I am often grieved by the popular “brokenness” that is such the trend in Christendom these days. It seems that every other believer you meet is declaring how sad and pathetic and broken he or she is. They seem to take great pains in letting you know the extreme extent of their nothingness. Is this what Christ died for?
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10:10 We were empty, wretched, sinful and broken, without hope but now are we new creations – full and justified, righteous and whole. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. The Father, looking through the lens of Christ, declares us righteous and rather than rejoicing and running forward in new life we shrink back in horror, shaking our heads in protest, screaming “Not me!”
Imagine an orphan, living as a child slave in the slums of the third world, filthy, hungry, and plagued with disease. A compassionate individual, looking through love, responds by selling most of what he has, enduring torture, and humiliation and near death to purchase and secure the child’s freedom and adoption. The child is overjoyed and accepts his new freedom with sincere gratitude. However, to the father’s dismay, the child refuses to take off his tattered rags, declines to own the father’s gifts and, perhaps worst of all, refuses to be called by the family name preferring the title of slave.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:” 1 Jn. 3:1 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God,” and it does not honor or glorify Him to declare ourselves to be anything less. This false humility is merely sinful pride turned inside out. True humility owns all that the Father has declared us to be but does so with the understanding that it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Brokenness is but a temporary transition toward that awareness.
