Now that you’re here, you are probably expecting me to argue that those who teach “eternal security” or “the perseverance of the saints” are somehow belittling the seriousness of sin by doing so. On the contrary, let me reverse the argument:

If I believe that certain sins—or a certain number of sins—can cause me to lose my standing with God, then I must believe that there are scores of sins that are fairly minor and inoffensive to God. Why? For every sin I acknowledge and confess on a daily basis, there are myriad other sins—of commission and omission, word and deed—of which I am unaware.

One way I could set my mind at ease is to convince myself that perhaps God is unconcerned with these sins, that they are not an offense to him and that they pose me no real eternal danger. Although they may build up over the course of my life like toxins accumulate in a body from living near a nuclear waste dump, most likely I will die of natural causes before a tumor develops and kills me. As long as I repent for the sins I’m aware of, He’ll let me slide on the others.

But what if this is not the case? What if I don’t have the right to determine what sins are more serious to God? What if the seemingly innocuous little weeds of self-righteous pride I can’t keep from sprouting in my garden are just as noxious to God as the tree of debauchery in my neighbor’s yard? What if it’s not for me to decide which sins God will damn me for and which sins he will shrug off like a doting grandfather?

If the second is true than I am in deep trouble, without hope in the world.

I am without hope unless I receive the righteousness of Another—”alien righteousness” as Martin Luther put it—that has no connection or dependence on my ability to perform and is appropriated through faith alone. This is a scandalous and obnoxious thought to a human mind obsessed with justifying itself, posturing itself, positioning itself in a more favorable light in order to earn God’s favor or avert His wrath.

No, sin is much more serious than your wildest imaginations. But there is good news—THE Good News.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. – Philippians 3:8-9

Mockery was a common response to Jesus’ and the apostles’ ministry and continued into the early church era as the radical claims of a Christian minority confronted the pagan world. In many parts of the world today, a Christian minority is mocked and persecuted for its faith in the face of opposition. In America, where Christianity is considered the “majority religion,” mockery takes a different flavor.

Rarely are American Christians mocked for their claims of the divinity of Christ (e.g. 4th century bishop Athanasius) or salvation through faith alone (e.g. Martin Luther). No one pokes fun at us for our commitment to nonviolence (e.g. MLK Jr.) or refusal to curry favor with a political movement (e.g. the prophet Daniel). When was the last time American evangelicals were criticized for not bowing to the idols of this age—consumerism, celebrity worship and greed (e.g. the Amish)? In my view, these are worth being mocked for.

But today, we are mocked for things like this:

I’ve delayed writing anything about the accusations against Georgia pastor Eddie Long, as it doesn’t seem there is anything redemptive that can be said about the sordid situation. Long was one of several people I had in mind when I wrote this column more than five years ago. Anyone with an ounce of discernment who has observed Long’s ministry could have seen this coming, as with nearly every moral failure among high-profile ministers that we’ve observed in the last few years.

Although the accusations against him have not yet been proven in court, the trajectory of a ministry characterized by false teaching, greed, manipulation, arrogance, lack of accountability, ethical ambiguity, etc. naturally leads to sexual immorality. Because both the American church and culture are fixated on sex, scandals like the one Eddie Long is facing attract morbid curiosity. However, this scandal is not about sex. We fumble around attempting to solve the “sex problem” in the church by setting up counseling programs, forcing pastors to take lie detector tests, initiating background checks, arranging accountability structures—anything to avoid having to address the root issue: idolatry.

When the treasure of Christ alone is replaced with the idols of religious activity, mystical encounters, superstar status, political power, financial prosperity, etc., God turns people over in judgment to their own affections. This is Romans 1:18-32 in action:

“… For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator …”