SINCERITY AS BASIS OF ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD

When I read the proposition from Alexander Campbell sometime back that sincerity is the basis of one’s acceptance before God, I had misgivings as to its soundness. But the more I ponder the thesis the more convinced I am of its truth, especially in view of Campbell’s definition of sincerity.

Certainly he did not see sincerity as some pusillanimous attitude that lamely defends itself with “If I think I’m right, then I’m right.” Many there are who are satisfied with what they believe, who are not open to new ideas, and who do not want their convictions challenged. True, such ones may have convictions, but people are not truly sincere who are unwilling to examine their convictions. In Campbell’s vocabulary sincerity is a big word, one that can hardly be applied to those who so love the status quo that they resist all change. Such people are, of course, often respectable citizens and sometimes members of the Christian community, and it seems appropriate to describe them as sincere. But in such instances we might use the term too lightly.

Most of us have been taught that sincerity is no test of truth, no evidence of correctness of conduct. After all, one can sincerely take poison, thinking it is the needed medicine, only to reap a dire consequent. As the wise Solomon declares: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.” Most of us agree that to be right one must be sincere, for insincerity makes no one’s list of virtues; and yet one might be sincere and still be wrong. Most people are conscientious in what they do, whether it is trusting a friend or taking a new job, but they often discover that they were wrong.

All this is commonplace to life and it is folly to belabor the point. It is in applying this kind of thinking to religion (or one’s relationship to God) that we may be missing the mark. We seem to assume that God disapproves of us if we are wrong. If this is true, then with whom could He possibly be pleased? If our relationship with God is dependent on being exactly right, like taking the proper medicine, then who can be saved? God has acted in our behalf is spite of our wrongness. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Are we not always sinners in need of God’s mercy? Are we not always wrong in His sight, stumbling souls in constant need of His grace?

Then what is the basis of our acceptance with God, whether in or out of the Body of Christ. Alexander Campbell says it is sincerity, and I agree. He does not say that sincerity makes one right about this or that idea or act, but right with God. Nor does he say that sincerity makes one a Christian, for this is dependent upon faith and obedience. One may be sincere and not yet have reached the point of faith, which would make him an unbeliever but not a disbeliever. The unbeliever does not· believe because he has not yet heard, or if he has heard he does not understand for some reason. Such a one is never condemned in scripture. It is the disbeliever, the one who hears and understands but rejects, that is condemned.

Jesus says in John 12:48: “He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.” Does the man who does not reject, having never heard or understood, have a judge? To the hypocrites Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (Jn. 10:4). The Lord could hardly have meant that they would really have had no sin if they were blind, for all are in sin. He is really saying that if they were sincere their sin would not be held against them, which they weren’t. In John 15:22 he says: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.”

The one who is sincere towards God, then, is one who loves Him and seeks to do His will. He is one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Psa. 34:18 describes him: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” And in Psa. 51:17: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Isa. 57:15 is so explicit as to identify the man who will inhabit eternity with God: “For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” And Isa. 66:2 almost puts it in the words in the title of this essay: “This is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”

All this is to define sincerity. Paul saw himself as sincere before God all along: “Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience up to this day” (Acts 23:1). Again in Acts 26:9 he says to King Agrippa: “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” And so he was “zealous for God” all his life (Acts 22:3). So bad was his conduct toward the disciples that he describes himself as “the foremost of sinners,” but goes on to say: “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (l Tim. 1:13).

Saul of Tarsus was God’s man all along precisely because he sincerely sought after God. When God acted he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, and in the experience he learned the meaning of grace. “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14), and he concluded that such grace and mercy came his way so that “Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16).

We are talking about a blasphemer and a murderer, one who even dared to destroy the Church of Christ on earth. Such a one received mercy because he was sincere. So the test of a man’s relationship with God cannot be how much he knows or how right he is, but how he responds when God reaches out for him.

The point of this lesson comes home to us who are in Christ as much as to those in the world. As you sit there reading the words upon this page, what do you consider the basis of your acceptance with God? It can hardly be that you have been baptized, or that you pray, or that you attend the assembly. Surely there are many who do all these things and more who are not acceptable to God. When a man does all that is commanded of him, he is still an unprofitable servant, our Lord teaches. Works per se do not merit God’s favor. 1 Cor. 13 teaches that one may even give his body to be burned and still gain nothing, if it is not with love. That gets close to the point we are making: when sincerity leads one to offer his body — or to be baptized or to pray — then God is pleased. And if sincerity is never blessed with such knowledge, but is hungering and seeking, God must still be pleased.

We should search our souls to be sure that we have that “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). Church membership is no sure sign of a sincere faith. Webster sees the word to mean “without deceit, pretense, or hypocrisy,” and he adds “being the same in actual character as in outward appearance.” Our profession is for real if we are sincere. Our knowledge may run shallow, but deep inside we love God and seek Him above all else. Our errors may be many, perhaps even gross (like a prostitute’s), but in our heart of hearts we long for a change in our lives and we want to drink of His goodness.

Someone has suggested that those who go to heaven may be in for three surprises: over those who are there, over those who are not there, and over ourselves being there! Surprises or not, it is not likely that even one insincere person will be there. On the contrary it is inconceivable that anyone who has sincerely longed for God in his life will be in hell. If this should be the case, my conception of God would have to undergo a dramatic change.

This is to say that people are not going to be saved because they are church members or have kept commandments, more or less. They will be saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ. Such grace is for those who really want God. It is noteworthy that Paul wanted the Corinthians to give to the poor so that they could prove that their love was sincere (2 Cor. 8:8), and in Eph, 6:24 he speaks of those who “love our Lord Jesus Christ with a sincere love.” In 2 Cor. 1:12 he sees “godly sincerity” as a necessity virtue.

I wish for my people what Paul wished for the Corinthians, that they might “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be fresh dough” (l Cor. 5:7). I would say to our churches what he said to that one: “Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

The context has to do with the love feast and the Lord’s Supper, but I see “Let us celebrate the festival” as a reference to the whole of our life in Jesus, which is surely celebration. Ah, but the malice .and evil that has soiled our way, with all the strife and division. Ah, but the infatuation with the world that has made our profession of spiritual things less than transparent.

Dear one, does your heart yearn for God. It is here that God accepts you, and once He accepts you, His kindly light leads on to higher climes. Like the torch that shines more brightly the more it is shaken, the more you seek God the fuller He will fill you with His love and goodness. —the Editor