Evading Our Guilt
Deep down, every single one of us does not want to come clean about the depth of our sin. That is not just true of the non-Christian; it’s true of the Christian. I’ve never taken any law courses in my entire life, but there is a little lawyer inside me who is excellent at trying to evade my own guilt.
I’m always trying to justify myself at some level, even as a Christian. We don’t always notice we’re doing it, but we have a built-in resistance to this idea of just how much we need Jesus week by week.
The question, How am I doing? How am I doing? How am I doing? is constantly rolling around inside me and inside every one of us. It’s our normal.
And so the doctrine of justification by faith alone—the righteousness of Christ that we receive and is imputed to us as we open up the empty hands of faith; someone else’s performance legitimating me and making me kosher in the sight of the all-holy God above—is so surprising, so counterintuitive. We never stop adjusting to it. And what a relief when we just receive his all-sufficiency.
Because that means we no longer have to ask, How am I doing this week? but How is he doing this week? And it turns out he’s having a great week, so I’m okay.
Sam Allberry and Ray Ortlund are the authors of You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches.
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