We are a culture that prizes self-sufficiency.

We endlessly repeat America’s favorite slogan, “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

We love the rags-to-riches stories of individuals pulling themselves up by their bootstraps into positions of power and wealth.

We admire the self-made man who earns his way to financial prosperity and comfort.

This kind of self-sufficient, believe-in-yourself ideology carries over all too easily into the realm of religion. A system of personal effort and self-earned merit seems to be the default religious perspective ingrained in most of us.

The reality is that our spirituality is often more about us and our ability than about God and his ability.

We have faith, but our faith is ultimately in ourselves.

Consider for a moment what we’re trusting when we put our faith in ourselves. We are trusting that we can meet God’s standard through intense self-discipline.

At the very least, we are trusting that in the end our good works will out weigh our bad. And of course we assume that God will be OK with that.

Do we really believe that we are that good?

Do we really believe that God is that soft?

Do we realize that God designed that every action, word, and thought be brought under his authority and be for him?

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

If we are honest with ourselves we will admit that we haven’t followed this command for a single minute.

Ever!

Do we forget that God will judge every deed in light of his absolute and perfect righteousness?

“God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Psalm 7:11).

If God judges with perfect justice, not on some kind of cosmic curve, we can be sure that every one of our countless sins against him will be punished.

Faith in ourselves is ultimately delusional and self-deceptive.

It’s a bit like the troubled homeowner who was told they could afford their dream home and signed a mortgage far beyond their means.

Eventually the deception was unveiled. They had overestimated their own resources and underestimated the consequences of coming up short.

We must shed our confidence in the sufficiency of our own spiritual and moral resources.

Our confidence must be placed in another, in the God-man Jesus Christ. He did live every moment loving God with his whole being. That perfectly lived life is given freely to cover those who will trust in him.

He was punished with the full and righteous wrath of God the judge.

While innocent himself, he took on the punishment of every person who will run to him in desperate need.

There is an incredible freedom that comes when we throw off illogical faith in ourselves and embrace Christ and his work as our only hope.

Gone is the constant pressure to perform. Gone is the ever-gnawing feeling that you are falling short.

As Tim Keller has written, those who trust in Christ can affirm that “we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time.”

Who are you putting your faith in?

Tim Pickard is pastor/elder at Auburn Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Auburn.