Steven Madonna is in Year 2 of the Send SFL Residency Program at Family Church.

In a world of religious pluralism, it is unpopular to claim an exclusive answer to life’s universal problems. I remember when I first became born again at age seventeen – my theology was a mess and I was confused about my next steps of faith. I turned to the church of my childhood, hoping to navigate my way through years of unanswered questions using my new faith in Christ as a filter, but I was met with disappointment. I remember standing in the foyer of my home church, talking with the associate pastor, asking him if people of other religions can be saved without repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. I was waiting to hear the answer I now know to be true, hoping that I would not have to leave the comfort of familiar surroundings.

Unfortunately his answer was a disappointing, yes. He claimed that people, based on their own merit and efforts, could establish righteousness outside of Christ that was pleasing to God the Father. He claimed that people could bring themselves out of their own brokenness. His logic was that they did the best with what they had and were actually following Christ without even realizing it. By their good works and good intentions, they were living in the spirit of Christ.

Although at seventeen I did not know much, I did know that this way of thinking could not be further from the Gospel of Christ. I do not think that a “doing better and trying harder” mentality is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the church in Galatia, encouraging them to never forget the Gospel that he first preached to them. Nor do I think he believed that obtaining righteousness outside of Christ was even possible when he wrote “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV). The way that the apostle Paul thought, along with the rest of the apostles of Christ, called for a radical reorientation of religion where the focus was no longer on the effort people made towards connecting with whatever god they attempted to please; rather the focus shifted to what the one true God had done for them in Christ.

Establishing righteousness outside of Christ to bring them out of the brokenness of life was not only no longer an option for the early church; it was a waste of time. When the prophet Isaiah wrote that our good works are like filthy rags in the sight of God, I picture a man with soiled, disgusting clothes who attempts to mask the smell and stain of his garments by putting on newer and cleaner clothes. Over time, the grime eventually seeps through and continues to soil the once new clothes. Just as the man never really deals with the true nature of his problem but only covers it, we attempt to cover our brokenness with our good works, never recognizing our need for a Savior and a pure righteousness apart from us that brings life and purity of heart. I believe this is the same thing Paul references in Philippians 3:8 when he writes:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

The call of repentance is for all who hear to stop trying to bring themselves out of brokenness and put their faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done.

We also need to remember that the grace of God freely given to us who believe comes with a promise. This is that the Spirit of God will indwell us and lead us to live a life of spiritual sacrifice, for it is just as Christ says “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25, ESV). Going back to Paul’s words in Galatians, we see that repentance and faith in Jesus were not just intellectual assent, but involved a complete transformation of identity and demanded a death to self. Paul was no longer Paul; he had been crucified with Christ. I think as Christians it should be hard for us to picture a repentance that is somehow separate from the crucifixion of our old desires and ways of thinking. Also Paul’s life was no longer centered on a faith and trust in himself. That was the old Paul. The new Paul lived a life that was centered on faith in the Son of God and his sacrificial love. Ultimately this repentance and faith in Christ become for us not only the means by which we receive salvation, but also the continual vehicle that leads to our sanctification. We do not grow in grace through “doing better and trying harder,” but rather by believing upon Christ and reorienting ourselves with the new identity and direction he has given us through his Gospel.