“Bummer man! That’s a total drag!”
I left the meeting totally bummed out. The youth leader had given a message he meant to be encouraging, but it had the opposite reaction in me. I was discouraged. I had wanted to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, but after this message I figured that was not an option. I felt disqualified.
I was a teenager struggling to figure out what it meant to walk with Jesus. I knew I wanted to live my life for Jesus – I had already given Him my life and asked Him to be my Lord and savior. But now I wondered if this was somehow a one-sided relationship. I wanted Him, but He didn’t want me…
The youth leader had shared from 1 Corinthians 1:27-29:
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
He wanted all of us to know that Jesus isn’t looking for the super stars. He chooses the weak and the foolish, the lowly and the despised to know Him. Sounds like great news right? Not if you think you are a super star who wants to walk with Jesus.
I know, I know, you are thinking I must have been a kid who was full of himself – and you would be right. But the reality was that I really wanted to walk with Jesus, but I now truly believed I did not qualify to be called by Him because I wasn’t weak, foolish, lowly or despised. Of course I was in error; I just didn’t know it at the time.
The reality is, all of us are weak, foolish, lowly and despised, but there are some who see it and some who don’t. We must see our depravity before we can truly taste the grace of God. Recognition and admission of our brokenness is the perquisite for our healing. Recognition and admission of our weakness is the perquisite for true strength. Recognition and admission of our depravity – bondage to sin – is the prerequisite for true freedom.
There came a point in my life when the Lord confronted me in a very public fashion with my sin and depravity. I had subtlety believed for many years that God was lucky to have me on His team. I was a great guy and a big contributor. I was totally blind to the depth of my sin nature. Until I really saw the depth of my sin, lostness, brokenness and helplessness I would never wholeheartedly experience the grace and mercy of God and the God-breathed freedom, strength and life He had for me.
I remember a very painful period of time when it literally felt like the Lord had His hand on the back of my head and was forcing me to look in the mirror at my depravity: the very sin nature inherent in me from which He wanted to set me free. And all of this was taking place after I had been a Christian and a leader for years.
At some point we must all have a profoundly painful encounter with the depth of our sin nature in order for us to powerfully live in the grace, mercy and love of Jesus. Remember, it is not our sin that disqualifies us, it is our pride. In our pride we refuse to repent or even to acknowledge our sin, our need, our weakness, our lostness, and our helplessness to help ourselves – and that disqualifies us from the grace of God.
Jesus tells us that those who have been forgiven little love little, but those who have been forgiven much love much. The truth is, we have all been forgiven much, but only some truly understand that. We must be willing to face the depth of our depravity – the depth of our need for forgiveness – in order to experience the exhilarating freedom of the grace of God. And then be able to wholeheartedly love God and others.
Be willing to see your depravity in order to be catapulted by the grace of God into the life and love of God.
Luke 7:47
“… But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Colossians 2:13
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
Isaiah 66:2b
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”