Objection 3: Hypocrisy, irrelevance, immorality within the church Objection 4: Impossible to be good enough
Objection 3: Hypocrisy
When I began to read the bible, I was astonished to find that virtually all its heroes were visibly flawed.
The willingness of the authors of holy writ to report the truth, warts and all, gave me, as an agnostic, greater confidence and a new respect for the bible: Abraham pretended his wife was his sister, Moses committed murder, David – adultery and murder, Peter denied Christ, and Judas betrayed him.
And in the church era, following the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the letters of Paul, Peter, and John all tackle issues of ‘sin’ within the church, for example, sexual immorality in the church at Corinth, antisemitism in Rome, or pride, as John confronts Diotrephes: ‘Diotrephes who loves the pre-eminence’. Peter wrote
‘Laying aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking…’
For Peter to need to write this, these faults must have been evident in the church. It was real life. Peter was far from immune from the charge of hypocrisy; it needed Paul to call him back from differentiating too strongly between Jewish and gentile believers that he only ate with his fellow Jewish brethren.
In the past few years, news of sexual immorality amongst Christian leaders entrusted with the welfare of their congregations and followers, has surfaced once again causing hurt and sadness amongst the faithful – and further evidence for objecting to Christianity for those looking for reasons to dismiss the claims of Jesus.
But the more I investigated Christianity, the more I saw that, while coming to Christ does not make anyone instantly perfect, the overwhelming evidence from the vast majority of Christians is that conversion to Christ had been the start of a process, or discipleship, in which - despite serious setbacks at times – keeps changing the person, for the better.
The leader of the Mau Mau gang in New York, Israel Narvaez, was converted to Christ along with Nicky Cruz. Sadly, through a broken promise, Israel became disillusioned, returned to lead the Mau Mau’s, and was found guilty of committing murder. Several years later, however, he returned to follow Christ and wrote his account in Second Chance, finally leaving behind his violent lifestyle.
Jesus led a faultless life…that is why we are drawn to Him
The extraordinary eyewitness claim of the New Testament is that Jesus led a faultless life. In part, that is why we are drawn to Him. He is the light in a dark place and embodies the ideal – he really did practice what he preached. Whenever someone comes to Christ, they are very aware of their imperfections: fears, jealousies, dishonesty, misplaced anger, pride, and their need for forgiveness so that any barrier between them and Christ is dealt with.
Christ’s death on the cross was substitutionary, He died for us, in our place, taking the punishment we deserved in Himself to bring about our forgiveness so that we could be brought back into relationship with God. His final prayer on the cross was ‘Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing’.
That’s the start. Paul wrote:
‘He who began a good work in you will bring it to maturity’
At times God will reveal to us if we have strayed onto the wrong path and we need to take Peter’s instruction to ‘lay aside’ whatever it is that is wrong, however trivial or serious.
The way in which Jesus dealt with Peter’s denial of him is a masterpiece of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and kindness. Mark’s gospel records Peter’s denial:
‘…he began to curse and swear “I don’t know this man!”’
The rough fisherman, not the disciple of Christ was there for everyone to see, including Christ.
‘And the Lord turned and looked at Peter…Peter went out and wept bitterly’.
Jesus did not even mention this just after the resurrection, nor for many days after that, until, back in Galilee, Jesus appeared on the beach. Peter and some of the disciples were returning after another night’s fruitless fishing. As before there was a miraculous catch of fish. After breakfast on the beach, Jesus takes Peter to one side:
‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?’
Peter replies ‘Yes, you know I do’. But Jesus repeats this question three times, the same number of times that Peter denied Christ just weeks before. Peter replies ‘Lord, you know all things…’ and Jesus responds: ‘Feed my sheep’.
It is always like this. Jesus picks his moment. He confronts us, our conscience is troubled, we are convicted of what is wrong, and we experience Christ’s forgiveness and mercy. We find ourselves restored first to Christ and then to our calling, released once again to do whatever we are here to do.
My conclusion: I did not become a Christian by looking at the faults of believers or the church, but because I dared to look at Christ. In the end, everything is focussed on Christ and you. What will you do? Follow or turn away?
The final Objection to Christianity is linked to the issue of hypocrisy. It’s the fear ‘I won’t be able to live like Jesus, I will try but, I’m sure, won’t be able to keep it up. There’s no point. I’m sure Jesus was a great man, but it’s too much. It’s impossible to live the Christian life!’
Objection 4: Impossible to be good enough
I found out some bad news, which, paradoxically, turns out to be the best news we can ever hear.
It is true. It is impossible to be good enough or to live a Christian life, the paradox being that this is a vital clue.
Non-swimmers make a great deal of effort, arms and legs thrashing, to try and stay above the water. Those who can swim, however, seem to float effortlessly and move around at will. The truth is that the non-swimmer can swim but hasn’t learnt to trust that it is the water, not their efforts, that holds them up and gives them the buoyancy they need.
It is the same with the Christian life. If we’ve become a Christian we have to learn that it is Christ, not our efforts, who who enables his life to be reproduced in us and through us.
The great surprise to me as an enquiring agnostic was to find that Christianity does not require us to try and be like Christ but that Christ comes to live in us. God is not far away in heaven but comes to live in us.
Just prior to his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus taught his disciples: ‘…the Spirit who dwells with you will be in you…then you will know me and the Father…and we will come and make our home with you’.
After Paul’s dramatic road to Damascus conversion he wrote: ‘When it pleased God…he revealed His Son in me…’ after which he often referred to believers as being ‘in Christ’ or of ‘Christ in you’.
God is not far away in heaven but comes to live in us
We learn to trust in Him rather than relying on own abilities of rational thinking, emotional intuition, or desires, or our determination to complete whatever we are doing, our will. The Bible calls this type of living, ‘living in the flesh’ rather than being ‘led by the Spirit’. The power to live a transformed life comes from Christ Himself, not our grit and determination to put His teaching e.g. the Sermon on the Mount, into practice.
Our relationship with God is not a meritocracy where we receive blessings from God because we deserve it having worked hard, Jesus said: ‘Freely you have received, freely give’
My conclusion: learning to float and swim with less effort is a good analogy for how to live the Christian life, in fact, life itself! Paul, who previously was a law-abiding Pharisee, wrote:
‘We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh – though I might have had. No, whatever were my advantages, I counted them as rubbish so that I might gain Christ and be found in him…’
To close, the following video covers some of the points raised in these Objections to Christianity articles
Who would base their lives on a brutal, contradictory book of fairy stories? - YouTube