Reflections on Failure: The Back Door to Success

2006-08-23

These are some of the things that come to mind after reading the book Failure: The Back Door to Success, by Erwin W. Lutzer

Failure is a reality in this life, and success is not what we think it is. We often think of success as being the things we have done. If we have failed in doing, then we have failed. This may or may not be true. Success, however, depends largely as to what God sees in us. God does not measure us by what we do, but who we are. When we trust Christ, what He sees is Christ and what He has done, not what we have done.

If we look at success the way the world views success, Jesus would have been a failure. He was never rich, and died in shame. Success depends on whether we have trusted Christ or not, our risen Lord, and if we are abiding in Him and relying on Him during our time here on earth.

Comparing our abilities is also a travesty. The Lord is the one who gives us our abilities, and we ought to rejoice and praise God for what He has given us. There is no need to daydream for what we could have done; Even if we have failed or think we have failed in past endeavors, God does not stop using us, and He will always care about us. Consequences for sins may stand, but confession of sin is always just a step away. When we confess our sins and agree with God that we have sinned against Him, our fellowship is restored with Him.

Life really is put in perspective when Lutzer writes his chapter, We’re All Chips off the Same Block. We are all descendents of Adam, and with that, we all have the potential to do any sin. We all have the same fallen nature. The atrocities of Hitler came from the darkened mind of a man who is just like us. Jesus Christ paid for all sin, from the most heinous crimes to the little white lies. Adam, who did not know sin before his creation, ate from the tree of knowledge, destroying his relationships with God, Eve, and the world, and spread this sin to his descendents. Therefore, we all have the sins discussed in 1 John 2:16.

Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of the world. All sins, past, present, and future, are covered on the cross at Calvary. Oftentimes, we do not understand this. Even Christians forget this, and live in guilt. When we confess our sins to God, He is willing to forgive right then and fellowship with Him is restored. However, we often hold onto guilt, and refuse to come to God for forgiveness. We focus on ourselves, and do not trust God. But God wants us to come to Him, despite our feelings or despite how hard it may be to confess our sins. Though God forgives us very quickly, oftentimes sin has awful consequences that we must accept. Nonetheless, regardless of what we do, God disciplines us (but does not punish us).

Regardless of what we do, or how we sin, God knew it ahead of time. When Adam sinned, He did not scramble around for a remedy and used Jesus as the way. Jesus was ordained before the foundation of the world to be Lord and Savior of a people God knew would turn away. So when we sin, God knew what we would do, and has not given up on us. God is looking for a broken and contrite spirit, and for us to confess our sins and trust in Him. Lutzer states that “to be strong in ourselves is defeat; to be helpless in ourselves makes us candidates for God’s power” (Lutzer 95).

God is seeking worshipers. He wants His people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Our commitment to Him must be that we place Him on the throne of our lives, and make everything else in our lives revolve around serving Him. This means going to Him for more than what we need, but also to ascribe to Him glory and thank Him for what He is doing in our lives. And regardless of where we have been and what we have done, it is not too late to return to Him.

The very title of the book suggests exactly what it means. When we fail, when we sin, when we face difficulty, we have an opportunity to trust God. If our sin is involved, once we confess our sins we have restored fellowship with God, for He has paid for all of our sins for all of eternity.

Source

Lutzer, Erwin W. Failure: The Back Door to Success. Chicago: Moody, 1975.