When Christ shows us love and mercy, doing so despite our many sins, we should not think that means he approves our sin, and therefore think we can continue sinning without restraint. Rather, his love and mercy towards us proves the opposite, for they are given to us to help transform us, to lead us away from sin. It is important to understand how he does this: he doesn’t confront us with hostility, trying to shame us because of our sins, like many Christians who think evangelism entails. Rather, he shows everyone his love for them so that they can see the joy, power, and glory which is available in love; that way, people wish to join themselves with that love, and with that desire, they will do what allows them to best receive it and all its benefits. Thus, his love seeks to bring out of us a change, and with that change, we will embark on the path of love, the path which takes us away from all sin. When we do that, Christ’s grace will come to us, giving us what we need to follow the path of love and through it, find our way to perfection. Thus, it is love, Christ’s love, which makes this possible, which is why salvation is not of our doing, something which we work for and establish all by ourselves, though it is something which requires our cooperation, for grace only perfects those who embrace it, not those who resist its work in them. This is also why Christ’s love, which grants mercy to sinners, does not turn him into an agent of sin, but rather, its opposite, because that love, and the grace which is offered with it, is what leads us away from sin. Thus, Paul told the Galatians, they should not turn Christ into an agent of sin, thinking the way he saves us allows us to remain in sin:
yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! (Gal. 2:16-17 RSV).
Grace restores and builds upon the good which remains; God is able to use the good foundation, the good nature which was given to every human person at their creation to serve as the foundation for a new, greater good. What is overcome is sin, and the false self which sin constructed for us, a self which is based upon the dictates of sin and how sin has us act in selfish, that is, unloving ways, as we try to reify and eternalize the false self. We must put that false self to death, putting it, as it were, upon the cross, handing it over to Christ like an effigy to be put to the flames; when we do so, we open ourselves up to grace, allowing our true self, which that false self covered, become known and receive the healing it needs thanks to the wounds the false self had us inflict upon ourselves when we sinned. Then, we will be free to be the persons we meant to be, to be lovers, united with Christ with love; that is, we will be able to come to truly know ourselves, as we will know ourselves as persons in Christ, and in Christ, we will find ourselves thriving, as Christ will be alive in us even as we will live in him:
But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:18-20 RSV).
God’s love, revealed to us in and through Christ, is not only for us, but for everyone, indeed, for everything which God brings into existence. God sees the difference between the person God created, and the false self which we create for ourselves, the false self which is not real but only illusory, and through that love, God helps us dispel the illusion of that false self, showing to us it is truly nothing, so that we have no problem casting it aside, giving it to Christ to have it crucified, as it were. This is what is crucified if and when we say, “I have been crucified with Christ,” as that false self is brought to its end, freeing that which it covered, our true self, allowing our true self to come back to life, as it were. Only when we willingly let go of ourselves as we have been led to think ourselves to be, thanks to the false self, only when we move beyond our sinful egotism and the selfishness which it imparts upon us, can find our true self, the relational, loving person whom God created and God loves. Then, we will understand what Jesus meant when he preached:
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it (Mk. 8:34b – 35 RSV).
So long as we try to preserve our false self, the self we constructed for ourselves by our actions, by our sin, and so save it, the further we will be from our true self, our true life, and so lose that life which we should have. On the other hand, when we let that false self die, we will find and receive our true life, the life which is preserved, saved, and loved by God. Not only is our false self unreal, it tries to enchant us with its illusory existence, to at as if it were real, to seek to save that false reality, all the while it acts as a parasite on our true self, wounding it the more we embrace the sin which the false self leads us to do. The more we reify the false self in and through our actions, giving it the sustenance it needs, the more we wound our true self, feeding on it, as it were, and if the false self was able to do so without restraint, it would feed off the true self until the true self no longer existed. Then, it would find, as it has nothing on which to exist, the false self would also end up vanishing, showing that the end goal of the false self, and the sin it has us do, is our own self-annihilation. This is why annihilationism is an erroneous position, as it suggests God does what sin wants, that is, to bring about our destruction. It would make God an agent of sin, which God is not. The only agent of sin is the false self, and that is not something which God loves, as it is not something which God created, indeed, it is not something which truly exists.
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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.
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