Jesus and Psychology

 

Think about the religious people you've known in your life. Even those who considered themselves Christians. Even the actual Christians. If your experience was anything like mine, you knew a lot of people who believed they had to do good to gain heaven. Who believed that when they died, God would weigh their deeds in some scale, and if the good outweighed the bad St. Peter would open the gates, and if the bad outweighed the good, they'd be sentenced to the fire. And most of them had no inkling what their fate would be. 

Does that mess with your head, or what?

How do people handle life in the face of this? Some walk away, deciding to believe none of it--which means illogically believing their decision makes it true. This is the equivalent of plugging their ears and singing, "Nananana." Others shrug and figure the scale will tip in their favor because they're good people. But they can't be sure, so they don't think about it much. Still others will decide that whatever "better place" comes next, we all go there and pretty much deserve to. Again, betting their life that this arbitrary belief is true. And then there are those who knock themselves out doing good deeds, because they want to please and appease a God who's looking for reason to club them over the head (this angry God who needs to be placated is probably the attitude I most encountered in childhood). 

And what does all this do to us? It traps us in worry, striving, and uncertainty. Or it causes otherwise logical people to plug their ears and sing "Nananana" concerning their eternal destiny. Or to adopt beliefs that have no basis--which we try not to do in the rest of life--because they soothe. (Ironically, this is often what unbelievers accuse us of doing.) Will those who are working for the reward be good enough for it? Even if they are, can they keep it up? Will they fall into a cycle of feeling good about themselves and then horrible about themselves? Does any of this sound like decent mental or spiritual health?

The fact that God accepts us in Jesus Christ and therefore we do good works out of joy and security is the exact inverse. We serve Him because He loves us, not to make Him love us. Security in Christ is the key to freedom from the angst caused by religion as performance. For example, we don't use our hobbies, talents, and occupations to earn points, but to serve others. We don't go to church to be seen, but to gather. We don't do good to our neighbor because it will place a chit on the "good" side of our scale, but to genuinely help in Jesus' name--in other words, really loving our neighbor. We don't chase a full slate of earthly activities to feel good about ourselves or be seen as do-gooders, but as gifts from God that we can share. And we do this from a position of rest in the finished work of Christ. Life without Him is simply nerve-wracking.

Doesn't faith in God, then, shift human psychology? I think it does. My prayer is that some of the mental health crises in our world can be improved or avoided simply by more people coming to Jesus Christ. I believe it would make a bigger difference than we dare hope.