, we do plenty of nasty things and leave a lot of good things undone.
God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. In other words, the life we have now is not something we produce or sustain; it is given to us for Christ’s sake and maintained by the gift and ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Any applause we might receive for doing good belongs to God alone. It’s his mercy alone that keeps us. We need him to forgive us every second of every day, while the blood of Jesus keeps on cleaning us from all our filthiness.
Also as ‘bad Christians’ we need the community of other Christians, the preaching of God’s Word, communion, the prayers of God’s people, and the very needful help they can, and often do, give us.
We’ve tried the books, the counseling, and the retreats, but success alluded us. What progress we make as Christians comes as a gift from God. We have no idea how or why God gives it to us except for the fact it gives him pleasure.
The truth lies elsewhere: to live successfully as a Christian we need to recognize that no matter how hard we try to manage our sin, the oil-spill of our pollution continues to spread. That’s because we cannot remove the source. The problem will not be fixed until that day when God exchanges our corruption with the incorruptible. Meanwhile, we live by faith. Daily we seek forgiveness and strength by looking away from ourselves to our Savior. Our faith rests in his completed work and trusts God to make us holy as he sees fit.
Messy Christians 