The sin of any Christian causes us to mourn. When a secret life is revealed, and a Christian leader has been found to be abusing others, it causes us outrage. When the whole world is given an opportunity to mock Christianity because of that gross sin, we may not know how to react. Do we make excuses? Hide it? Lessen the sting by saying we’re all sinners who need God’s grace?
The goal of this series hasn’t been to examine the sin of a single person. The years Ravi Zacharias spent making a mockery of Christ was the catalyst to writing these articles, but the topics I’ve discussed are meant to give individuals a way to think through everything through a biblical worldview, and hopefully challenge a few people to examine their own thinking. Above all, I didn’t want such a shocking revelation to be wasted on our outrage at an individual when there is so much that the fall of a Christian celebrity can teach us in our own lives.
Remember everything we’ve discussed:
- The danger of celebrity culture
- The toxic desire for “yes men”
- The centrality of the local church
- The depravity of our leaders and teachers
- The terrifying responsibility of teaching
- The lifelong need for purity
- The need for “bottom-up” discipleship
If there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s been my prayer that readers will see the absolute need to put Christ first in everything we do. The truth He’s given us through His word isn’t just important, but central to everything we do. Whenever anyone finds themselves living in sin, the one thing that will always be true is that they’ve taken their eyes off the cross. Let us learn from this so that we can make God’s glory our greatest desire in life.
