“Becoming a Christian doesn’t make one sinless, but it ought to make one sin less.“ (Conway-p.35)
I’ve been reading a book the past few days entitled Does Christianity Still Make Sense? by Bobby Conway. Conway was a pastor, a host of the YouTube podcast One Minute Apologist (now called Christianity Still Makes Sense) who went through a crisis of faith-a dark night of the soul-where he questioned his Christian faith. He came out on the other side and has written a book looking at objections to Christianity. One of those is answering the question “Why are there so many scandals in the Church?” The follow-up question is the next chapter, the oft-used “Aren’t Christians just a bunch of hypocrites?”
No doubt those are two questions that crop up again and again. I’ve been asked them and I’m sure if you are a pastor or a Christ-follower, you have also. Maybe you have even asked them yourself.
I’ve often been tongue-tied trying to answer those questions because I know I struggle with that. I know I’m a sinner and sometimes exhibit that truth way too much and find myself a very poor representative of Jesus. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that the saying I started out with depicts me. While “I’m not perfect, just forgiven” can be flippantly tossed out to justify sin, I’m not trying to do that here. Exact opposite actually. Just because I have been forgiven doesn’t mean I won’t sin. I’m not sinless, but I should sin less.
Does my sin discredit Christianity? No. Just because a batter strikes out, he doesn’t represent the whole team. Just because I fail (sin) does not mean Christianity is a failure. The ultimate example-Jesus-never sinned. My trying to be like Him won’t make me sinless, but as I have said, it should make me sin less. My ultimate goal-any Christ-followers goal-should be to represent Jesus as close as we can. I will never do that perfectly.
Christianity doesn’t rise and fall on me. My sin brings a stain, but doesn’t undermine the rock solid truth of Jesus as the perfect and firm foundation. Is sin a problem? Yes. Is hypocrisy a problem? It can be. But Jesus offers the solution to the problem. If you or someone you know keeps using these excuses, stop making excuses by pointing fingers at fallible people and start looking at an infallible Christ.