Depressed and/or anxious Christians often feel, as Brennan Manning calls it, “the inner voice of shame,” despite what Christ’s done for us.
We’re plagued with feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and continually wonder, “How could God really love me?”
We know the answers, but we don’t feel them.
So we work to self-justify, and we’re particularly prone to the dark path of perfectionism and legalism — often promoted by evangelical churches who’d never fess up to their message.
But as we find that path increasingly oppressive (because it truly is a demonic message), we tend to spiral.
“It’s clear I’ll never be good enough for God,” we resolve, and then we despair of salvation, of life, we just despair.
Self-justifying. It’s something we all do, even when we don’t know it.
I’ve really been enjoying Tim Keller’s new book Forgive, and this passage on fig leaves struck me as a nice reminder.
Legalism, any attempt to self-justify, any heavy yoke the church imposes are just oppressive and inadequate fig leaves, masquerading as your route to salvation — they are fig leaves like those Adam and Eve relied on.
Keller writes:
“Your perfectionism is a fig leaf. Your work is a fig leaf. Your holding onto your youth is a fig leaf. Your desperate need for approval is a fig leaf. We are like Lady Macbeth running around saying, ‘Out, damned spot! All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’
…. But fig leaves don’t work. Imagine for a moment trying to make do with an actual garment of fig leaves for clothing. Such a garment would be always falling apart.”
The answer, of course, to the fig leaf problem is always Christ’s loving and total forgiveness of everything past, present, and future that you will do.
Everything.
As Brennan Manning says, take God’s evaluation of yourself instead of your own, and God expects even more failure from you than you do!
No need to self-justify when you have Christ doing the justifying. He’s a lot better at it.
It’s one of the biggest Christian cliches, but you truly are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Now and always.
You are his child.
And we forgive our children of anything, at any time, and forever and always, because we love them and they are our children.
