What Does Hypocrisy Prove?

We are gearing up for another long and exhausting political race. We are still more than a year out from electing the next President of the United States. We will be inundated and overwhelmed with rhetoric, attack ads, debates and the always influential yard signs. I mean not to debate the worthiness of our potential candidates here. I don't want to reduce this blog to the discussion of some matters of temporal significance. I can tell you that one of the two primary political parties is explicitly opposed to the morality clearly laid out in Scripture and I find it impossible to reconcile being a Christian and voting for that party. *Hint: it's the Democrats.*

What we will see and hear are ongoing accusations of Candidate A being a hypocrite for doing Y while claiming that Y is wrong. 

• Al Gore is an environmentalist
• Al Gore flies around on a private jet and travels with a motorcade

This makes Al Gore a hypocrite. Agreed? Of course you agree! Environmentalists don't leave massive carbon footprints! That's antithetical to their stated values. Al Gore is a hypocrite for violating the beliefs he claims to cherish. He can rationalize it all he wants but he's still a hypocrite. But he's also something else....

An environmentalist! 

What are you talking about, Tim? He's causing lots of damage to the environment!
That he is, but he's still a professing environmentalist. He's still claiming to be an environmentalist, right? Certainly he's not a true environmentalist. He's not living off solar power, riding a bicycle and doing speeches via Skype. He's a phony environmentalist who contradicts everything he believes but he's still trying to enforce a worldview. 

Does Al Gore's hypocrisy disprove his environmental beliefs? 

Let's tackle this from another angle. 

• Conservative Candidate A is a believer in traditional values
• Conservative Candidate A cheats on his wife with a male prostitute 

This makes Conservative Candidate A a hypocrite. Agreed? Of course you agree! Traditional values candidates don't cheat on their wives! That's antithetical to their stated values. Conservative Candidate A is a hypocrite for violating the beliefs he claims to cherish. He can rationalize it all he wants but he's still a hypocrite. But he's also something else...

A traditional values candidate!
What are you talking about, Tim? He's causing lots of damage to traditional values!
That he is, but he's still a professing conservative! He's still claiming to be one, right? Certainly he's not a true traditional values candidate. He's not in a loving, monogamous, opposite sex marriage. He's a phony traditional values candidate who contradicts everything he believes but he's still trying to enforce a worldview. 

Does Conservative Candidate A's hypocrisy disprove his traditional values? 

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding 'NO.' The efficacy of their worldview isn't dependent upon the faithfulness of its adherents. The efficacy of any worldview is wholly dependent upon the truthfulness of its object. 

Do you see where I'm going? 
Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. Whether the Christian worldview is right or not isn't dependent upon my effort or your effort (Romans 3). In fact, that's antithetical to the basis of our faith. Right? Our faith is a faith placed in the achievements of Christ. We have zero faith in our works. We have zero faith in our accomplishments. Our faith rests on Christ's satisfactory death on the cross. Our faith rests in Christ serving as the substitutionary atonement for our sins. Our faith is that Christ is the propitiation for our sins; that He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, died because of our sins and for our sins and was raised on the 3rd day to prove He is the ruler over life and death.

"All Christians are hypocrites!"
Yea, yea we are! I tell people not to lust and then I lust. I tell people not to be greedy and then I keep things to myself. I tell people to read the Bible and then I don't read it. The list goes on. That's why we don't put faith in our works (Ephesians 2). That's why we don't put faith in the works of our pastors and friends and our favorite famous Christians. If Famous Christian Athlete fails in a disastrous way, does that disprove Christ's work? No! Not at all. It really serves to fortify the necessity of Christ's work. No one can earn salvation. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. 

Let me clarify something. Just because someone claims to be a Christian or an environmentalist doesn't mean said person is either of those things. Lots of people claim to be lots of things they are not. Bruce Jenner claims to be a woman. Benny Hinn and Ernest Angley claim to be heralds of God's word. My dog thinks he's a human. Environmentalism isn't true or false because of Al Gore's actions. I'm more inclined to listen to someone who is consistent with his beliefs but those beliefs don't attain their veracity from persons. If that worldview is genuinely true, then it will remain true whether anyone follows it or not. So we then examine the efficacy or veracity of such a truth claim based upon its claims and not upon its followers. 

Is murder suddenly ok because someone who is anti-murder ends up murdering someone? 
No! You can see where this type of thinking breaks down. Murder is always wrong. We don't disprove the immorality of murder because someone who is opposed to murder ends up murdering someone. The morality of murder was never dependent upon human beings never doing it. A murderer can still say "murder is wrong" and be right! He'd be a hypocrite, but he'd also be correct. Just like a Christian can say "loving money is wrong" while also being greedy and still be correct. It just makes the person a hypocrite.

Our hope is in Christ and in Christ alone. Always point to Him as the example of Christianity. I mean He is the Christ in Christianity. isn't He? 

If Your Will is Free, Then Words are Cheap

The reduction of precise language in American culture has given way to a vast quantity of problems. The fact that we must issue disclaimers and caveats before and after words like Christian, truth, life, male/female and marriage is indicative of how we've blended the real with the unreal. The most commonly used words are the words most likely to be corrupted from their original definitions.

Think about how often we refer to something as awesome or epic. Those words have lost weight and meaning because people refer to a piece of gum as "awesome" or to a trip to the store to purchase said piece of gum as "epic." Speaking in theological terms think about how easily terms like heretic and false teacher are thrown around. I'm not opposed to saying any of those words. God is awesome. His works are awesome. Lord of the Rings was an epic story. Most of the people on TBN are heretics and false teachers. See, I'm willing to use them; but I want to be sure to use them appropriately.

C'mon! You know you're not. 

This anti-precision mentality propagated by post-modernists has oozed its way into the church. The first two books the post-modernist would burn are the Bible and the dictionary. While I don't think people in the church despise the Bible (though we all are prone to hide from it when we know we're wrong) we are trying hard to remove the dictionary from our shelves to alleviate the burden of punctilious and definite language.

What is free will and do we have it?
"Tim! How dare you! I'm American! It's almost Independence Day! Of course I have free will! USA! USA! USA!"

I wonder how much our American mindset has corrupted our ability to understand the reality of our flesh. We love freedom used to love freedom in this country. We loved making our own way. We loved working hard and doing what we want and we were happy to keep the government out of our lives. That's clearly changed but we still maintain a sense of personal autonomy. We're still convinced that manifest destiny is an individual mantra.

Yet each of us still has a fleshly body to deal with. If we're going to honestly evaluate the notion of free will, then we need to look at what the Bible says. Philosophical musings are nice and all but what does the Bible actually say about free will?

Romans 6:17
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed

John 8:34
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

Non-Christians are slaves to their sin. What they do always has their sin in mind or, to be put it another way, all they do is done in rebellion to God. In what sense do they have free will if everything they do is influenced by their fleshly desire to rebel? In what sense do they have free will if they cannot please God? It's not that they will not please God, it's that they cannot.

Romans 8:5-8

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Just like Charlton Heston couldn't escape playing the leading
man in movie epics, neither can pagans escape their slavery

Do non-Christians make choices? Absolutely. In fact, they will be judged according to their choices. But do they truly have free will? Can they do whatever they want? Are their choices completely without any external influence? No. We know that their sin controls them. Sin keeps them enslaved to their flesh. They are in bondage. They do not have free will.

But what about Christians? Surely we have free will. Surely we can do whatever we wish. Surely we aren't slaves to anything...

Romans 6:16
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

We are now slaves to Christ. We are slaves to obedience to Christ. But we all know we still choose to sin. We should live as though we are slaves to Christ but we all still sin and sin is disobedience and thus fractures the slave metaphor. So maybe we do have free will. Right?

Let's go back to what free will truly is. It's absolute autonomy. It's living in such a way that there's nothing you can't do. It's living without restrictions. It's making choices without any influence. Do any of us do that? How did you work out your free will when you got married? Did you have any man or woman you wanted? No. Did anyone (parents, friends, ex's) influence you on the type of man or woman you should pursue? Yes. Did our culture have any impact on how you determined what's important in a spouse?

Think about this example:
Let's say you grew up in a religious home. Your parents were devout Christians and really exemplary role models.
If you went to a Christian school, then wouldn't it be fair to say that your parents heavily influenced your decision?
But what if you went to a really liberal college just to tick them off? Wouldn't it be fair to say that your parents heavily influenced your decision?

Some might be saying, "But I'd still be making a choice! I'm using my free will to follow the desires of my heart!"
I agree. In some sense you have a modicum of free will. But as a Christian are there some choices that are impossible to make?
Yes.
A Christian cannot lose his or her salvation. A believer does not have free will in any sense to stop having eternal life. You are Christ's possession and He will not and cannot release you. Aren't you glad you don't have free will in regards to that*?

Are any of the following characteristics true about you? Since the answer is no, then isn't it a bit hazardous for us to put our free will on the same level as God's?

Ultimately only God truly has free will. He's not influenced by external factors. He does as He pleases. He's the only autonomous being. He doesn't battle His own sin nature. He's not surprised by anything. He accomplishes everything He sets out to accomplish. His sovereignty doesn't end where our free will begins. His sovereignty overrides any semblance of free will we have. His free will overrides our choices. We can't change His plans. His course isn't dependent upon human cooperation. His holiness is internal. His plans are unchangeable. He is unchangeable and unshakable. Only God has free will and that is an awesome truth.


*I would add that if you don't have free will in every area, then you don't have free will at all.