An Impossible Standard?

Has God set us up for failure? It might feel that way when we read some of the commands in the Bible.

Some standards seem impossible to attain. Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you. Take up your cross. Don’t be anxious for anything. Forgive as God forgives you. And the ultimate “impossible” command to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Early in my Christian walk, I tried to obey these and other commands . . . and failed miserably. I kept trying harder, determined to do better—to get this Christian walk “right.” And I’d do well for a while. But sooner or later, I’d fail to meet God’s standard. I’d think thoughts I shouldn’t have thought, speak words I wished I hadn’t, and behave in ways that failed to reflect my faith in Christ.

Taught or transformed?

The Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5 through 7, contains some of the most famous sayings shared by Jesus during His earthly ministry. Blessings are promised for a life characterized by poverty of spirit, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, extending mercy, and having a pure heart. And failure brings the consequence of judgment.

That’s where many of us become derailed. We’re so concerned with these “good” teachings that we miss the transformation God wants to accomplish in each of His children. Despite what the world tells us, Jesus was more than just a great teacher passing down spiritual instructions. If that were all He was, we would be doomed to a life of constantly falling short of the mark, guilt-ridden and tormented by our failures. Instead, the Holy Spirit indwells us, providing the equipping we need to be and do all He intends for us.

Evangelist Oswald Chambers described it this way in Daily Thoughts for Disciples: “If Jesus Christ came to be an example only, He is the greatest torturer of the human race. But our Lord did not come primarily to teach us and give us an example; He came to lift us into a totally new kingdom and to impart a new life to which His teachings would apply.”

Jesus Christ was not primarily a good teacher. Nor was His ministry merely an example to us. Jesus did not come to make us better. He came to make us brand new by giving us new life. Apart from His indwelling Holy Spirit, we cannot be “perfect.” As the character in one television program put it: “I don’t think He’s waiting for us to be holy. I think He’s here because we can’t be holy without Him.”

As we follow Christ, let’s not settle for being taught mere information. Rather, let’s surrender to the Holy Spirit’s work of transformation.

Being taught or being transformed: how are you approaching life?