Thought #45,623,501...

Just begun now reading 'Praying Successfully' by Charles Spurgeon, to get a taster of what a man who we've heard so much about, who lead at church at the ridiculous age of 18ish, had to say in text form.

But this is not my random thought, which has been completed via reading something he says.

I should say, having come back to this point in this post, if you are looking for deep insight, or something interesting to read, stop here. Go the the list of blogs on the left and read them instead. Do you ever have moments when something in your mind makes perfect sense to you, then when you share it, its significance evaporates? Well, the main worth this blog has is an example of this! Anyway...just some thoughts...

There are two ways we get to heaven: Number 1 (as Spurgeon writes) is to live a perfect life. Number 2 is to accept what Jesus has done for us on the cross and trust him for our righteousness, and so on.

I often put this to non-christians (well, the occasional times I get to explain the gospel to my <5 friends). There are two ways...etc etc. The first way would be fine, and we need look no further if it is the case -we have done nothing wrong so far in this life. But, who can say they are sinless so far? Even someone without any acceptance of the possibility of the gospel will hopefully admit they once did something wrong. So we are left with the Second option. [Continue gospel presentation. Questions recommended rather than a monologue].

However, my thought becomes yet more obscure. I find then this conversation often can tangent into a discussion of what a 'perfect' life looks like. And then I often talk about Jesus, and how its not rules and regulations, but our thoughts and motives -greed, selfishness, anger. This is correct I'm sure, but it doesn't seem to cut it with my fellow converse-ee.

But - and yes this post is all for this one simple thought - an alternative answer might be to point out that the difficulty we have in answering this question, or agreeing to it, just goes to show how incapable of living a perfect life we are. We don't even understand what a perfect life might look like -outside of what we see recorded in the gospels. Such is our state as rebellious human beings that we cannot even work out what a perfect life would consist of, let alone live it out. Even then, though I see Jesus' example, I still just don't get the living a perfect life thing. I have some idea, but its often not what I would guess -Jesus always responds differently to how I would.

Rather than giving a long answer, next time I might just simply point out that I don't know what a perfect looks like, I'm not completely sure -the whole concept if foreign to me. The difficulty we have in describing it shows that it is not in our nature to live a life comparable to the life lived by Jesus, making him acceptable to God.

I don't feel I've explained it well though... back to the conversation, one might point this out, suggesting it as roof we are naturally 'bad' people -rather than all good, and that some people just "turn out messed up for some reason I can't explain/science can explain"- is the fact we cannot even agree on what a perfect life might look like.

And if they do come up with a definition, then maybe ask if they think they fulfill it...I imagine they don't come up to their own standards either, let alone Gods. Then pray they'd see their need for the Cross of Christ.

Just a thought...