Are You Really Good Enough?

The church that we left promoted this idea that we really do not need to emphasize that people are sinners, because they already know that they are sinners. So the philosophy became “we should not ‘camp out’ on sin” because it is not necessary. While it may be true that some may error in only telling people of the bad news of their sin and little time telling them of the solution – salvation through Jesus Christ – we must be careful not to error in the opposite direction. It is also absolutely necessary to explain to people and illustrate the reason they are lost so that they fully understand the gravity of their lost condition. They need to understand how lost and separated they are and that they are under the condemnation and judgment of God. And evangelicalism is failing to do much of this today.

While people will generally admit that they are sinners, they also have a tendency to minimize the seriousness of their sin. They tend to rationalize that “isn’t everyone a sinner?”, and that they are a basically a good person. After all, won’t God look more to our good deeds? Isn’t God all about love and forgiveness? Won’t He look at my heart and see that I am sincere?

The fact is that human nature resists the acknowledgement of the seriousness of sin. It is not enough to merely tell people they are sinners, we need to go into detail and explain how their sin has separated them from God and that it is not merely a minor infraction. People need to understand this in order to come under the full conviction of their sinful state.

This tendency of avoiding discussion of the depravity of man and his sin has become the bane of contemporary evangelicalism.

These video clips from CrossTV discuss this issue. Listen how people tend to avoid and dismiss their lost condition, including prison inmates, and actually claim that they have a basically good heart.