"12 ‘Christian’ Beliefs that can Drive You Crazy;
Relief from False Assumptions."
A promise to mankind—Psalm 23.
1. God values people greatly.
a. We are made in God’s image. (Genesis 1:26) – using the principle
of analogy we trust that His communicable attributes were attributed to us.
This a great honor.
b. God cares about what we do. "What is man that you make so much of him,
that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning
and test him every moment? Job 7:17-18 NIV
Like a loving parent He loves us. As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; Psalms 103:13 NIV
c. God became one of us. (John 1:14)
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered
the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet
robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his
head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked
him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the
staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him,
they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him
away to crucify him. Matthew 27:27-31 NIV
2. This was not a mere man that was being crucified, this was God’s
son! Imagine allowing your son to suffer like this. What agony He, the Father,
must have felt!
3. Jesus would have died for just one person. Just you or just me.
If this doesn’t blow you away I don’t know what will.
a. We tend to think in numbers, that Christ died for all people who
are very many. Well…value is not derived from the numbers of objects being
redeemed but rather the intrinsic value of each individual object; else all
value as an individual bearer of the image of God would be lost altogether.
If Christ’s sacrifice would have been worth it at the point 129,876,896 human
souls would be redeemed as a result, then it would not have been worth it
if only 129,876,895 souls were saved; this divine transaction would have
been finite in value. God is not finite.
b. To avoid the above problem of making God and God’s love finite,
each individual human being must be of equal and practically infinite value
to his or her Creator.
The 12 assumptions we are going to address in subsequent
weeks sound Christian because they have a bit of truth to them. These are
commonly held beliefs that enslave people into thinking their only worth
is in service to others and that self is to be denied. Paradoxically, these
beliefs actually hinder the believer’s ability to serve others and harm his
or her ability to freely love God and others.
Rules (legalism) are (is) easy to teach. Religiosity is not what God wants
from us. (Mark 7:5, Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9:13; 12:7) Grace is difficult
to teach because our hearts do not wish to accept it. We all know intrinsically
the difference between right and wrong, I am not advocating sinful practice.
(Romans 6:1,2) Those who think grace means license to sin need to
examine their hearts, something’s broke. It is from this bondage of
legalism, with all it’s traps and paradoxes, we must escape so that love
may prevail.
The specific assumptions were going to address are;
1. It’s selfish to have my needs met.
2. If I’m spiritual enough, I will have no pain or sinfulness.
3. If I change my behavior, I will grow spiritually
and emotionally.
4. I just need to give it to the Lord.
5. One day, I’ll be finished with recovery.
6. Leave the past behind.
7. If I have God, I don’t need people.
8. "Shoulds" are good.
9. Guilt and shame are good for me.
10. If I make the right choices, I will grow
spiritually.
11. Just doing the right thing is more important
than why I do it.
12. If I know the truth, I will grow.