People Who Attend a “Youniversity” are Trying to be Better

People go to college to be better educated, get better jobs, have better homes, and enjoy a better life. But is that what God wants for us, a “better” life? The word “better” can result in awful theology, whose core premise is this: “if you just try harder, you can be a better Christian.” “Better” is ‘code’ for self-improvement—which stands in opposition to the gospel of grace and mercy. (And, by the way, the word “TRY” never shows up in the New Testament!)

“Better” is Youniversity’s core value, as seen in such course offerings as: “This is Your Day,” “The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” “Your Best Life Now,” and “Become a Better You.” But the Youniversity offers nothing on the supremacy of Christ. You won’t find any classes on: “Dying with Christ,” “Christ in You; the Hope of Glory;” or “It is no longer I who live but Christ.” To learn these, you will have to drop out of the Youniversity and enroll in the School of Christ, where classes are not about you, but Christ.

Think about this: Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He didn’t come to make good people better. He came to make dead people alive.

Don’t Believe in Your Self!

At the 24-Hour Fitness where I exercise every day, there are signs on every wall—‘Believe in Yourself.’ I look at them and think ‘they must be crazy!’ Anyone foolish enough to believe in himself is setting himself up for disappointment! To believe in yourself is to believe in your “self.” And Jesus says any follower of His must deny his self (Mark 8:34). Believing in your self is a sin of the greatest measure—it is the sin of independence. And being disappointed in yourself means to have believed in yourself!

“Self” belief is rooted in humanism—the belief that you can do anything. And humanism’s path ends in the despair of perfectionism: subjectively defined, self-imposed standards where you set unattainable goals—and always falling short.

Have you been trying to ‘believe in yourself?’ But falling short? You can never be free from performance and consequent disappointment until you accept that you are imperfect and unworthy! (I know how counter-culture that sounds!) But only those who truly understand their unworthiness and ensuing need for God’s grace will be free from disappointment. Knowing they can never be ‘good enough,’ their confidence is “Christ in me, the HOPE of glory” (Col. 1:27)—the divine remedy to humanism and perfectionism where we exchange our ‘goodness’ (a euphemism for self-righteousness!) for HIS perfection. The next time you feel disappointed in yourself, be quick to confess it as the sin of believing in yourself.