Those reading this will likely know the outcome of an investigation into the misdeeds of Ravi Zacharias. It was uncovered that this highly regarded Christian leader and apologist had for many years used his position to groom and take advantage of vulnerable women for his own gratification. I sat under his teaching multiple times and read several his books. When I wrote my own book, I quoted him as much or more than any other source. He was the best-known Christian leader to endorse the book. His name is on its front cover. We will re-write and republish the book as a result. Carson Weitnauer, who worked for RZIM, has succinctly expressed my own feelings stating that the realization a key mentor was, “not the greatest apologist of his generation, but rather one of its greatest frauds – has felt like a catastrophic betrayal.”
Yet I am not compelled to vent my disenchantment with Ravi. Instead I want to address the primary take-aways gathered from blogs, newsletters, and video posts of those responding to news of his fall. I believe that much in these responses may prove counter-productive in granting us hope that they may live as lights before a dark world. They may even perpetuate the underlying reasons that catastrophic moral failure among our leaders is all too common place.
I will share what seem to be the three most common responses. Then will offer what I think are the dangers in these responses, though each holds some value. I hope, through all, to point to a greater truth onto which we can take hold.
The top three responses of those processing this sad story seem to be:
A call to let this event remind us that we are all sinners. We are to take stock in our moral weaknesses and say, “But for the grace of God there go I.”
Instruction to take our eyes off people and set them on Christ instead.
Extensive consideration of the practical ways we can avoid falling into sin.
Unleashed under this third response are any number of speculations on how this failure came about—the stress of the limelight; the result of boredom often found in a type A personalities or burnout; the lack of accountability; the failure to set up guard rails against temptation etc.
Now here are my concerns with these responses.
As to letting this horrible revelation of gross sin in the private life of a very public Christian remind all of us of our own deep sinfulness, I say — I am concerned that this response has the unintended effect of making sin seem inevitable and at the same time reveals a deep insensitivity to it.
But before I make my point, we must acknowledge that Ravi Zacharias’s sin has cause those who hold an identity with Ravi to feel its defilement. Keep this in mind. No one sins to themselves. There is no sin that does not have victims. Your sin poisons the well of all who drink in fellowship with you. This is all the truer of leaders and teachers. But it is true for all. Our sins defile those around us. And when they become known the sensitive will feel a taint on their conscience.
We cannot make much of grace if we do not make much of sin. Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded there did grace much more abound.” Thus, it is right when the failures of those around us awaken us to see our deep need to press into the open wounds of Christ, who suffered the punishment for our sins and pours himself out for our forgiveness. It is also right that in the face of evil we should want to be washed of residue of sin in our lives and to live by Christ’s grace in victory over sin.
That said I see at least two dangers a the response that says, “let this remind us all that we are sinners.” 1stI am afraid that this immediate pivot to emphasize our universal sinfulness may underscore the idea that sinning is inevitable. And this in turn leads to minimizing it which then makes us more insensitive to it. The thought process goes something like this: He did this. We all do it after all. Some bigger, some smaller but we all sin. If you are alive you are sinning in some way because none of us are perfect. And at this point the doctrine of depravity can sound like we are just covering our tracks.
Keep in mind that it is possible to play off the unavoidable reality of our sinning as a kind of excuse for sinning. I have observed that if you ask people if they believe they are sinners, 99% will say it is so. But they do not say this with a note of grief or pain in their admission. More often it is with a smile. The vast majority of the human race tenaciously holds to the doctrine of the depravity of man. It is their only salvation. ‘Nobody’s perfect.’ Along these lines remember that the Holy Spirit is not the only one to remind us of our sins. Satan will as well. The Holy Spirit wants to drive us to confession and into Christ’s forgiving arms of grace. Satan wishes us to concede to sin’s prevalence in our lives so that we may get used to it. This is why an immediate response to a great sin in saying, “remember we all are sinners” can have the negative impact of actually leading us to conclude that sin as unavoidable and so we become insensitive to it.
2nd to make this terrible discovery a teaching moment for identifying our own sinfulness seems to express evidence of a proper sensitivity to sin. We should not need the great moral collapse of some else to help us realize our sinfulness. If we do, we prove that we have wandered far from the presence of a holy God and we have merely been warming our hearts before little fires of our religious making. There is something, to my mind, quite ghastly about making such a connection. Might we as well stand before the genocidal atrocities Moa, and Stalin and Pol Pot and pointing to them out say, “Now look and let this remind us that we are all sinners.” Should we go before the back streets and alleys of population centers in South East Asia where trafficked children are sold as commodities to fulfill someone’s sick appetite and say, “Now here take note and let it remind us that we are all sinners.” If this is where we must go to be made aware of our sins, we have a problem. If this is what it takes to wake us up then you must wonder if God has already given us over to sin altogether. And I certainly hope that is not the case.
What is a better and more hopeful response? It is better to say before this evil exposed, “This is the course where all the little trickles of sin in your life are flowing. Every rivulet of sin in your life seeks the source of evil and wickedness illustrated here. So, hate your sin and flee from it when it is small and just raising its first desire in your heart.” Let this event teach us to pray as Charles Wesley’s taught us to sing.
I want a principle within of watchful, godly fear,a sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near.
I want the first approach to feel of pride or wrong desire, to catch the wandering of my will, and quench the kindling fire.
From thee that I no more may stray, no more Thy goodness grieve, grant me the filial awe, I pray, the tender conscience give.
Quick as the apple of an eye, O God, my conscience make; awake my soul when sin is nigh, and keep it still awake.
Almighty God of truth and love, to me Thy power impart; the mountain from my soul remove, the hardness from my heart.
O may the least omission pain my reawakened soul,and drive me to that blood again, which makes the wounded whole.
The sensitivity to sin does not come to us by standing and gazing upon the defiling ground of another’s atrocities. Brother and sisters if you need to know of your sins go to Jesus and stand in the presence of His holiness. Meet a holy God in the Temple of worship and find your sin there before the light of His presence. Find in Christ’s wounds and His cross your rebellion. In the light of that cross and of His holiness find the subtleties of your pride and your tendency to make much of yourself and find there as well, your indifference to God’s love and God’s extended grace.
If you do this, sin’s dark hold on your life will not be inevitable. Its hold will be broken in your brokenness (not before a fallen man) but before the Man who took the fall for your sins. Then you will sing in celebration another of Wesley’s hymns.
Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin; let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
I have proposed to address the common responses found in articles and blogs to the revelation of Ravi Zacharias's now famous double life. I have identified three primary responses with the intent to demonstrate the dangers in these responses and propose a more helpful outlook instead. In part one of the blog sharing this title I addressed the first response. Here we will consider the second. Below are the three primary response of which I take note. Then what follows will be an evaluation of number two.
A call to let this event remind us that we are all sinners. We are to take stock in our moral weaknesses and say, “But for the grace of God there go I.”
Instruction to take our eyes off people and set them on Christ instead.
Extensive consideration of the practical ways we can avoid falling into sin.
As to this common response of point number two instructing us to take our eyes off people and put them on Christ instead; it sounds good,but I am concerned it puts us in danger of giving up on our primary mission. We are called to be an example of the saving life of Jesus Christ.
There is a celebrity mindset in Christianity today. The power of godly, Spirit anointed ideas does not drive the messages we consume in this Christian era. Instead, we go for the messenger who has the largest church or created the largest following. Mega churches, mega authors, mega personalities are at the fore. There are any number of Christian classics that would never have come into our hands if past generations of Christians chose the writings they favored based upon the popularity of the author. In fact, the greatest works of Christian devotion have largely been written by those who had little or no appeal to their age. So, it is good to be warned against hero worship and celebrity Christianity. And it is good that we be called to turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus and listen to His voice above all others.
Here though is the problem, once you underscore the inevitability of sin the next step is to say, “look to Jesus and not to me.” This attitude relieves us of the responsibility that God has given to His redeemed people.
In Philippians 3 Paul tells us that his life focus was on the prize of knowing Christ and being conformed into His likeness. Then Paul says, “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern (Philippians 3:17). To Timothy, Paul commanded, “be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12).” That is God’s word to us as well. Again, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 of the believer in Christ that we are letters written by God, and known of men, for all to read. Maybe you have heard it said, “you are all of Jesus that some people will ever see.” It is a popular phrase. Here is another that I have heard many times, “preach the gospel everywhere you go and when necessary use words.” Put your life and actions as an example before your mouth. And now when a well-known leader proves false the advice seems to have changed to, “ignore what you see here. Move along and just look to Jesus.”
No. The great tragedy of this sin is that it has blasphemed the name of our wonderful Savior. And our response before this catastrophic fraud ought to be to seek God to bring us into the reality of the saving life of His Son so that we might live in the power of the Holy Spirit as encouraging examples of Divine Life poured into us and out to others. With this as our aim we should take up the prayer for Christlikeness offered in the book of Puritan prayers and devotion, The Valley of Vision. "May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love! May loiterers be quickened to greater diligence by my example! May worldlings be won to delight in acquaintance with thee! May the timid and irresolute be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus! Cause me to be a mirror of thy grace, to show others the joy of thy service... Help me to walk as Jesus walked, my only Saviour and perfect model, his mind my inward guest, his meekness my covering garb."
We must not remove from ourselves this responsibility. It is a gracious gift God empowers in the life of every true son and daughter of the faith. We are supposed to say to others, “follow me as my life points to Christ.” Yes. Look to Jesus. But in looking to Him believe that He would make of you examples to one another. We cannot retreat from our assignment. We must lean into it believing that the Lord Jesus can make Himself shine through hearts truly and honestly surrendered to Him. That is hopeful. That is our opportunity.
In blogs 1 and 2 we have considered two popular responses to the moral failure of Ravi Zacharias and been warned of the dangers in these responses, though each holds some value. We have also considered a more edifying response under each category. Below were the top three most common responses. Followed by a consideration of the third and some concluding remarks.
The top three responses of those processing this sad story seem to be:
A call to let this event remind us that we are all sinners. We are to take stock in our moral weaknesses and say, “But for the grace of God there go I.”
Instruction to take our eyes off people and set them on Christ instead.
Extensive consideration of the practical ways we can avoid falling into sin.
Unleashed under this third response are any number of speculations on how this failure came about—the stress of the limelight; the result of boredom often found in a type A personalities or burnout; the lack of accountability; the failure to set up guard rails against temptation etc.
This third and possibly most common response is then to offer up consideration on practical strategies for maintaining a morally uncompromised life. I believe that this response dangerously places our faith on the same plane as every other religion and misses the power and promise the Christian faith holds out to us.
When we limit ourselves to implementing practical ways from falling into sin we simply put Christianity on the plane of every other religion and we leave off the one thing that promises to make our faith stand out above all others. No one can argue that the Word of God does not offer wonderfully practical advice for navigating this dark sinful world. And the further we get away from God’s Word the stupider we become in our patterns of behavior.
However, the danger in focusing on practical strategies for avoiding sin is that we communicate that the Christian life nothing more than learning how to artfully navigate around moral potholes. Every religion has its strategies for achieving moral goals. If this is where we settle in our message, we have stopped short of true Christianity and are merely teaching ethics and behavioral adjustment.
The Christian faith begins and ends in the power and promise of an exchanged life. It begins in a regenerate nature where Christ comes and resides with in us by the power of the Holy Spirit to make us persons that we can never make of ourselves through mere practicalities. The Word of God is exceedingly practical but our flesh isn’t practical at all. It constantly pulls us into the folly of sin. And our flesh can be refined and directed into more seemly behavior but at its best it will only produce what in God’s eyes are filthy rags. The answer God gives us for Satan’s temptations, the world’s allure and this overwhelming force of our sinful flesh is far more than advice on how to make good choices and how to put ourselves in the best positions to avoid trouble. God gives us Himself. He promises to live out from us His holiness as we surrender the totality of ourselves to Him.
“If anyone be in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold everything has become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).” Your body is roiling with sin but if you are a true Christian you are not a body with a spirit; You are a new, born again spirit with a body and the spirit commands. This new man in partnership with the Holy Spirit has available to Him the power to put to death the sinful deeds done in the flesh. (Romans 8:12 says as much). With this life God gives us words of tremendous promise. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14). “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us(Romans 8:37).” Paul is talking about conquering sin.
Yes, famous failures may cause us to consider practical strategies for avoiding sin. But most importantly they should turn us back into the Lord’s provision for ourselves of His sanctifying life. These types of stunning failures should turn us back to God to say, “Oh God take over my life. Live through my life those things that bring honor and glory to You.”
Having addressed these concerns now let me briefly turn back to Ravi Zacharias and the conundrum of the testimony he has left behind. What do we say about one who claims and proclaims this kind of prevailing, transcendent Christianity and then fails to exhibit it in his life? How do we account for the leader who promotes the glories of the Gospel publicly but privately lives a double life of ongoing, unrepentant moral failure? We have to reach one of two conclusions. One conclusion is that what they professed to believe is not true. “God can’t deliver us. There is no powerful new man that supplants the old man in us. There is no power from God to grant us triumph in the face of great temptation and evil. It is all a fragile trick of the mind and nothing more.” Either what they profess to believe is not true or they did not REALLY believe it. Either the breakdown is in God’s power to save to the uttermost or the breakdown exposes a faithless form of godliness that denies the power thereof.
So where does this leave us with someone who was a leader in the Christian world who was revealed to be living a fraudulent life.
Do not mistake a full headed intellectual delight in the wonders of the Christian faith and truth for a full-hearted surrender to Christ.
Do not mistake the sentimental stirrings at the beauty of the gospel for the self-emptying, Christ filling work of grace God brings when He applies that gospel to any man or woman.
Just because of person is intellectually and emotionally and willfully committed to arguing for and standing to the truths of Christianity does not mean they have surrendered at the foot of the Cross to the Lord Jesus. They may only be projecting themselves on the surface of these truths for their own sense of importance, much like the Pharisees projected themselves upon the law of God for their own sense of self-worth.
Make sure that is not the case with you. Jesus must be everything and all in all. Christianity is Christ taking over all that is me. And me taking only Him for my life. And then there is hope and opportunity. Then there is victory over sin and temptation. Then life becomes an unforced example of the Lord Jesus to others. Then life prevails to God’s glory and joy. Then from even the grave our lives will bless.
After Paul was finished sharing his testimony with Festus, procurator of Judea and King Agrippa he received what I consider a satisfying response. Festus said, “Paul you are out of your mind!” Agrippa said, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian!” Paul’s story of salvation was sufficiently radical enough to get both men’s attention. They knew they were listening to a story that was unlike any other account of a person’s religious journey.
Some years ago I took it upon myself to read up on the statements of basic Christianity that were put forward at the beginning of the last century. What were the declarations on the essentials of the Christian faith that were presented by those coming out of the evangelical age of the late 1800’s? What I found was a plain and directed terminology of faith rooted in an awareness God works internally in a person when He saves them. Six terms stood out more than any other: Awakened, Repentant, Faith, Conversion, Regenerated, and the Witness of the Spirit.
I began to suspect that these six terms/experiences were sufficient in giving evidence to a saving work of God in the life of an individual. Combined together they are experiences that are hard to fake or contrive. Could these provide a test for our faith according to 2 Corinthians 13:5? “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” Using simple definitions for each term as a guide, I began to ask professing Christians to share with me their stories of salvation.
How were you awakened to Christ and your desperate need of His salvation? How did your life manifest a repentance before God, a renouncing of sin and self, at that time in which you became a Christian? How was your saving faith in the Lord Jesus correlated to your repentance? Did they go together? When you repented and believed in Jesus as your Savior was there a conversion experience that followed? What changes immediately began to take place in the way you lived and the choices that you made? Some consider that regeneration happens before you awake and repent and believe, other right after this; regardless how has your life been marked by the new birth? What traits have grown in your life that can only be explained because you became a new creature in Christ and not merely as the maturation of who you already were? How and when has the Spirit of God come to you affirming you with His witness that you are a child of God? Did the battle against temptation and sin change after becoming a Christian? In what way did the Holy Spirit witness to you that you were a child of God in the midst of those battles?
Surprisingly many of those I spoke with could find little evidence for any of these experiences in their stories of personal salvation. They instead had come to faith in a search for meaning, or community or an answer for a personal crisis and found that the Christian faith provide the best answer to these concerns. Few could testify of a desperate sense of need or an awakening to salvation. Few could speak of repentance beyond a simple change of mind to consider Jesus as a Savior who would meet or fill some void in their lives. Faith for them went no further than a comfortable place to settle their minds and concerns. As with these terms, so with the rest, their stories were largely generalized accounts of personal sentiments that led them to identify as Christians.
With most I could have easily altered their stories of salvation with the change of a few choice words and set them loose in a completely different religious setting; be it Methodist or Muslim, Buddhist or Baptist only a few words of location and custom and the stories would be almost identical. They were the stories of a cultural faith but not of a radical conversion. They were stories the enemy of all souls can easily mimic in any setting as opposed to those radical accounts that would have made them sound, “out of your mind.”
Here is why the evangelical community has largely lost its passion for evangelism. You cannot give witness to what you have not experienced for yourself! Here is why there is significant attrition in our churches. “They went out from us because they were not a part of us.” And here is where we must become more intentional in reaching the lost sheep in our own flocks.
In response to these matters I believe that the most significant evangelism before the church in the next decade may be within the evangelical church itself. With this burden we have constructed an interactive website: www.testyourtestimony.com or www.savingevangelicals.com. It is an attempt to provide a gracious, self-guided test for examining yourself to see if you are in the faith. Along with the site a booklet was developed to be used personally or in a small group .
I strongly urge you to look at the site and purchase the book. The issue is grave. The concern should consume much thought, prayer and action. Together let’s prepare Christians with a testimony that is radical enough to make Festus think we are crazy and Agrippa feel its convincing power.
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