The excuse of being a sinner is getting old.

For many months I have been reading through excerpts from “Spiritual Revival the Want of the Church” by Charles Spurgeon. With each read through I see things that were once hidden to my heart. As Spurgeon said, “We Christians need a revival of piety in our lives…It is well known that it is no guarantee of a man’s honesty that he is a member of the church.” It’s certainly not that we deny our sinfulness so that we all “look” good on the outside. Nor is it that we just accept sinfulness as an excuse. I think the excuse of being a sinner is getting old. Something that I desire is to be more appalled by sin. I’m tired of the church overlooking not only our sin, but turning a blind eye to the sin of our brothers and sisters.

Great, we’re all sinners and we all know it. Shall I start passing out certificates of achievement? Somehow sin has become something that we recognize and we keep on sinning with no expectation to be rebuked. I want to fight against sin and not just acknowledge it. The last thing I want is to be surrounded by people who don’t care enough about my spiritual health by allowing me to continue in my sin. I have found the friends who became the closest to me have been the ones who, early in our relationship, made it clear that they were in my life to be my family at whatever the cost. No amount of my sinful heart would drive them away because it is understood that we are in need of each other. And isn’t that what it should be?

Yesterday, as I wrote the above paragraphs, I sensed that I was leaving out something pivotal. This morning I received a text message from a friend who works at a church in Irving about an article he had written about holiness. And I realized the cause of Christ and the glory of the Father far exceeds our insecurities to be deeply involved in each others’ lives. We need to learn to strive for God’s holiness, rather than attempting to “be holy.” By this I mean God is the object of His own affection because there is no other good. We must not “mistake outward piety for inward purity.” We must seek to uphold and desire that which is most good; we must ask to be made holy after only that which is most holy, God. “I’m a sinner” is a phrase too often used to excuse us from our disobedience to God, rather than confession and repentance of our fallenness to the Father. Our life is about God’s Holiness, and me passionately pursuing that and finding joy in Him. Saying goodbye to self is a difficult path, but one marked with grace through Christ.

Sara Kerens

(Check out the article by Brandon Florey at http://www.macarthurchurch.com/index.php?id=99.)