We all know that many humans tend to have what we call "delusions of grandeur." You know the type. The swell-chested guy who thinks he's all that. The woman who is sure that any man would want her. The kind that anyone looking on would say, "Have you looked in the mirror?" They overestimate their appearance, their charm, their abilities, most of what they consider "good" about themselves.
I'm not writing this about those people. I'm writing this about the typical human being. Whether or not they suffer from delusions of grandeur, almost all of us suffer from delusions of adequacy. "I may not be great, but I'm okay." Scripture says that natural human beings -- "the many" rather than "the few" (Matt 7:13-14) -- are "dead in sin" (Eph 2:1-3), hostile to God (Rom 8:7), slaves of sin (Rom 6:16-20), blind (2 Cor 4:4), and incapable of understanding spiritual things (1 Cor 2:14). Instead of "adequate," "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). Humans, as a race, in terms of God's requirements, are far from adequate, let alone grand.
For the unbeliever, then, the only hope is faith in Christ. Only when we, by faith, identify with Christ in His death and resurrection can we have a chance at "newness of life" (Rom 6:3-4). Only by crucifying our old self can we escape our sin problem (Rom 6:6). Only in this newness of life where Christ lives in us (Gal 2:20) can we become "adequate," and even that is His doing (Php 2:13). Ultimately, our only possible boast is knowing God (1 Cor 1:30-31). Our only adequacy is found in Him.
2 comments:
An incorrect anthropology and theology is how we get to these feelings of being good enough, that as long as our good outweighs our bad, we'll be fine.
If you think about it, adequacy is an incredibly low bar to clear. The fact that we even can consider ourselves adequate is pretty ambitious.
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