This article is a summary from the following episode: The Most Christian Thing We Do.
If we asked you, "What's the most Christian thing you could do?"—how would you answer?
A lot of us might say something like, “Well, not sinning.” And sure, a life of holiness is the fruit of being united to Christ. But we want to offer a different answer today—one that we think captures the heart of the Christian life:
The most Christian thing we can do is to confess our weakness, admit our need, and throw ourselves into the arms of Jesus.
That’s it. And when we live there—daily acknowledging our frailty and resting in Christ alone—it leads to real freedom, real joy, and yes, real transformation.
Not Celebrating Sin, But Confessing It
Let’s be clear. We’re not celebrating sin itself. We’re not rejoicing in the fact that we’re messed up and broken. No Christian should. But we do celebrate the confession of our sin. We rejoice when we see ourselves clearly—that we are weak, dependent, and utterly in need of mercy.
Because it’s in confessing our weakness that we most fully cast ourselves on Christ. It's there—in that humble place—that we experience freedom, assurance, and real sanctification.
This is why, every Lord’s Day, we gather together, covered in the blood and righteousness of Jesus, and we confess. We confess our sins. We confess our need. And we hear, once again, that we are forgiven, that we are righteous in Christ, and that we are safe forever.
Freedom Through Weakness
The irony of the Christian life is this: real strength looks like weakness. Real maturity looks like deeper dependence on Christ, not less.
We don’t “graduate” from grace. We don’t move past the gospel. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, when he pleaded with the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, God responded, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
The Christian life isn’t onward and upward triumphalism. It’s growing more and more aware of our desperate need—and rejoicing more and more in Christ’s sufficiency.
Sanctification Starts with Dependence
There’s a dangerous idea floating around that sanctification is mainly about sinning less. That’s not wrong entirely—obedience matters. But that’s not the heart of sanctification.
Sanctification is about trusting Christ more. It's about shifting the weight of our hope off ourselves and more onto Jesus. It's about growing in the humility that says, “I am weak. Christ is strong. I have nothing. Christ is everything.”
And yes, as we trust Him more, real change happens. But that change is the fruit of faith, not the foundation.
When we gather with the church, when we confess our sins to one another, when we pray for each other as James 5 commands—we are living out this truth. We are practicing the most Christian thing we can do: depending entirely on Christ.
Christ in the Foreground
The problem in much of American evangelicalism isn’t that we talk too much about obedience. It’s that we talk about obedience without keeping Christ in the foreground.
We call people to godliness without reminding them that all of life flows from what Christ has already done. We burden people with the law without comforting them with the gospel. And when we do that, we turn the Christian life into drudgery and despair.
But when Jesus is central—when His life, death, and resurrection are the lens through which we view everything—we find freedom. Joy. Rest.
We learn to confess our sins without fear. We learn to walk in newness of life, not because we’re trying to earn something, but because we already have everything in Christ.
Sitting in the Redeemer’s Hand
One of our favorite images comes from The Hammer of God—a novel that beautifully captures this gospel reality. It describes a Christian as a little bird sitting in the hand of his Redeemer, eating and singing songs in the sunshine.
That’s the Christian life. We are weak, but Christ is strong. We are needy, but Christ is sufficient. We deserve judgment, but we have been given mercy. And we live every day in the safety of His hands.
The Most Christian Thing We Can Do
So what’s the most Christian thing we can do?
Confess that we are sinners. Admit that we are weak. Acknowledge that we have nothing to offer. And then, with empty hands, trust completely in Jesus Christ.
All of Christ for all of life. Always.
