Are Christians’ Hypocrites, Part 2: What is Required of Christians?
(Note: Previously, we discovered that genuine believers never claim to be perfect — indeed, their sinfulness is what draws them to Christ. So, if they don’t or can’t obey God’s laws, what is expected of them?)
Make no mistake: Jesus commands moral perfection. He says: “Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) But certainly not as a condition of salvation. If attaining perfection is what defined a Christian, there would be no such thing as a Christian. 
When asked directly what was required to inherit eternal life, Jesus simply answered: “To believe in the One God sent.” (John 6:16) In other words, to believe in Him — Jesus. That’s it – the sum total of all He said on the matter! This astonishing claim is difficult for us to fathom and accept. “There must be something else – or else a lot of really bad folks will be getting into heaven,” we instinctively reason — especially when we assume the bad folks don’t include us.
In short, God’s incredible gift of forgiveness to sinners is hard for anyone – Christian and non-Christian alike – to wrap their heads around. Christians will spend a lifetime marveling at God’s mercy. It’s not at all surprising that skeptics would scoff at what Christians claim to be the gift of God’s unmerited favor (grace). Why should Christians, or anyone for that matter, get off scot-free, merely by believing that, over two millenia ago, some guy on a cross made everything right?
Surely, the skeptics have a point: that God pardons, and even exalts and eternally blesses the vilest of sinners, seems too good to be true. But its very incomprehensibility argues against it being a human invention. In all other religions, attaining the object of one’s faith – heaven, nirvana, etc. – requires great personal moral effort. That is a far different bargain from the salvation offered by Christianity, which declares: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) When anyone in a TV ad says “and get this free gift,” our antennae naturally go up. There’s nothing that’s truly free (certainly not lunch), we assume.
In short, the only qualification to become a Christian is being sinner. Certainly not you, dear reader! But the rest of us are amply qualified.
Hence, the free offer of peace with God and eternal blessedness raises a troubling question: How can people sorely lacking in virtue be accepted by a holy God? God’s unmerited favor, or grace, challenges expectations and even offends our sense of justice. Who’d guess that God forgives and receives as beloved children folks who were thieves, murderers, liars, adulterers, homosexuals, blasphemers, and so on? (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
It’s a paradox that God calls and redeems many of the worst of us. So, the very idea of grace lends itself to the charge of hypocrisy.
Christians claim that God’s love has been peculiarly lavished upon them, such that even their worst sins are forever erased, and that God now regards them as beloved children. That belief seems like a recipe for a sense of moral superiority and a lack of empathy for those who aren’t “right” with God, not to mention an ugly pridefulness.
One might rightly wonder how these Christians – who are convinced they’re right with God apart from any good deeds to show – will behave? Isn’t that like spoiling a child who inevitably turns into an insufferable monster?
But perhaps there are credible reasons to believe that they are accepted and loved by God, even though they are greatly undeserving of it. It’s certainly counterintuitive, because that’s not how we humans typically roll – we’re big on expecting folks to do right by us as a condition of our acceptance. So, understanding why Christians think they’re okay with God may be the key to figuring out whether or not they’re hypocrites, or possibly just insane.
SpoofsandProofs.com is written and produced by David Culver Brenner. For a free subscription to SpoofsandProofs.com, enter your email in the “Subscribe” box on the right sidebar. To learn more about his novella exposing the dangers of socialism, go here.