Christianity tells us that we are loved by God, and that we are precious in the sight of God. Faith is not an act to be performed to merit the love of God, because even when we don't trust, we are still loved by God. Redemption was provided before you or I even had a chance to trust, not after. Faith is the belief in unmerited loved; if faith merits it, then it nullifies it. Our value does not come from being good, or having enough faith, or how pretty/rich/powerful/charming we are; but it comes from being loved. Self-abasement for its own sake is false humility, another form of pride. We can be confident in our skills and in our accomplishments, knowing that these are gifts from God. The reality we see is not the only reality.

I think the distinction is that many other faiths only award salvation through works. In other words, the good you do has to count you worthy. Problem is, no amount of good work will get you to that point because no one can be that good.

Christianity acknowledges this, so that salvation comes not through works because no one is worthy, but through the grace of God.

Now, with that, it is true that the Christian recognizes he or she is constantly flawed and unworthy, but the shame and guilt of that is (supposed to be) taken from us through the forgiveness of Christ. I say supposed to be because that is the theology of justification. We are justified, no matter what we are guilty of. However, God may have thrown the sins from us as far as East is from West, but living that out is not always easy. We still may be plagued by guilt, shame, and sorrow. It isn't that God wants us to wallow in that forever. If it's forgiven, it's forgotten as far as He is concerned. It is, however, a process for us to learn what that forgiveness means. So we often do live plagued by guilt. It is not God's will for us.
The role of guilt, is to turn the person to God for forgiveness for sin. His will is that when we repent, we are forgiven. His will is that we walk as forgiven people. Not so that we can lord it over others, and not so that we can sin more (because now we have this convenient out of always asking forgiveness). Rather, what I think I have come to understand, the purpose of walking as forgiven people is so that we can learn how to not only forgive others, but help them to repent and walk in forgiveness. We will always fail, even after justification, but what gives us strength is knowing God's love and forgiveness never fails. If we walk in guilt and shame, we often can't stop thinking about ourselves long enough to help others, and God's forgiveness loses its power. In short, He doesn't want His followers to feel guilty because guilty people haven't triumphed over sin and aren't effective in helping others. He removes our guilt so He can work in us.

I think that is kind of rambling, but hopefully you can understand what I am trying to say. It's late, happy 2010. I'm not even editing this one. Blessings.

I guess my original question still remains, though. Doesn't Christianity require you to feel inadequate? I understand that you're saying feel the undeserved love, but it seems like you have to feel constantly flawed and unworthy, or you're being unfaithful.

I also question whether all other religions allow you to feel adequate. Islam seems to rely on constant humiliation; Buddhism is a constant seeking toward a higher state; Mormonism has the same guilt/unworthiness as Christianity.

I don't think that is the message of Christianity. Rather, the message is that no matter what we do, we can never be seen as adequate in God's eyes, which is why Christ's sacrifice is necessary to make us "pure" before Him. We can never earn salvation, in other words.

And the kind of works Cho is referring to in his article are not works that bring us closer to God. God is not drawn to us because we have a facelift or wear just the right fashions or make-up, as our society might have us believe. Nor is He drawn to us if we do just the right amount of work for Him. He was drawn to us before we did anything for Him to earn His love. You can't earn undeserved love. You can only accept it.

The mystery is that Christ died for us in the midst of our inadequacies. He didn't die for us because we were adequate. But it is His death that makes us adequate. The mystery is that He loves us in spite of our inadequacies. Which is a counter-cultural to our way of thinking in a society that values only those who are good-looking, powerful, hardworking, and who have earned society's favor.

Good for Dove. I think one of the major sins that is overlooked in this world, but yet was emphasized by Jesus, is the sin of commodification. What I mean by that is we tend to put value on people if they are contributing to society and especially if they stimulate the economy. Certainly our culture in the US is saturated by that thinking. We value the rich, powerful, good looking, athletic, and disregard those who are not any of those. Those who are a drain on resources and society are scorned.

Jesus turned that thinking on its head by valuing those who had no overt reason to be considered valuable.

The commodification of women is especially ingrained in this society. It is frustrating to see, after all the work of women's libbers in the 70's and the progress made in making women considered equals in this society, that our worth is still measured by how beautiful we are. It's symptoms are in the revealing and tight clothing women and even elementary school girls wear, as well as in the fact you can now get a prescription for inadequate eyelashes. Eyelashes. Prescription...For...Eyelashes. Sheesh.

In other words, doesn't your faith basically rely on a constant awareness of your own inadequacy? Don't all faiths?

No, only Christianity does; other religions teach that, in practice, you can be adequate through your own efforts. The trouble is that, even in Christendom, we deal in hierarchies, believing and acting that some people/situations etc. are better than others.

Is not the basic message of Christianity inconsistent with a message that you *are* okay as you are? If you have to accept being inadequate before you can accept salvation, why should anyone ever think they *are* adequate?

My guess is that you'll say as long as you're trusting the right god, then through faith in him you'll be adequate. How, then, would you know you're trusting him *enough?* You might forget and begin to have some confidence in yourself, at which point you would actually be inadequate again because you weren't trusting him enough.

In other words, doesn't your faith basically rely on a constant awareness of your own inadequacy? Don't all faiths?