In Sunday school, we plastered Bible characters onto flannel boards and sang This Is My Father’s World accompanied by a half-tuned, hand-me-down piano. And our teachers suggested that being good enough to get into heaven comes mostly by trying exceptionally hard to behave yourself.
I wouldn’t expect elementary-aged kids to have the theological acumen to grasp biblical nuances. But from my vantage point of years past Sunday school, I now see glaring omissions of truths I should have heard even as a child. Simply put, some things got left out—some very important things.
My dad worked his way up the ladder in the legal profession. First, he was an attorney, then a district attorney, then a Superior Court judge, with a brief stint in the Georgia House of Representatives in between all that. In his early days as an attorney, I was along for the ride one day when he met with a client who had hired my dad to represent him.
Now out on bail, the man had been arrested and charged with making moonshine. I barely knew what moonshine was, just that it was scandalous and that it looked and smelled like turpentine. And I’d never seen a real moonshine still until that day.
Jesus never said, “Clean yourself up, then I’ll pay you some attention.” We’ve distorted grace when we think we can move closer to God only after we fix ourselves. Good luck with that. Even our best foot forward leaves us without a leg to stand on. God is looking for more than a moral facelift. He’s looking for an inner change of our identity—a change that can only come through Jesus. It’s our insides that need cleaning first, but we seem hard-wired to start with our outsides. Maybe we think if we look good, then we’ll be good.
But Jesus recognizes our helplessness. That’s why His offer is so loving. Just come as you are, nothing extra required. Our movement toward Jesus is not based on any virtuous contribution from us. And Jesus knows that.
