Dear reader, God isn’t hovering over your head, waiting for you to make a mistake or skip a day in your devotional plan. He isn’t ready to pounce, catching you out and punishing you for every and any misstep. Our God is relational. We see this in how he demonstrates perfect, unconditional love; in his grace and affection, through his words and actions. You are doing enough. Christianity isn’t meant to feel impossible!
We don’t need to approach our lives lived for Christ as already and always steeped in failure.
When I delay opening up my Bible, am slow to repent, or tempted to step down from serving because I think the God-given task is beneath me, my theological misconceptions regarding who God is and who I am before him run amok. The feeling that God is just waiting for me to fail rob many believers of the full joy that’s ours in Christ—of the security we can have despite our sin. We must abandon thoughts about God that make us feel as though distance is best; that only fear is appropriate; and that we won’t ever measure up, as we follow Christ.
In his recent book, Impossible Christianity, Kevin DeYoung tackles those feelings, faithfully laying out the truth of who we are, because of who God is.
Familiar Foes: Guilt and Shame
He writes: “This book is about whether on our way to heaven, we are doomed to a life of guilt, impossible standards, and failure” (p12-13). Elsewhere he adds: “God loves us even though we are spiritual failures” (p6). So God doesn’t desire that we continually wrestle with guilt. Rather, “as Christians, we have a race to be run, and it can be run” (p9).
Yes, sin is inevitable. But victory is still our status and reality.
All this is to say: We don’t need to approach our lives lived for Christ as already and always steeped in failure. Yes, sin is inevitable. But victory is still our status and reality. So we can approach the Christian life and our relationship with God with confidence and assurance. For in Jesus we are enough.
Differentiate God’s Expectations From the World’s
Our world overloads us with impossible expectations, from every angle; constantly telling us that we need to do, achieve, and make more money. Even in the church, there’s this expectation to strive to be better, serve harder, give more, sin less, and crush it in being faithful! These are all good things. But pursuing them rather than Jesus is what makes us think Christianity is impossible.
Impossible Christianity
Kevin DeYoung
Impossible Christianity
Kevin DeYoung
The apostle Paul described the Christian life as a race, but to many believers it feels more like a punishing obstacle course. Fearing they’ll never be able to do enough or give enough or be enough, they see themselves as spiritual failures. But Scripture offers good news: even in ordinary life, Christians can be faithful, fruitful, and pleasing to God.
Impossible Christianity reassures readers that they don’t need to feel a collective sense of guilt for sins in the past and solve every societal problem in the present. Through biblical wisdom and engaging personal stories, Dr. Kevin DeYoung challenges the misconception that we need 40 hours in the day just to be good Christians. By reflecting on what Jesus actually taught about Christian discipleship, readers will be newly encouraged to pursue single-minded devotion to God and find lasting joy in a life of sincere and simple obedience.
Therefore I found great comfort in DeYoung’s simple, oft repeated statement: yes, we can always do more, but that doesn’t mean we’re not doing enough.
Yes, we can always do more. But that doesn’t mean we’re not doing enough.
I’ll say that again. You could do more. Only that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing enough. This points us straight to the cross. For if we could do it all, we wouldn’t need Jesus. We wouldn’t need a gospel. But if there’s one thing in this life I know more than anything else, it’s that we need Jesus.
The Pressure of Imperfection
I wonder if you can relate to some thoughts I’ve had often as a Christian.
‘Lord, you have done more than I could have ever imagined! Now I want to change the world for you;’ or ‘Lord, help me love others more, read my Bible more consistently, pray more fervently;’ even, ‘Lord, forgive me! I didn’t tell that one person about you, I didn’t step in to defend my friend, I didn’t go on that mission trip into an unreached place to proclaim your name.’
It is impossible to live a perfect life.
These can be overwhelming, making real progress seem impossible. They make you painfully aware of your limitations; move you to wondering if you’ve failed God. In the end, they tend towards believing I cannot glorify God in my life.
Maybe you’ve had similar thoughts and feelings, fears and anxieties.
But hear this. It’s crucially important. Imperfection is inevitable. And it’s impossible to change the world and to live a perfect life. To live every moment of every day in accordance with what we read in the Bible is beyond us. This recognition is invaluable, especially when we remember that we needn’t work or do things to keep Christ as our Lord and Saviour. That’s just not how grace works. Whether we’re failing to meet our own expectations or God’s, they aren’t required for salvation.
Jesus has already changed the world. He’s already done enough to save sinners. To save you. Praise the Lord! Our world is already on its way to being fully restored; made wholly new, complete, and perfect.
God does call for his people to live a radical life. And this is definitely harder than choosing the world. Obedience that glorifies God involves taking up your cross (Matthew 14:24-26). This is serious business, for sure. But it’s his grace that equips and prepares us for this life, to follow Christ. Better still, he knows our limitations. He made you. And he meets you where you’re at.
How Well Do You Know the Master?
The idea that our faith is impossible doesn’t come from that being the case but because we have an incorrect understanding of God. Turning back to Impossible Christianity, DeYoung explains that one of the reasons why we think these things is that we have the wrong starting point. We operate with an incorrect perception of who it is we serve. Knowing who God is changes everything.
Knowing who God is changes everything.
To illustrate this misconception, DeYoung turns to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. In that parable there are three servants and a master. Going away, the master gives each of them the responsibility, according to their ability, to steward part of his wealth. The first two servants put the money to work, which pleases their master. But the third servant is fears the master, believing him to be harsh (Matthew 25:24-25). Instead of putting the money to good use he buries it and brings it back to the master. At the end of the parable, the master praises the first two servants calling them “faithful,” but he rebukes the third (Matthew 25:26).
You see, the first two servants had a different perception of their master to the third. Only the last servant claimed that their master was a harsh man. But if he’d really believed that he would’ve worked harder. His actions revealed that he was merely using his perception as an excuse to avoid responsibility. He made it seem impossible to be responsible with his master’s money. Yet the other servants approach their master with eagerness and confidence. And despite having very different success with the master’s money, both hear: “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23).
There’s no reason these two servants couldn’t have made more; yes, they could have done even better, especially the one who made less than the first. But the master’s response is evidence that they had done enough. DeYoung writes, “They weren’t expected to do what they couldn’t do” (p14). Like those servants, Christians aren’t doomed to inevitable failure and disappointing shows of faith. “It is possible to live our lives as Christians such that God the Father looks down on us, smiles and says, ‘That’ll do, my child. That’ll do'” (p12). God doesn’t set impossible standards. And he gives grace upon grace.
Impossible Christianity Promotes a Possible Faith
Finally, DeYoung is clear about what he isn’t saying. Yes, we’re justified by the work of Christ on the cross. But grace doesn’t justify indifference to obedience. Instead, it means that following Jesus isn’t impossible. God gives us everything we need for faith. We need only use it. Doing our best as Christians doesn’t mean becoming the best; it is so that when troubles and temptation come we won’t be stumbling around, looking for what we need. We’ll already be fully equipped and fully armoured.
Christian, never look to yourself for assurance. That comes from the Lord.
Christian, never look to yourself for assurance. That comes from the Lord. Every part of living a life of possible Christianity is done in grace and with humility. Embracing that is an act of humility, knowing it’s not because of us, but because of Jesus.
Instead of God hovering over us, waiting for us to fail, God is hovering over us to lead and guide, to comfort and reassure. To give grace. This glorious gospel truth is the foundation of Impossible Christianity. When we don’t read our Bible, he gently nudges our hearts. When we think we aren’t good enough, he assures us that we are living profoundly successful lives because of Jesus, who makes Christianity possible.
