Expert: Brian Thompson - 9/13/2009

Question
QUESTION: Why do Christians take such joy in the idea that they are totally depraved sinners in the view of an angry God who will cast them into endless torment for the slightest sin? (I don't know if this representative of your form of Christianity, but it's the Christianity I was brought up with.)

ANSWER: What a peculiar idea of Christianity. I take no joy in the idea I am a sinner redeemed by Christ. My joy is in my redemption because I am no longer subject to the penalty of failing to fall into line with God's plan

Christianity is a relationship with Christ, that is Jesus, who is our saviour, who redeemed us from a sinful nature. It is true that every human being is a sinner because they are separated from God, but Jesus made a way to overcome that separation. God could only be described as angry with those who don't want to accept Jesus.

I want you to know Jesus and know the love I feel because I have embraced Jesus, so my prayer is that Jesus will reveal himself to you. The Scripture tells us there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus for those who believe.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: If we are all sinners how can we please God? If nothing we do matches up to God's standards why do anything good at all? In fact how could we even know the difference between right and wrong?

Answer
We please God by accepting Jesus, the sacrifice he provided. God isn't interested in mankind trying to please him because he has provided the appropriate way to relate to him. For at least a thousand years God observed man attempting to cover their sins in a religious system and as a result he provided a better method, because no matter what these people did they went back to what they had done before, the system didn't work. We all know right from wrong, doing right and avoiding wrong is something else, this is because we are basicly selfish.

I sense in your question you are angry. God is love, unconditional love and God is holy. Man does not possess these qualities so the only way a relationship between man and God could work is if God provided a way to cover man's failings and this he did through Jesus. By believing in Jesus and openly professing that belief we take on the covering that allows us to approach God through Jesus and then without trying we do things that please God