This post is part of a series that will apply the truth of the Gospel to lies I believed. The greatest jewel we could possibly have is the Gospel who is Jesus Christ. As such, I believe some of the greatest lies we believe are about the Gospel. When we believe them we make the jewel dull and ordinary. We make the Gospel much less then what it is. This is my attempt to name some of those lies, so that the beautiful facets of the Gospel may shine through the darkness of the lies we believe.
Lie #1: “I Have a Boring Testimony”
I wasn’t an ax murder. I wasn’t a drug addict. I wasn’t a prostitute. My testimony is boring. I remember hearing stories of people who had struggled with serious “sins” and then claimed to be radically changed by Jesus. They seemed to capture people with this statement: “If I can change then so can you.” However, when I looked at my testimony it was filled with trying to follow the rules and being a good kid. When I would tell my story, people seemed disinterested. I captured people with boredom. The irony is that saying, “I have a boring testimony,” revealed in me a very deep sin that actually uncovered a very compelling testimony. The sin was self-righteousness.
I knew Jesus had died for my sins; the problem was I couldn’t point to specific sins in my life that he died for. Welcome to self-righteousness. I wasn’t claiming perfection, but I was ranking my sin whether I wanted to admit that or not. I didn’t condemn ax murders or drug addicts or prostitutes to hell, but I did judge them by not putting myself on the same level as them. I did this the moment I said, “I have a boring testimony.” I also minimized sin. I would say, "I know everyone is a sinner before God, but there are sins with worse consequences. Plus when I do the right thing it is honestly because I love Jesus." There are two problems with that statement. First, I failed to see that the greatest consequence of sin is separation from God which all sinners face whether you killed someone or told a white lie. Focusing on earthly consequences showed that I didn't fully experience the full weight of what it meant to be separated from God. Second, I had to realize that my love for Jesus wasn't rooted in the reality that he loved me, it was rooted out of fear of failure and drudging obedience. This all screams self righteousness. The danger of being self-righteous is that you usually don’t know it. Our fear that other people will think our testimony is boring convinces us that we really have a boring testimony. We have to focus on what God thinks of our testimony, because it is his story anyways. Think about that for a moment. Saying “I have a boring testimony” can be stated this way “God has a boring story.”
There were self-righteous people in the bible called Pharisees. These people followed all the rules and were genuinely concerned about doing the right thing, but they also sought after reputations and acted out of fear of what others thought of them. In doing so they judged others without mercy. If you read about them you will think “they will never change.” My testimony is that I was like the Pharisees. I was a self-righteous punk who judged and minimized the grace of God and my sin. However, the Gospel changed and is changing me. That is anything but boring.
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