Our culture revolves around self-reliance. If you can’t figure it out yourself, tough luck. The danger of this mindset is that it leads to a self-reliance in our faith in which we seek to try and figure it out all on our own. When we operate off this assumption, we don’t learn how to rely upon God and try to resolve everything ourselves.
But there is one problem that we can’t fix on our own: “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10) and “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (3:23). We can’t be good enough, read enough books, watch enough “how-to videos,” or find a professional who can fix our sin problem apart from Jesus Christ. Our arrogance lies in thinking we can figure it out without Jesus, no matter what skills we might have in life. No matter how we have gotten ourselves out of situations in the past through cleverness, personality, or smoothing things over — these things can’t save us. Only Jesus Christ, through the grace that He extends to humanity, can resolve the problem of sin.
It might seem like this is a lesson that the lost world needs to hear, and it certainly is. But what about the church? Does this really apply to us? Consider this: How many times do we try to solve spiritual problems with worldly solutions rather than turning to His Word for guidance? How often do we try to fix things ourselves rather than turning to God in prayer? How often do we try to resolve conflict in ways other than how Jesus taught in Matthew 18? How often do we make decisions based on “what works” rather than “what is biblical?” Probably more often than we should. Simply because we are saved does not excuse us from applying the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles to our lives — even in matters of practicality.
Some things cannot be properly fixed except through Jesus Christ. The more we learn to rely upon Him and His teachings for even the small things in life, the more we will grow in Christian maturity and become more like Him.