In his book The Alphabet of Grace Frederick Buechner gives a disturbing description of himself:
"I am a part-time novelist who happens to be a part-time Christian because part of the time seems to be the most that I can manage to live out my faith.”
Buechner is not the only person to express struggle with the Christian faith. In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul tells of his own inability to completely escape from sinful actions. If an Apostle is not completely immune from the influences of the flesh, then how can any rank-and-file Christian claim to be?
It should not be surprising that Christians have trouble acting out the faith that they claim to have. Even with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a Christian is still a creature of flesh and continues to be influenced by the flesh. All too often flesh and Spirit are incompatible.
What, then, can be deducted from this painful admission of Christian reality? The first deduction is that Christians do not possess any bragging rights. They are as sinful as non-Christians. Only the grace of God allows Christians to do anything that is good and pleasing to God.
The second deduction is that Christians should not be so cocksure that their theological beliefs are error free. Regardless of how sincere Christians may be, they still view the Bible and their church groups through lenses made of flesh, which explains why there are so many divisions within the universal Church.
The third deduction is perhaps the most important. The reality of our sinfulness serves as reminder of why we need the Savior. In God’s eyes all sins are equal. This situation means that the gluttony practiced by an ordained minister is cause for condemnation just as much as the viewing of pornography by a layman – although the equality gives no excuse for either.
Perhaps the #1 problem with the common Christian struggle has to do with Christians being reluctant to admit to its existence. A Christian may speak against the sins that (s)he does not commit, while practicing the sins that (s)he won’t admit are sins. For example, the Bible speaks against both drunkenness and gluttony, but have you ever heard a sermon against gluttony?
Yes, all Christians struggle with faith because they are still creatures of flesh. The good news is that the Christian faith is not faith in the flesh. It is faith in the atonement for sin given to us because of the sacrifice of Jesus on a cross at a place called the Skull. That faith is validated by what happened on the following Sunday morning. The resurrection of Jesus was something that not even flesh could prevent.