Do not think that you are a growing Christian if you are not destroying your lust. If you don’t find any opposition in your heart from lust, it’s not because you’ve conquered it. It’s because you’ve made peace with it. And that makes you like any number of professing “Christians” today. For whatever reason, it’s really trendy and hip in Christian circles to make a principle of being ungodly. It’s called being “authentic.” And if laziness, fornication, and selfishness are the marks of the true, “authentic” Christian man, we have them by the truckload.

 

This kind of “Christian” has two problems. First, he has a very impotent understanding of sin. And so he swallows his sin and the sins of his culture. He’s so used to the taste of sin that it never occurs to him to vomit it back out. It’s sweet to him. It goes down easy. His Christianity is contained in saying, “Grace, grace, grace!” to himself as a cover for his own worldliness. But to use the blood of Jesus, which is meant to cleanse us; to use the exaltation of Christ, which is meant to give us repentance; to use the grace of God which teaches us to deny all ungodliness—to use all these as cover for sin is disgusting. It’s that kind of rebellion that brings a man’s soul into jeopardy and should make him wonder whether or not he’s a Christian at all.

 

The second problem he has is that he’s actually a hypocrite. He’s the farthest thing from “authentic.” He lies to the whole world about Jesus. He claims to know the grace of God, but he is an ungracious man. He claims to have the Holy Spirit living in his heart, but inside his heart there is nothing but lust and wickedness. He postures himself as a nice, sweet, humble guy but he couldn’t be more proud and self-righteous. He’s only copping a posture. He’s fooled everyone. But God is not fooled.

 

We have many in our day who profess to know Jesus and to be authentic Christians. What we don’t have are Christians that understand what it means to deny themselves and take up their cross. What we don’t have are Christians that are committed to killing their lust. What we don’t have are Christians that understand the power and nature of the Holy Spirit. What we don’t have are authentic Christians. Take care that you’re not found a hypocrite.