The
“god of 100%” is one that is a danger to the spiritual lives of many
Christians. What makes talking about this particular destructive view of God difficult is
that it seems plausible. Since God is perfection, and since He asks for our
complete loyalty, then we can best serve Him by setting up standards of
perfection and seeing to it that we obey them. This brings about two main
problems. This first is that it causes those who do not have the imagination or
experience to imagine what a true 100% looks like be satisfied before they should be. These see 100% as being “doing
the best I know how.” The problem lies
in the fact that “doing the best I can,” and true 100% obedience are two very
different things. The second problem occurs when this group imposes the 100%
philosophy on those who do have the imagination
and experience to imagine what a true 100% looks like.
It is a
terrifying experience to have 100% imposed on this second group and believe it.
To believe that we must be perfect before God will have any dealings with us
goes against exactly what the Bible teaches over and over; that God deals with
imperfect people with love and patience, guiding them and helping them and
forgiving them even in the middle of their mistakes. Christ commanded “learn of
Me," (Matt. 11:29). Learning necessarily involves making mistakes and
correcting them. It is a process. Even Paul stated, after so many years of
being a powerful apostle of Jesus:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his
resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I
have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press
on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me,” (Php. 3:10-12).
It
is certainly our goal to be God’s more fully and conformed to the
image of Christ. But it is a process, a journey. We don’t come out of the
waters of baptism and never make a mistake again. If 100% perfection were what
we were measured against, then Christ and He alone would have made it. Thankfully, He gave Himself for us that we might be continually cleansed in
His blood, causing God to see us as perfect even when we are not.
So
don’t fear the fact that you don’t measure up to 100%! We have been washed in
the blood. We are called to give our best for God because Jesus has saved us, not so He will. The hard part has
already been done for us, it is now our turn to give back all we can to Him.
