Attaining the Unattainable

We live in a world of ideals, many of them conflicting. Our culture prizes the ideal of "being true to myself" (if I can only figure out who I am!), while at the same time setting forth ideals of what great people look like, talk like and find interesting. I've read this week (yes, we're settled in enough that I've actually done some reading!) about the modern "Extrovert Ideal", which prefers charisma, a polished public persona and enthusiastic, engaging speaking abilities above quiet reflection, backstage service, awkward genius and an unassuming personality. I've also read about idealistic body image advertising, and how companies not only blur out celluloid and wrinkles, but slim and reproportion models into a computer generated image that fits with--and entrenches--our cultural ideals of beauty. I could list several more examples, but we also live in a culture that prizes brevity, so I will refrain.

The problem with these ideals is that they are often unattainable to the average human. Who I want to be depends far too often on who I think others think I should be, which I can never fully figure out. I can do my best to polish my speech and be out there, chatting it up with strangers, but my God-given personality is far more suited to quiet (or not so quiet) interaction with small groups of familiar people, and that's my natural gravitation. And I will never be 5'11" and 100 lbs with perfect skin and curves in all the "right" places, no matter how hard I try. In fact, the desperate struggle to reach these ideals (and others) has caused many people--myself included--confusion, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and a generally unhealthy and low view of self and others.

The good news is that the Bible doesn't prize any of these ideals. It says I'm made in God's image (!), and that is who I should be. It holds up as heroes of the faith not only loud passionate people like Peter, but also those who "pondered these things in [their hearts]". It says it's the meek who will inherit the earth. "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain"; it's the woman who fears the Lord who is to be praised. (And, might I add, there is no brevity in Psalm 119's exposition of the beauty of the Law!) What freedom there is in God's Word from the slavish drive to follow cultural ideals of personality, beauty, wealth and success!

But there's some bad news, too. The Bible also has an ideal that it holds up. And it's God's ideal, so it's the one we should listen to. AND it's even more unattainable than any ideal we could ever dream up. God's ideal is perfection in all areas of our life, for every single moment of every hour of all the years of our life! The Bible says I'm made in God's image, and that is who I should be (!). It says, "Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." It says I'm not ever to hold anything dearer than God himself, even when a cool new piece of technology comes out or a great new friend comes along. It says I'm to love my neighbour as much as I love myself (and boy, is that ever a lot!), even when she hates me and continually voices her negative opinion of my house, my kids, my job, my faith or whatever. It says I'm to live a life of continual prayer, thankfulness, contentment and praise, never wavering in my faith in God's righteousness, even when life circumstances are painful and incomprehensible. It also says that one small departure from this standard is enough to disqualify me for life! And yet, if I haven't already figured it out for myself, this same Word also proclaims that I cannot possibly keep this standard because "there is no one righteous, no not one," and, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If I wasn't depressed by vainly trying to attain a charismatic personality with a stunning body and succinct speech, all the while holding firmly to a non-conformist value of just being myself, surely this impossible demand for perfection in all things is enough to send me over the edge!

And that is why, when I think about impossible requirements, I'm so thankful that there's more good news! We can't attain this unattainable standard. But someone did. And what's more, that someone did it not just for his own benefit, but for ours as well. That someone is Jesus, and he lived a life of complete perfection, following God's standards to the smallest point. And then he gave up this perfect life, taking the mockery and hatred of other humans and the wrath of God we deserved, and clothed us in his righteousness, giving us his perfect record of obedience. And even now he stands in heaven, interceding on our behalf, holding up his perfect record before God the Father and proclaiming that it belongs to us, so that in God's eyes, through Jesus, we actually attain the unattainable!

The Bible proclaims that God takes dirty, sinful, awkward, socially maligned individuals and sings over them, loving them and adopting them into His own family, fully accepting them on the basis of His Son's perfection. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

We may be ordinary, quiet, fat, short, balding, poor. We may have spider veins and crooked teeth and hate public speaking with a vengeance. We may feel like our earthly existence is acknowledged by no one, or like we're unusually loud or too long-winded, or too this, that and the other thing. And we are most definitely sinful, falling far short of God's requirements--the only requirements that really matter in the end. But if we are trusting in Jesus' work on our behalf, even while we still have far to grow in living according to God's standards in this life, we are misfits no longer. We belong fully to God, who grants and credits to us the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if we had never sinned nor been sinners, as if we had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us. All we need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart (Heidelberg Catechism, Question 60). And that's good news in a world of unattainable ideals!