I occasionally drive past a church premises in Auckland, outside of which is a large sign proclaiming, what I guess is, a kind-of church motto - “Making Good People Better”. If the sign is to be taken seriously, which I’m sure the good people (or is that, better people?) who meet inside those premises would want us to do, it tells me plenty about the message I’ll hear, and won’t hear, should I wander in there one Sunday. For instance, it tells me that irrespective of my state of degradation and depth of sinfulness, I will be affirmed as a “good person”. On the other hand, of course, I might find that I am not welcomed at all, unless I can first demonstrate that I am indeed a good person. Whichever of these possibilities is true, these folk begin with mankind who are “good”.

The great problem with this is that it is complete unbiblical nonsense. As it  happens, I had just been reading quite a different description of the unsaved me. Paul began his Roman epistle by using the following words to describe who I am without Christ (Romans 1, 2 & 3) … futile, foolish, dark-hearted, corruptible, unclean, dishonourable, vile, shameful, ignorant, debased, unrighteous, immoral, wicked, deceived, evil, disobedient, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, inexcusable … and as if that isn’t enough to make me feel bad, Paul is unrelenting … deserving of death, condemned, hard, impenitent, self-seeking, unprofitable … and I’ve only got as far as the third chapter where he tells me that I and my fellow man are … none good and guilty before God! It seems quite obvious, God starts with people who are decidedly “bad!”

Then it seems that the ‘good’ folk of my drive-by church have this lofty vision for my life … to make me better! The word “better”, of course, is a lot more subjective than the word “good”, but it still somehow seems to fall way short of a destiny so indescribable that “Eyes haven't seen, ears haven't heard, neither has it entered the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It didn’t help at all that I had been musing upon John’s vision of the heavenly throne room in The Revelation (4:4) - where victorious believers, overcomers rewarded with crowns, sat on thrones reigning with Christ. It would most certainly be a massive understatement to declare that these reigning-saints had merely been made “better”!

All this has highlighted a great challenge that faces the Church, and may have done so for the past 2000 years; as Paul said to the a local church he especially loved, “I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel (or purpose) of God.” (Acts 20:27) From Traditional to Pentecostal, churches may indeed have an excellent theology concerning these things; but spend any amount of time in their services and one would believe that they occupy but a portion of the full spectrum, shunning the uttermost ends, and presenting to their congregants their own version of “good to better”.

The full spectrum of God’s purpose for man begins with man’s inherent beggarly condition. Failure to know that about ourselves, at first, compromises the genuineness of our repentance; secondly, it undermines the cross of Jesus, the horror he took upon himself and the wonder of the exchange that took place on Calvary; and thirdly, weakens the power of worship - for true worship flows from the depths of humility and gratitude.

At the other end of the spectrum we see redeemed mankind reigning and worshipping as kings and priests in the glorious throne room of God. Failure to know that this is our destiny can impair so much of our journey. The most powerful motivation for discipleship and sold-out living occurs when the enormity of our rescue and the vastness of our destiny is fully understood (Revelation 5:10). Undoubtedly, it was a revelation of this full spectrum of God’s purpose for us that Hannah rejoiced in when she sang, “He … lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.” (1 Samuel 2:8).