I don’t know who started it, but it’s terrible and it’s everywhere: “you can be OK if.” If you lose weight, if you make more money, if your prettier, stronger, more disciplined – then you can be OK. I hate to say it, but Christians are the worst about it. We believe that we are intrinsically flawed, sinful at our core, an old worthless instrument that gains its value only when touched by the master’s hand. Why do we call Christianity Good News? That’s not good news at all.
Paul Young, author of The Shack, said “The reason that Jesus refuses to sin is because he doesn’t want to become less human.” Think about that for a minute.
God did not create sin. He did not make you flawed, he made you perfect. Sin is something came on afterward. You are perfect and loved and amazing, exactly how you are. Sin is not something that is a created part of you, it’s an add-on, a fungus growing on the tree so to speak.
You are not some worthless canvas rag that needs to be painted to become valuable, you are a priceless painting that has been worn and stained by wrongs of generations* and by your own choices. Read that again, priceless. You may see a failure – angry, dysfunctional, rebellious, and bitter – but that’s Satan’s lie. God thinks you’re invaluable, worth dying for. Weird huh? That’s why God wants you in his life. Now you ask, why do you want to be in his life? He’ll scrape away all grime and make you brand new.