A Personal Relationship with God?

I was driving by a Baptist Church recently and noticed their sign: "Come as you are." While there's truth in that invitation, the real focus should be on leaving a church service completely transformed.

This is why non-Orthodox schismatic branches of Christianity are so damaging to the soul. If you don't consider yourself a wretch and the chief of sinners by acknowledging the depth of your transgressions against God, then you're failing to build a proper defense for when you do stand before the dread judgment seat of Christ.

Rather than seeking a blameless state by repenting, you're justifying yourself by claiming a personal, inner transformation. You're planning to face the Judge, Jury, and Executioner with only self-justification, somehow believing you can defend yourself.

Consider this: during legal trials, defendants will sometimes make erroneous statements, assuming the evidence against them is incomplete. Then comes the shocking revelation when they learn, "Actually, we spoke with someone who confirmed your whereabouts that day, and they've testified against you." Do you truly believe you'll outwit God by concealing your sins?

Conversely, if you confess and admit, "I am guilty of everything you accuse me of - please have mercy," then in a Christian legal system (a true "justice system"), your sentence might be reduced. Standard legal advice often suggests pleading guilty when evidence is overwhelming, hoping to receive a more lenient sentence by demonstrating at least some remorse for your actions.

Replace "God" or "the Father" with "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" and imagine claiming, "My relationship with my eternal judgment is purely personal between me and this one entity." This Judge remains completely unbiased with no special preference for you. You stand guilty of countless transgressions with complete evidence against you - nothing omitted from the case, because God is omnipotent.

Yet you enter without representation, declaring, "I'll defend myself. I know the Judge, and it's just between us." This is Jesus-as-boyfriend theology.

This illustrates the folly of approaching God without genuine repentance or acknowledging our unworthiness. The invitation shouldn't merely be "Come as you are" but rather "Come, acknowledge your sins, repent fully, and leave transformed through Christ's mercy, thus beginning the process of theosis."