I’ve been reading Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer recently. It is a profound treasure chest of wisdom and insight. One of the insights that has struck me the most is that a primary idol of the world is success. I now realize that success has been my idol. I have based my identity on it so much that it has led me to a sense of shame—feeling like a failure or fearing failure. This mindset has carried over into church planting, as well as pastoring previously, where I found myself in a continual fight not to be a failure. Not good enough. Just not enough. Inadequate. But also fighting, trying to prove to others that I am enough.
The problem with success is that one time is never enough. As Jesus says, “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.” It is not enough to be successful once. When you play this game, you have to be successful all the time. This is the pressure-filled, zero-sum game that we play our entire lives—this never-ending game to prove our worth by being “successful” in the eyes of people. And this leads to a fear of being judged as “unsuccessful” in their eyes.
The gospel, however, comes in and says, yes, but no. Yes, you are unsuccessful, but no, you are successful. And what changes everything is that Jesus is not just a human being but the human being. That is, He was not just one of many human beings who walked this earth. No, He was the human being who represents all of humanity. In a sense, He is the Olympian who represented the entire human race with His life. And by union with Christ through His Spirit, we are made one with His failure and His success. We are made one with His judgment and exaltation.
The mystery of the gospel is that while Christ was judged as the greatest failure in the eyes of men, He was the greatest success in the eyes of God. Dying on a cross was the most shameful way a person could die (Gal. 3:13). However, this failure was actually perfect obedience and therefore perfectly successful in the eyes of God. You could say He won gold for Team Humanity.
This tells us that there is a new way to be human. Actually, Bonhoeffer would say this is the way to be a real human. This new way is not concerned with, fearful of, or anxious about the judgment of people. Instead, this new way is concerned about the judgment of God. And the good news is that Jesus is the human being who represents all of us. So His judgment is our judgment. And His exaltation is our exaltation. This means that our failures have been redeemed so that in the eyes of God we are perfect successes. This means I do not need to fear the condemnation of people because I am justified and will be glorified by God. In other words, in the eyes of God, I am the greatest success in the world.
You know, during birthdays or Father’s Day, your family might say things such as, “You’re the greatest.” And this is something that might be objectively false, but subjectively true for them. It just depends on whose point of view this is being said from. It also depends on whose opinion matters most to you. Faith is simply making God’s opinion the most important. And faith believes that because of Christ, the perfect human being, we are perfect in the eyes of God. He says, “You’re the greatest because you are one with my Son.” This is something that I need to incorporate more and more into my life, and it is something that I need to articulate in a way that is more and more concrete and connected. Because this is the good news that sets us free to be truly and fully human as God wants us to be.