Further than you want to go

Sin, choice, and the high cost of grace in the court of public opinion

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. ”

Ravi Zacharias

That quote, spoken by a friend, without credit to Zacharias, has been familiar to me for years.

It came to mind the other day because I wanted to share it with someone… but I couldn’t remember it.

So I Googled it.

Surprise.

The words don’t belong to my friend.

They belong to Ravi.

Turns out that those words belonging to Ravi is the most important part of the quote.

Go figure.

Balancing on pedestals is tricky…

For those of you who don’t know, Ravi Zacharias is a person who became famous as a Christian, for being a Christian, among Christians.

He did all the things that famous Christians of our present Church age do.

He was a wildly charismatic evangelist.

He founded an organization.

He wrote books.

He said (almost) memorable things that others would sometimes share.

He grew a corporate-franchise-in-the-name-of-Jesus.

I don’t think he wore sneakers or had a podcast. If he were a bit younger he probably would have.

None of which is what he will be remembered for.

What he will be remembered for is that as his life wound to a close, and following his death, it became apparent that he had existed as a sexual predator for years upon years.

Evidence emerged that more than 50 women had credible claims of misconduct, sexual predation, spiritual abuse, and rape.

Over 50.

Rape.

The organization collapsed.

Lives collapsed.

Everything stopped.

The RZIM website, at present.

Do-not-pass-go.

Do-not-receive-200-dollars.

This is the man who stood under the brightest lights, on the largest platforms, linked his name to the name of Jesus, looked his audience in the eye and said, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. ”

My point is simple.

If anyone knew… it was him.

Normally, a betrayal or event like this removes a teacher’s credibility. The quality of their witness.

I think here we have the opposite.

If anyone knows the cost, method, and pattern of sin, it’s Ravi.

We should listen.

So why don’t we?

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I think we are, on the whole, terrified of grace.

The need for it.

The reality of our brokenness.

We, consistently, as-a-whole-church, want our leaders and examples to look like anything other than someone who desperately needs God.

If I could change one thing about the church it would be that.

So what happens is that our friends that administer or teach in the church have to look really really really good… or they cant have jobs.

Because we fire them.

So they do.

They learn how to look really good.

Because they aren’t given room to be weak, by you or me.

They aren’t given room to demonstrate how to need God, by you or me.

So they break.

Luke 18:9-14

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else:  “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer^: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector!  I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We have a problem.

We don’t listen to tax collectors.

We only listen to Pharisees.

And when a teacher is revealed to have been a bit more tax collector than Pharisee… we forget what they had to say about being a tax collector.

That doesn’t work.

Not if we’re trying to learn how to deal with sin.

I see some obvious push back, so let me address that.

I am not saying we want men or women lost in sin to in anyway be our teachers. I am not validating sin. I am not offering a new version of an old heresy and saying ‘sin is good if it helps us avoid more sin.’

None of that.

I am saying that our systems of ministry and leadership are in many cases so far from allowing ‘a healthy Christian life’ that instead of Christian leaders demonstrating their Christianity in the profound wrestling with inadequacy and motivational sin that affects all men and women… everyone gets stuck playing church.

Burdened with an entirely unchristian ideology that tells them to look perfect, at all times.

Everybody.

The sheep. The wolves. Smiles all around.

…tell me, how are we supposed to tell wolves from the sheep if everyone has the same smile?

…is it possible that a biblically motivated willingness to be open, to share weakness, and to not hide from the fact that we wrestle with sin… could keep everyone safer?

…is it reasonable, the thought that if our leaders - our examples - were able to show us how to be Christian in addressing weakness… that maybe the wolves would have a harder time faking that?

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Look, it just doesn’t work as it is.

We don’t allow weakness in our leaders.

So we keep having leaders collapse under hidden weakness.

Then, instead of trying to learn from the profound failures in our midst… deriving value from the profound cost they create… we pretend they didn’t happen.

So it happens again.

I mean, by all means, when the next ‘Hey-Everyone-Look-At-Me’ Christian leader is revealed to be a bit more than a narcissist and lost in darkest sin… for sure, probably lose all their teaching on how great they are.

But on the reality of sin?

That probably deserves a listen.

But that’s not what we do.

Instead, to the words they gave us, the ones the are uniquely positioned to give us… about sin… we wipe their names from them.

Let me ask you a question…

What would happen if you ran your own life that way?

Boom.

Right?

If you aren’t able to admit you have a sin issue you can’t deal with your sin issue.

If you can’t learn from your sin issue you can’t avoid repeating it.

So you repeat it.

So it gets worse.

It is, without any deviance at all, the exact pattern we see with addiction.

Exactly.

That’s super interesting.

I wonder, what will it take for us to hit bottom?

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All scripture referenced is NLT unless otherwise noted. I prefer NLT for postural discussion as it is both reasonably rigorous while retaining a conversational tone.

For study I strongly encourage the use of original language tools, multiple translations, and rigorous critical thought.

Please remember that when you read the Bible in English you are always reading someone else’s theological interpretation of the text.