According to Emil Brunner, the Swiss theologian: “All other religions spare us the ultimate humiliation of being stripped naked and being declared bankrupt before God.” That’s pretty strong language.
And yet it points to the humiliating nature of Christianity. All the other world religions don’t treat humanity with such pecissimism. In all other schools of thought, we have something to bring to the table. We can strive toward God and meet Him, and in a sense, be congratulated when we do.
Not Christianity.
In Christianity, we bring nothing to the table. In fact, the only thing we bring to the salvation of equation is the sin we need to be rescued from. Perhaps that’s why, if we look back into history, Christianity has been called the religion of women and slaves. In cultures of the past, neither of those two groups had many rights, so it wasn’t a far stretch for them to admit their abject need of God’s complete and total intervention on their behalf.
The bottom line is this: The one character flaw that has, and will continue, to most keep people from Christ is not greed. It’s not lust. It’s not lying or stealing or killing.
It’s pride.
That’s the only thing there is no room for at the foot of the cross.
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Good word… thanks for punching me in the face.
Wow. This post (especially the quote from Brunner) is powerful. It may actually help me in sharing the Gospel with my largely non-Christian family. Some of them *think* that they are Christians, but when pressed for an explanation of their beliefs, their answers often revolve around “being good.” They don’t seem to get the concept of spiritual bankruptcy before God. It’s simply not a category in their world(s). God may use this post, in part, to change that fact though. I pray that He does so, especially as I will be flying to Maryland to visit them this coming weekend, Lord willing!