The Difference Christ Makes
In Your Understanding of Human Nature

"I'm glad to discover that Christians are people. At this retreat this week, I've learned that we don't have to brace ourselves and be 'Christians!' "

   These words were spoken by an intelligent, attractive woman in her thirties, who had waited until next to the last day of the retreat to become a follower of Jesus Christ. She had agreed to come, out of respect for a friend, who is an integral part of our Cedar Lake, Indiana, retreat every year. But all week long, she had stayed on the fringes and I knew that inwardly at least, she maintained a raised eyebrow about all Christians. Happily, during this one week out of the year, my meetings are under no organizational auspices. We meet merely as a group of people who see their need for a better look at Jesus Christ as He really is. We don't go overboard on special music, we don't preach, we laugh a lot, and sometimes we weep. We don't attempt to pour the personalities of

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new Christians into a mold. Everyone participates. I have intentionally kept this week apart for those dear pagans and recent converts who, like myself only a few years ago, are convinced that Christians have to be peculiar and eccentric and stuffy.

   But Christians are people.

   And I believe one of the reasons why outsiders get a distorted idea about us is because of our appalling lack of understanding of human nature as it really is.

   Those Christians who go about spouting "humble phrases" in which they piously speak of themselves as "worms," and are unable to carry a conversation about any other subject but religion, are damaging to the cause of Christ. In the first place, they are being dreadfully "human" when they run themselves down in order to convince others of their "humility." This is, in reality, ego at its flaming worst. Jesus Christ did not die to save worms. He died to save people created in His image.

   Haven't your heard the reply, when you have given an honest compliment, "Oh, I did nothing. I'm just a nobody. The Lord did it all?" Look at that sentence. There are two references to I and only one to the Lord! When we run ourselves down on the phony premise that we are glorifying the Lord, we are actually only calling attention to ourselves. A long time ago, the Lord informed me that when someone compliments me, I am merely to be a polite human being and reply, "Thank you." Nothing more. If Christ is really in control of our lives, we don't need to remind people that He is. It shows. We can go on about His business, mainly ignoring ourselves. No need to praise ourselves. No need to run ourselves down.

   The Bible says that we are to be a "peculiar people." But the dictionary definition of "peculiar" is "to be owned." We are to be owned by Jesus Christ and relax about trying to convince people of our piety.

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   This quick-thinking young woman had watched us all during the entire week of the retreat. She recognized her own humanity and longed for the companionship of other people like herself. She discovered during the week that here at least fifty-five Christians lived together for seven days and acted like people.

   She began to feel at home with us. And certainly, except for the fact that until nearly the last day she had not accepted Christ as her Saviour, indeed, we all were just like her. She was a sinner who had not yet put her faith in Christ. We were sinners who had done it and were coming to Him daily for further cleansing.

   Human nature is not a loathsome thing. When the Bible tells us that in our "flesh dwells no good thing," this does not mean that we have no inherent human generosity or kindness. No pleasant traits at all. It merely means that "in our flesh" until Christ comes to indwell it, is no righteousness of the caliber of the righteousness of God. The Bible infers that in human nature is a kind of righteousness. But then it realistically clarifies the matter by informing us that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" beside the righteousness of God Himself.

   Christian human nature has a right to dream and plan and think. Many Christians are so afraid that someone won't think they operate entirely on divine guidance, that they become stiff and unsociable and vague. I remember hearing about a conversation between a young Bible school student and a friend of mine. My friend, an older man, who was a brand new Christian, was having dinner with the young fellow when he spotted some luscious looking pie on the counter. "Hey, I think I'll have some of that chocolate pie," my friend said casually. The tense, fearfully pious young man fell silent a moment, looked as vague and remote as a Thurber drawing

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of a sheep dog, and eventually muttered, "I was just asking the Lord if it is His will for me to have a piece, too."

   My friend, the new Christian, almost left the fold in dismay!

   And I can't say that I blame him.

   God has no plans whatever for making us unnatural. He is interested in giving us access to the supernatural. But this is a different thing.

   The Lord is intensely interested in every small thing which we do. Jesus told us that "the very hairs of (our) heads are numbered." I rest in this. But when a Christian is living in fellowship with God, his human personality begins to resemble Christ. And as the years go on, he finds it less and less necessary to ask for definite guidance about little things. If you know your husband well and have lived with him for years, you no longer need to ask him what he likes for dinner. You know. Because you know your husband.

   When we know Christ personally, we can walk with Him in a quiet, intimate certainty. His own human personality must have been lovable. People flocked to Him. Not once did Jesus Christ do the eccentric. He was all sanity. He was an easy Person to know. And to love. What an injustice we do Him now, when we who know Him go doggedly along acting according to our own Christian images of our pious selves! In every case Christianity gets the blame. And when Christianity is blamed, so is Christ Himself.

   Many who feel themselves to be of the highest "spiritual caliber," are seemingly blind to the true nature of human beings. And it is a constant amazement to me that this type of blindness is often found among the conservative, evangelical Christians.

   For example, when you, as a Christian, are shocked at anything anyone does, you are blind to the true nature of man. The Bible says that Jesus "knew what was in man." He was

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merely seeing men as they were, while He hung on the Cross. It required no special allotment of divine forgiveness for Jesus Christ to pray, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." In His very words as He prayed from the Cross for their forgiveness, He bothered, even in His agony, to express His understanding of human nature to us! ". . . they know not what they do." And yet, we look at the unconverted son-in-law who drinks and we are shocked. We somehow think he should not drink, just because he's married to such a sweet girl. Jesus didn't pray, "Father, forgive them, because I am such a spiritual Saviour." He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

   We Christians must not get so other-worldly that we leave this world behind to destroy itself. We must be patient with the dreams and hopes and desires of human nature. We must look for the positive qualities in everyone. But somehow, something must wake us up to the fact that reality is reality. And when you, as a Christian, expect your son-in-law, who is not a Christian, to be different in any way from just the way he is (without Christ), then you are saying that the "Cross of Jesus Christ is much ado about nothing." We must not expect non-believers to act as though they are believers!

   We must be startled into realizing that we diminish the necessity for Christian faith when we expect too much of those who do not have it.

   Certainly, the self-righteous attitude proves that we do not understand human nature as it really is. It declares only that because it would make life less shockable or easier for you, these persons simply shouldn't be this way. Constantly I stand amazed at the Christians who click their tongues at the millions of gallons of alcoholic beverages which are consumed in America. Why are they surprised? The people who consume it excessively don't know Christ! Are we crusading for

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improved human nature, or are we crusading for human nature to recognize it's need of the Saviour's Nature?

   Over and over again, I hear careless Christians speak of those outside Christ as "they." Not long ago I heard a much loved Christian speaker telling the story of how he tried to lead someone to Christ. I know the temptation to "get a laugh" from an audience, but when we yield to it in this way, we are making fun of someone for whom Christ died, and we set ourselves up as superior beings. This speaker was explaining how he brought the conversation around to Christ. "You know, they are pretty smart! We have to be smart, too, or they'll outwit us. And believe me, they can be tricky." His good fundamental audience chuckled obligingly and I wanted to cry. This man did not realize that he could have hurt the two hundred non-Christians who were in his audience. And most deplorable of all, I think, was the smug atmosphere which swept over the mainly Christian group. They reacted as though they were somehow different from them. In the smiles at his quip, I saw superiority. I saw self-approval. The last two expressions which should ever show on the faces of men and women who have truly faced their own need of a Saviour.

   How different was this man who spoke from the one whom he relegated to the nether-world of "unsaved theys"? No different at all! The speaker had simply united his helpless, sinful human nature to the sinless Nature of Christ. The other man had not. Otherwise, they were just the same.

   Is self-pity sin? Yes, it is. It is as far removed from the uncomplaining, unself-pitying attitude of God as He hung on the Cross as any attitude could possibly be. And yet, is there one Christian among us who has not for a time, at least, felt sorry for herself? For himself? Is excessive drinking a sin? Yes. But what is the difference in the basic human nature of the self-pitying Christian and the self-pitying alcoholic?

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   Is prejudice a sin? Yes, it is. But is there one among us who has never, even for a period, held prejudice closely to her heart, as she attempts to justify it by social conditions or background or some equally clever rationalization?

   The crooked, non-Christian politician in your town may hold bitter race prejudice in his heart. But if you hold it, too, how different are you from him in your human nature?

   Recently in a Chicago paper, I read this striking short news brief: "A big share of responsibility for the world's racial and social evils must be laid at the church's doorstep. Dr. E. H. Schalkhauser told a National Lutheran Evangelism conference the unwanted bundle will remain there until the church learns to practice what it preaches about salvation and redemption. Even though many church members 'go through the motions of regular worship on Sunday mornings and hold the correct doctrinal beliefs,' he said, 'many souls are being alienated from God forever because their cultural prejudices have been nursed so long that the prospect of total spiritual integration in heaven is a revolting thought.' "

   This man struck a deep note. And I'm sure it strikes deep into the heart of God, too.

   Many of us who are willing to fight over the inspiration of the Scriptures, live in direct opposition to what these Scriptures say. The Bible says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. One woman I know, who is a notorious defender of the Bible, refuses to allow her neighbor in her home if the neighbor is drinking. Is she fulfilling the law of love, according to the Scriptures? (Any alcoholic who hangs around a Christian is in his or her heart seeking Christ.)

   Once and for all we must get it straight that human nature is human nature and we all have it. A pathetically small percentage of the human race has received the Nature of Christ into that human nature. But, even so, we must under all circumstances accept people as being just people. One of the

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greatest injustices we can do our fellow man is either to expect too much or too little of him. God will give us the courage and the wisdom and the ability to accept him exactly as he is.

   It is more difficult, somehow, to accept the faulty human nature of a professing Christian. If a Christian stubs his spiritual toe and it gets found out, all manner of chaos breaks loose. And certainly, I believe strongly that we should live open, obedient lives. We do have the reputation of Jesus Christ in our human hands wherever we go. But by bitter experience I have learned that most Christians won't allow me just to be "people." And sometimes I prove my human nature by rebelling against it. But it is nevertheless true, that if someone who is known as a responsible Christian does or says a thing which is a blow to other Christians, the "pious" fur flies. And yet, the Lord told us firmly that we are not to judge one another.

   I have, in two particular instances, discovered unChristian attitudes and actions in two Christian leaders. But I thanked God from my heart that I knew they were just people, and I thanked Him for reminding me through their confidence in me, that I was just like them, too. If we accept Christian believers as being mere human beings, who have linked their lives to the Life of the Saviour, but who are still Christians in the making, we will do them a great justice. If we expect them to be supermen and superwomen, we diminish the need for Calvary in their lives.

   Anyone can be a Christian. Anyone can act like a Christian. Not because of what we are, in our human nature, but because of what Jesus Christ is like in His God Nature.

   In the next chapter, we will take a direct look at the Nature of God. Because surely, it is only in knowing what He is like that we can accept ourselves as we are. If your personality is directly under the control of Christ, you have access to His

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estimate of your own human nature. You have access to His estimate of the human nature of those you love. And His estimate of human nature neither minimizes nor exalts. He sees realistically, because He Himself is reality.

Chapter Sixteen  ||  Table of Contents