PASTORAL MUSINGS…

While driving from the hospital back to church recently, a bumper sticker caught my eye. The driver in front of me proudly proclaimed, “I was born okay the first time.” (In case you don’t get that, it’s a dig at Christians who talk about being born again). I really would like to have had a conversation with the person driving the car, but it was not to be. So . . . you get to be the recipients of my thoughts!

I would start off by asking the driver what he meant by being born okay the first time. The driver would probably say something about Christians talking about the need to be born again because of sin. Then he would launch into some lecture about how he wasn’t a sinner; he had values and knows right from wrong; and unlike Christians, he isn’t hypocritical. Then I would ask if he thought he were perfect. He would answer no, but a pretty good person; basically good. And besides, he would say, nobody is perfect anyway.

Well, I am sorry to say, but not being perfect is not being perfect, and that is not being okay. If something is okay, it is right; the way it is supposed to be; should be; ought to be; perfect! Anything short of perfection is imperfect and therefore, not okay. And the very fact that he realizes he isn’t perfect in the first place means that he, too, is hypocritical. How so? He realizes and admits he isn’t okay because he realizes he isn’t perfect. Andy yet, the bumper sticker proudly proclaims he was, “born okay the first time”. Therein lies the hypocrisy—and the self-deception.

I say self-deception because the Bible tells us in I John 1:9 that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, we deceive ourselves into thinking we aren’t sinners. Oh, excuse me, not im-perfect. Oops! Isn’t that what the Bible says sin is, not being perfect, falling short of the glory of God (that is, what God is).

Having gotten that all straightened out; I would then proceed to tell this person that they do need to be born again because they have to admit they weren’t born as okay the first time as they originally thought.

Then I would probably offer to go out and take the bumper sticker of their car for them.

Email me at: pastor@holycrosswarren.org

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