Is trying hard to act like a Christian the real point?

Today’s Church preaches a partial, and therefore weakened, anemic gospel. The Gospel has been reduced to: get forgiven—go to heaven. You’ve been pardoned, but now it’s your job to be a “good Christian” and keep your nose clean until Heaven. What starts with grace ends in pressure to be good. (Just get people to do the right thing.) The Christian life soon becomes about acting like a good Christian (religious duty) so that you don’t disappoint God or those around you. The externals (behavioral expectations) become more important than internal realities (the new resources of your heart). Even good practices such as serving others, worship, ministry and kindness become religious obligations, rather than the overflow of a new heart that is now genuinely for others and for God.

Here’s what one Christian discovered about the emptiness of living from religious duty and obligation:

I was a faithful Christian. I went to church every week and joined the men’s ministry—even went on a mission trip to Bulgaria. I want to say I was living for God, but I was living more out of duty and obligation. It was the ‘wanting to do the right thing’ type of living. On the outside I was the model Christian. However, I had a nagging sense of ‘there is something more,’ but I could not identify what the ‘more’ was.[i]

Any “gospel” that pressures people to be good inevitably brings shame; because ‘good enough’ is never good enough. How do we recognize the gospel of duty and pressure, and therefore, shame? This false gospel comes with the following message: “You’re not doing enough, you’re not spiritual enough, committed enough, selfless enough.” It’s the “not enough” gospel and it is often called “sanctification.” And how can you argue with that? Don’t you want to grow spiritually? Shouldn’t we serve, become more “Christ-like,” be committed to the mission? Here’s a troubling question, though: How can you ever know when enough is enough?

• When you’ve read your Bible enough?
• Shared your faith enough?
• Been committed enough?
• Love God enough?

 To learn more about why good Christian behavior is not the point of Jesus' message, explore Jim's new book, Recover Your Good Heart -- Living Free from Religious Guilt and the Shame of Never Good-Enough.

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[i] Finnamore and Garvin, Treasures of the Kingdom, Vol. 1, (Coeur d’Alene: Starlight Publishing, 2007).