There is every reason, therefore, why the Christian religion, when presented fairly and squarely, should be unpopular today.  For God’s love for us is inseparable from God’s hatred of our sins – and no one takes kindly to that except those who, out of love for God, are themselves trying to hate their sins, and hating them to make a wholly new start in their thinking and in their living.  For Christ demands not that a person should be a better person but that he or she should be a new person altogether; not an improvement on his or her old self but a true and lifelike imitation of Christ.

I remember a remark which a garage proprietor once made to me.  “I am reasonably honest”, he said.  Christ has no use whatsoever for such an attitude.  Reasonably honest means reasonably dishonest; reasonably truthful means reasonably untruthful; reasonably forgiving means reasonably unforgiving.  In short, such an attitude means following Christ only when it happens to suit one to do so.  That is not what Christ means by his call, “Follow me”.

Thus, human nature being what it is, the salvation which Christ died on the Cross to obtain for us, fails to find favour with any except a small minority.

It is no accident, therefore, that what keeps people from fully embracing the Christian religion, is not that they are doubtful about such truths as Our Lord’s Divinity and Resurrection, but rather that they do not want to change their mental attitude and their way of life.  One is either like the Pharisee in the parable and feels in no need of salvation; or else, like the tax collector in the same parable, takes the first firm step in accepting the Christian religion – and that step is penitence: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (NRSV, Luke 18:13).