Are Christians Hypocrites?, Part 4: What Christians’ Believe About Themselves is Terrifying
Previously, we posited that Christians, though not righteous in and of themselves, possess the vicarious or imputed righteousness of Christ through faith. Not only are the sins of believers paid for and forgiven, but Christ’s own righteousness is credited to them, thus restoring a right relationship between them and God.
That could well startle and scare unbelievers. One would rightly be afraid of people who are convinced that God adores them, but alternatively will cast those who deny and reject Him into the agonies of hell.
The New Testament even admits that the radical grace it proclaims is dangerous and prone to being abused. Paul, the writer of the book of Romans, exhorts believers not to misuse grace: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2) No doubt, it’s possible that Christians could assume that God’s forgiveness for past, present, and future sins is a license to misbehave.
Thus, if converts are still sinners, why would anyone trust them any more than a sinful unbeliever? In part because, while conversion is a no-strings-attached gift of grace, Christianity also holds that genuine conversion is always accompanied by some sign(s) of transformation and repentance. Christians are, after all, “new creations” according to scripture. (2 Corinthians 5:17) In short, the spiritual birth of the new believer always produces some righteous fruit, even if it’s not yet as sweet as a ripe mango.
If Christianity is a delusion, and “conversion” in fact changed no one in a supernatural way, I’d have to concede that Christian belief could be a scary invitation to a harmful sense of moral superiority.
But if, instead, conversion is a supernatural event in which a new believer is made spiritually alive, that moral transformation will be real and readily observable. It will be apparent in a convert’s re-oriented priorities, a new hatred of and struggle against sin, and new desires to love God and neighbor. Genuine believers are called and equipped to live as Christ did, and will start on that path – at a minimum – in small but meaningful ways. In many cases, the changes will even be quite obvious and dramatic. (The transformation of the “Son of Sam,” a notorious serial killer, is one such example.)
That doesn’t necessarily make a new Christian morally better than any particular unbeliever in daily life. It may be that an egregiously horrible person, after conversion, is significantly more tolerable, but still far less “moral” than an upright unbeliever. We all start out from different places – we are “good” or “bad” people, relative to fallen humanity, based on the varying inputs of nature and nurture (largely beyond our control) we received. Nonetheless, a true conversion will evince “before” and “after” images that are noticeably different.
If you didn’t know a particular Christian before they were saved, you may be surprised that such an awful person is actually redeemed. Many times, the best testimony a “bad” Christian can summon is, “You should have seen me before I got saved.”
Nonetheless, by virtue of real and observable changes in a convert’s life, there really are good reasons not to fear authentic Christ-followers.
Time flies when you’re having fun though, and we’re out of it – time, that is, not fun. But we’ll pick up on the reasons you don’t need to fear the Jesus-freaks living next door shortly.
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 illuminating the dangers of socialism, go here.