My Thought . . .

Monday, 05-17-2021

In 1965 there was a Broadway Musical titled “Man of La Mancha.”  A popular song from that play was “The Impossible Dream.”  Some who have sung that tune were Robert Goulet, Jim Nabors (Gomer), Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Susan Boyle.  In later editions, minor changes were made to some lyrics. The song has memorable lines that grab one’s attention.

There are some things that men strive to reach that are impossible to accomplish.  Despite that truth, men ignore the impossible and continue to disappoint themselves by reaching for that which is beyond their grasp.  According to Genesis 3, man lost perfection by exchanging it for disobedience.  Mankind continues to perpetuate that condition, but the fruit is always failure.  He has convinced himself that perfection is reachable if one tries harder.  That is man’s “Impossible Dream.”

God sent his Word to greet the world as a dependent baby, the first child of a youthful virgin, who did what was impossible in the eyes of mankind.  The Word went through the growth process to become a man.  He would do what no other human was capable of performing.  He would be without sin and offered himself up to pay for our shortcomings.  This would make us worthy recipients to receive God’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Each believer would be completely cleansed so God could continue to dwell in a spotless Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).  It was God’s way of perfecting sinful man and making the real dream of perfection possible.

Man’s “impossible dream” is his nightmare.  Man believes this impossibility is better accepted if man can reach perfection without God’s assistance.  Man clothes himself in his own righteousness refusing to see his glaring nakedness.  His goal is to keep God’s law unbroken and present his effort as his key to open heaven’s door.  As man recognizes his failures, some adapt their “how” to make their righteousness more palatable.  The human creator is enamored by his own foolishness.  It is approved by Satan, not Heaven.

Man’s answer to his sin problem is to empower Satan while weakening the strength of Jesus’ sacrifice to save.  This reduction makes Jesus’ blood save a man until the man’s first sin after being saved.  When that sin occurs, man loses his salvation and is enslaved once again to darkness.  This involves man in a merry-go-round between saved and lost with lost becoming predominant.  Man then creates a limited hope that believes God’s grace will cover his sin gap if that chasm is not too large.  This causes a person to live his life in a religious state of doubt concerning his eternal salvation.  For some, hopelessness becomes larger than one’s desire to continue, leading to a misspent life due to his belief that despite his efforts to please God, he will never go to heaven.

Man’s search for the restoration of the New Testament church also suffers this fate.  At first the Jerusalem church was the model to follow.  Around the 80s some noticed the imperfections in the Jerusalem church, so apostolic corrective teaching became the pattern to follow.  Some created an illusion of perfection believing their congregation had magically arrived and they were practicing that correction completely.  They were the model everyone should follow.  Thankfully, division and human nature exposed them to this lie.

Satan’s deception is alive and as healthy today as false doctrine was in the first century.  Pharisee members of the body of Christ insisted that Gentiles needed circumcision to become real Christians (Galatians 1:6-9).  For them, keeping the Law of Moses was primary (Galatians 5:1-6).  Paul’s warning to the Galatian church dethrones that Pharisee theory.  Despite biblical information, some today continue to seek that impossible dream of being perfect Christians in a perfect assembly.  In such a belief, Jesus has been demoted and man’s obedience is the perfection needed to crown him with Heaven’ reward. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).