That's right, you're a sinner. We all are. And yet our culture has become one of blaming problems upon people, and our culture seems surprised when our leader's let us down. If there's a problem find who's at fault and fire him. We love Donald Trump's line, "You're Fired!" The problem is we all have the problem. We are all sinners.
C. S. Lewis makes the statement that a sin is doing less than what you know you were supposed to do. He makes an argument that there is are laws of nature that we all agree should be laws. They are things; "be kind"," do not be selfish", "think of others as much as yourself". The good old, do unto others as you would have them do to you. He then goes on to make a very persuasive argument that we all sometimes do what we know in our hearts is wrong. In other words we sin.
The bible is very clear on this issue. In 1 John 1: , its says if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself. Another passage of scripture I like in this area of thought is in Luke. It is the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. Why does Jesus encourage us that we should be like the tax collector if we too want to be justified before God. Maybe its because we are like him. Notice in the parable he does not rebuke the pharisee, giving him instructions on how to be a little more humble in his prayer, a little less judgmental. No, he basically says the pharisee went away unjustified before God. Unjustified would mean he is a sinner. So in this parable by Jesus, both the pharisee and the tax collector were sinners, and yet only the tax collector went away justified. Was it because the tax collector repented better than the pharisee? Maybe the tax collector had his life more in line with following Jesus. He was actually better at praying, reading God's word, making applications of it into his life. No, I think he simply recognized the truth, and trusted in the only true thing that can be trusted. He trusted in God's mercy. He actually knew that God was good and he was not, and the only hope for him was to ask for mercy.
Now the pharisee, what was he doing? He was thinking he was competent in his faith. He knew how to do it. How to be good so that God would be pleased with him. But the truth is, he wasn't. He was blind to the fact that he was a broken sinner just like the tax collector. He was trusting in himself for his justification. This trust is what Paul refers to as rubbish inPhillipians 2. He counted his good deeds as a loss, because he met Jesus and learned how sinful he was and how merciful God was.
So my point in all of this discussion is that we should not lead like the pharisee, that would be hypocrisy. It would be pride. We should lead with this knowledge that we are sinful. We sin and we have sin dwelling within us. We should lead recognizing that we are broken at the deepest levels. We should lead with this truth and decide everything that we do, based on this truth.
The bible is very clear on this issue. In 1 John 1: , its says if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself. Another passage of scripture I like in this area of thought is in Luke. It is the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. Why does Jesus encourage us that we should be like the tax collector if we too want to be justified before God. Maybe its because we are like him. Notice in the parable he does not rebuke the pharisee, giving him instructions on how to be a little more humble in his prayer, a little less judgmental. No, he basically says the pharisee went away unjustified before God. Unjustified would mean he is a sinner. So in this parable by Jesus, both the pharisee and the tax collector were sinners, and yet only the tax collector went away justified. Was it because the tax collector repented better than the pharisee? Maybe the tax collector had his life more in line with following Jesus. He was actually better at praying, reading God's word, making applications of it into his life. No, I think he simply recognized the truth, and trusted in the only true thing that can be trusted. He trusted in God's mercy. He actually knew that God was good and he was not, and the only hope for him was to ask for mercy.
Now the pharisee, what was he doing? He was thinking he was competent in his faith. He knew how to do it. How to be good so that God would be pleased with him. But the truth is, he wasn't. He was blind to the fact that he was a broken sinner just like the tax collector. He was trusting in himself for his justification. This trust is what Paul refers to as rubbish inPhillipians 2. He counted his good deeds as a loss, because he met Jesus and learned how sinful he was and how merciful God was.
So my point in all of this discussion is that we should not lead like the pharisee, that would be hypocrisy. It would be pride. We should lead with this knowledge that we are sinful. We sin and we have sin dwelling within us. We should lead recognizing that we are broken at the deepest levels. We should lead with this truth and decide everything that we do, based on this truth.
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