THE GOAL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT TO STOP SINNING
By: Bob George
Friends

The Christian world is obsessed with sin. It's all we talk about. Most of our preaching and teaching is directed toward getting people to quit sinning. Are you ready for a really shocking statement? The goal of the Christian life is not to stop sinning! To use the analogy of the starving man, most Christian teaching is like a person following a starving man around saying, "You stay out of the garbage! Do you hear me? Don't eat the garbage! You stay out of there!" Look, when you're truly hungry, you'll eat anything ­ even garbage.

What should you do? I promise you: If you will get that man into the cafeteria line, and he begins experiencing what real, good food is like, he won't be nostalgically dreaming about the garbage out back.

What is it that every human being needs? The life of Christ! And not just our initial receiving of Him into our lives; we need to experience daily the reality of knowing Christ and walking with Him in a vibrant relationship.

It is only in comparison with the riches of knowing Christ that sin begins to lose its appeal. The longer that I am a Christian, the more I feel in my heart that sin is not just wrong, it is outright stupid. I feel so dumb for settling for anything less than experiencing Jesus Christ Himself every minute. Why should I ever wallow in the garbage when the Lord has laid a banquet table for me? And yet, the "stay-out-of-the-garbage" approach to Christian education predominates today. In other words, we continue to try to use the law to produce the Christian life.

The law was never given to make men right with God; it was given to show men their need so that they would turn to a Savior who would make them right with God.

There are devastating results of using the law in the Christian life:

First, we actually end up producing what we are trying to stop ­ sin. I Corinthians 15:56 says, "...the power of sin is the law" The law not only doesn't stop us from sinning, it actually stirs up more!

The second reason that the law is useless for producing the life that God desires is that it deals only with externals. God, we are told, is looking on man's heart, but the law only deals with his actions. If merely shaping up our actions were what God desired, then the Pharisees would have been His favorites.
The goal of the Christian life is knowing Christ and His deep real Love for you!