A Christian can defeat himself in two ways: one is to forget the holiness of God and the fact that sin is sin. The Bible calls us to an ever deeper commitment in giving ourselves to Christ for Him to produce His fruit through us. The other is to allow himself to be worn out by Christians who turn Christianity into a romanticism. The realism of the Bible is that God does not excuse sin, but neither is He finished with us when He finds sin in us. And for this we should be thankful.

Some people seek leadership. Some have it thrust upon them. For the Christian we are all called to be servants, but some folks will be raised up by God to lead his people. And that will always involve servant leadership. I make no claim to being a leader, nor am I an expert on the subject.

But I was just chatting with a great Christian leader here in Australia. He has been involved in so many important Christian ministries, many of which he started up or had a leading role in. He is now 80, but he is still plugging away. He mentioned something in passing that is the catalyst for this piece. So thanks Graham!

We were discussing various ministries and individuals, and he said he recalled a talk given by Francis Schaeffer on the weakness of God’s leaders. That sparked my attention, so after we ended our phone chat, I went to look it up. Given that I have a copy of everything that Schaeffer wrote, I quickly found it in a collection of his sermons.

The book contains 16 of these sermons. It first appeared in the US in 1974 with the title, No Little People, while it was released in the UK in 1975 with this as its title: Ash Heap Lives. Chapter Three has the piece that I was after: “The Weakness of God’s Servants”.

Let me present some quotes from this short but brief message. He begins by saying that the Bible is quite realistic throughout:

Many feel that the Bible should portray a romantic view of life, but the Bible is actually the most realistic book in the world. It does not glibly say, “God’s in His heaven – all’s right with the world!” It faces the world’s dilemmas squarely. Yet, unlike modern realism, which ends in despair, it has answers for the dilemmas. And unlike modern romanticism, its answers are not optimism without a sufficient base, not hope hung in a vacuum. So we would say at once, to twentieth-century people: the Bible is a tough-fibered book.

He looks at various aspects of this, and says:

The Christian’s task is to show forth, and act upon, the character of God. The Christian should not be romantic toward sin and the lostness of the world; in his home, society, church, organizations and relationships, he should implement judgment when necessary—but with the simultaneous motives of righteousness and love.

Once we see the Bible’s realism, we can understand why the Reformation produced a democracy of checks and balances. A Christian does not trust even himself with unlimited power. Calvin pointed out that because men are sinners, it is better to be governed by the many rather than the few or a single man. Every Christian organization and every state built on the Reformation mentality is built to allow men freedom under God, but not unlimited freedom. Unlimited freedom will not work in a lost world; some structure and form are necessary.

Schaeffer than speaks about “sin and the cruelty of utopianism.” He says we must take sin seriously, but we also must be realistic about who we are as fallen but redeemed creatures:

Bible-believing Christians should never have the reaction designated by the term shocked. There is a type of Christian who constantly draws himself or herself up and declares, “I am shocked.” If he is, he is not reacting to reality as he should, for it is as much against the teaching of Scripture to romanticize men, himself or others as to explain away sin. On the one hand, we should not view men with a cynical eye, seeing them only as meaningless products of chance; but on the other hand, we should not go to the opposite extreme of seeing them romantically.

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