Some people may have a perception of Christianity that it must be overwhelmingly polite and “nice.” This is certainly not the case.
In a previous post, I talked about how moralism (legalism/perfectionism) and grace are truly different religions.
Who is God?
MORALISM: God is fundamentally nice. (There are other versions of God presented in various churches, but I am specifically addressing the polite doormat version of God implied in some churches.)
GRACE: God is good and true. Grace does not mean tip-toeing around what is true. Grace is fully loving, fully truthful, and aimed in the direction of redemption and growth. If you believe God is nice, you have to edit the Bible. You have to remove the uncouth and inappropriate and hard to explain Scripture passages. If you believe God is gracious and in the business of redeeming fractured creation, you can face all of the Bible without embarrassment.
For many years, I realized that my fundamentalist church was stepping around difficult parts of the Bible that didn’t fit with a “nice” vision of God. As a young man, I wondered why we couldn’t talk about the story of Judah and Tamar. I wondered why I never heard a sermon about David and Bathsheba. I wondered why the sermons I heard about Rahab were politely edited. I wondered why the intensely romantic and quite probably sexual story of Ruth and Boaz was skipped or glossed over. I wondered why we couldn’t honestly address the intensely awkward situation of Joseph and Mary, and all that meant in their day.
But as a brand new pastor, my eyes were opened as I was preparing for Advent messages and realized that all of these stories and characters that were not “nice” enough to talk about honestly in church were the very characters God used to come to earth as a man. Matthew 1 presents the genealogy of Jesus. We can certainly argue over this, but I find it very difficult to take Matthew 1 as an accident God was unaware of. I believe God intentionally came to earth through this specific lineup of people. This was a lifechanging realization for me. Jesus was not simply a “friend of sinners” or a man “tempted in all points like as we are, without sin” as a separate topic or as an unrelated fact. Jesus came to us through a long line of sinners who God used, and to see it any other way that is more “nice” or “polite” is to completely miss the point of who Jesus is.