Most of us have no idea how utterly sinful we really are. We continually overinflate our perception of our own holiness. That’s why we need stark reminders like the one Jesus gave to spiritually lazy people like us:
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20).
But some of us go the other extreme, and continually abuse ourselves over our sin. We refuse to accept the grace of God, refuse to believe he could bless and use depraved people like us, and we end up paralyzed. That’s why we need stories like Abraham, Moses, and David to remind us how many utterly sinful people he’s called, empowered, and sent.
That’s what Don Carson observes:
The Bible itself includes genres and passages that foster absolutist thinking and others that warn us to recognize how flawed and inconsistent are even those we recognize as the fathers of the faithful. Certainly we need both species of biblical literature, and most Christians see a sign of God’s kindness in the Bible that provides us with both.
The narratives without the absolutes might seem to sanction moral indifference: “If even a man after God’s own heart like David can fall so disastrously, it cannot be too surprising if we lesser mortals tumble from time to time.” The absolutes without the narratives might either generate despair (“Who can live up to the impossibly high standards of Ps 1?”) or produce self-righteous fools (“It’s a good thing the Bible has standards, and I have to say I thank God I am not as other people are.”).
We need the unflinching standards of the absolute polarities to keep us from moral flabbiness, and in this broken world, we need the candid realism of the narratives to keep us from both arrogance and despair.
Are you paralyzed by your sin and failure? You need to read some more stories.