The Christian life is the graced process of becoming in practice what we already are in position.  There is mystery and deep complexity to these truths – not the entangling, cutting complexity of a thorn-bush, but the cooling, comforting complexity of ocean waves on a warm summer’s day.  It is unspeakably refreshing to contemplate the depths of our salvation in Christ, to see ourselves the way our Father sees us, the way we really are.

This week while taking a wonderful class in apologetics, I came in the assigned reading to a soul-nourishing statement from Francis Schaeffer, one with loads of import for apologetic methodology.  In his 1968 lecture entitled “Death in the City,” Schaefer reflected on the weaknesses of evangelical preaching in his day and said, “I am convinced that one of the great weaknesses in evangelical preaching in the last years is that we have lost sight of the biblical fact that man is wonderful” – cited in Christian Apologetics, Volume 2: From 1500, William Edgar and K. Scott Oliphint, eds. (Wheaton:  Crossway, 2011), p. 554.  

Fifty two years later, ours is a time in which much “evangelical” preaching essentially tries to flatter people into the kingdom.  In Reformed circles especially, we might be so wary of such practice that we pull hard with rhetorical violence in the other direction, and preach “total depravity” in such a way that leaves hearers feeling not only convicted of sin, but divested of any sense of their inherent value and dignity, feeling that humanity in general and they as particular humans are not wonderful – they’re worthless.  What is often said to balance the “bad news” of our sinfulness with the “good news” of the gospel, is that despite our worthlessness, God loves us in his Son and calls us, based on Christ’s worthiness, to repentance and faith and entrance into the kingdom. But is this approach really biblical? Or does it do serious damage in the name of explicating the doctrine of human depravity?        

What follows is a re-post from a few years ago, but which I thought of when I read Schaeffer’s powerful words.  While Schaeffer was, as he so often did, giving us cultural analysis, my words are a humble attempt to get at the pastoral and deeply personal nature of the issues involved.  

Worthless.  Disgusting. Useless.  What would you think of a father who describes his children with these words?  And what if this father encourages his children to describe themselves and one another the same way, especially when speaking to him?  Such “fatherhood” deserves the deepest contempt and its victims the deepest compassion. Stunningly, it is this contemptible version of fatherhood which some Christians attribute to our Heavenly Father; even more stunningly, they consider this attribution a biblically based act of praise.

Perhaps you’ve heard a pastor say something like this as he leads the congregation in corporate prayer:  “Lord, we’re just worthless sinners, filthy beggars, but thank you for loving us in your Son.” If you are a Christian, perhaps you’ve prayed this way about yourself.  Surely such words are intended to express a serious, biblical understanding of God’s holiness and our unworthiness as sinners to be His children.

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