Moving Beyond Just Trying Harder

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about finding joy in holiness. As I've continued to think about that issue, I've come to see that one of the ways the devil has deceived the Church in that pursuit is by convincing us that the only way to gain real holiness is by simply trying harder. On the surface it sounds right, godly even. After all, spiritual discipline is an essential and important part of the Christian walk. Furthermore, when I read about how Jesus described walking with Him there is nothing easy about it. Every believer can share countless examples of life with Jesus requiring serious work and effort. Therefore, it seems perfectly logically that, when we're met with difficulties in our pursuit of genuine holiness we should simply try harder, keep striving, bear down and hope for breakthrough.

But the problem is, it doesn't work. Take a look at your own walk. Have you noticed that it seems the more you attempt to beat yourself into submission on a certain issue the more you seem to struggle with it? That sort of striving is worse than a dead end, it is a road that leads off the edge of a cliff. Our hearts can not endure a lifetime of that self abuse. They were never meant to.

In my previous post on holiness, I talked about the two wrongheaded ways we tend to approach pursuing holiness: legalism or moral relativism. If we approach the pursuit of holiness determined to beat ourselves into shape, to simply "try harder" until we see results, it's not hard to see how we wind up leaning in one of those two directions. Those who tend toward legalism have made the agreement that all it will take is bearing down a little more, being a little harsher on ourselves, and that somehow breakthrough will happen. Those who tend toward relativism see how brutal the legalist is with himself and decide they want no part in it, so they chuck the law out the window. Thus in many ways the legalist and the relativist are two sides of the same coin. They have each bought into the same lie, the only difference being that one lives enslaved to it and the other is terrified of finding himself in that same bondage.

The reason the "just try harder" approach doesn't work is because it drives deeper inside ourselves. On the outside it may look godly but it is the ultimate expression of humanism. It is the belief that transformation is not available from God but from ourselves. Jesus's death may be a free ticket into Heaven but beyond that "just try harder" denies the need for a savior. It lives under the belief that all the power of personal transformation is summed up in will power: that we as humans can force ourselves to become the new creation.

Perhaps worse, this approach denies the love of God. Instead of running to the arms of the Father in all of our shame and sinfulness so that He may turn our filthy rags to robes of righteousness, "just try harder" would have us perfect ourselves before we even think of approaching the Father. In Unspoken Sermons, George MacDonald writes about this very issue:

"How the earthly father would love a child who would creep into his room with angry, troubled face, and sit down at his feet, saying when asked what he wanted: "I feel so naughty, papa, and I want to get good"! Would he say to his child: "How dare you! Go away, and be good, and then come to me?" And shall we dare to think God would send us away if we came thus, and would not be pleased that we came, even if we were angry as Jonah? "

But what about spiritual discipline and the genuine hard work of following Christ? Am I suggesting we abandon those parts of the Christian life in favor sitting back doing nothing well we wait on God's transforming power? Absolutely not! The pursuit of holiness is exactly that: a pursuit. It takes work on our part but it is work done at the guidance and direction of Christ. The Christian life is neither us leaving everything to God while we sit back and make no effort (spiritual laziness) nor trying to do everything on our own apart from God (just try harder). It is God inviting us into an adventure, an intimate relationship, a holy partnership. The problem with "just try harder" is not that it requires hard work. It is that it demands we do the hard work apart from God.

"Just try harder" exists in a place of nervous anxiety forever wondering if we've now done enough, if we're now good enough, to please God. The genuine pusuit of holiness exists in the knowledge that while we still struggle with sin, God sees as we will be through the power of the Cross. It recognizes that while we have to daily put off the old man, we have been given the heart of flesh and that we are free from our sins. "Just try harder" is a burden and one too great for us to bear. The pursuit of genuine holiness is an invitation to life and freedom and a promise that someday our sin will be long forgotten.

A good way to tell which method you are living out of is to examine the fruit in your own life. Is how you're handling your sin producing shame, guilt and condemnation? If so, that's not from God. There is no condemnation in Christ. None! Real holiness will never deny sin but it will produce genuine repentence, intimacy with God and a changed life.

I believe that moving away from "just try harder" is a daily struggle. Like so many of the enemy's lies it is very close to the truth. But it's fruit is the exact opposite of genuine holiness and transformation. "Just try harder" will forever leave us stuck in the mess of our sin. God's holiness calls us out of our sin and into real freedom. I pray we will have the courage to follow that call.