Cruel Christianity

    I read today that Christianity is cruel. It requires the impossible (the example here was love your neighbor as yourself--he had a wife and kids and was not able to give all the love to the neighbor that the commandment required). To require the impossible of people is cruel.
     I wasn't satisfied with the answer given by the Christian responding. He pointed out that anytime he meets a standard he uses it as a condemnation for everyone around him who hasn't met it. It is only with impossible demands that such pride cannot happen. True. But not, I think, the truth at the heart of Christianity's impossible demands.
    Because it is impossible. That makes me cry. I can't live as a Christian, I never could. I can't meet even the one command I want to meet the most, to reflect God's light. It's all my glory, mine, my pride...this is impossible. I can't even change my heart. Much less can I change my sin nature. So why did He give a command I know and He knows I could never meet?
    Perhaps because we were made to be perfect, and God is not content with anything less. Perfection is at the heart of God's commands--a perfection of thought, of time spent, an accountability for every careless word (Matt. ... 11, I think? Or 12 or 13), a completely submissive will, unselfish, loving heart, and pure mind. Take a look at a life you know well, and tell it to meet those demands. You'll probably cry out, as I did--and even rebel.
     But God is perfect, and demands perfection. And I could see that could be cruel, but for one thing: God has promised that perfection will be ours. But--that's in the future. I think of the commands that I couldn't meet, that you couldn't meet before--but we will one day, without effort and struggle. But that's in the future. And I don't know if that's enough to keep me holding on now. Except we were warned, weren't we? Over and over and over in the New Testament, commands to persevere, warnings to persevere--pretty much the whole book of Revelation is a call for the saints to maintain their faith through everything. Only we have God with us. But it didn't look like He was winning, did it? And the very person we turn to requires more than is possible of us. The Old Testament didn't even have the command to persevere, only the expectation that they would, and calls back when they didn't.
     But there are two things that silence my rebellion. One, His forgiveness. A cruel person doesn't forgive. God's forgiveness isn't for yesterday alone, just like his commands aren't for tomorrow alone--his forgiveness is present now, for every sin and turning away. Command and forgiveness are present now. Two--and this is why it makes more sense that we have the command now--though we may not meet those commands to even the smallest extent of fulness, the obedience of the saints has led to glory and beauty on earth beyond our tasting or imagining. Amy Carmichael, Bonhoeffer, Wilberforce, my mother, their beauty is astonishing. His commands, though we can't meet them, still do wonders in us. That--I think that makes sense. But only if one looks at the full picture of God's commands and character, not just one reason for a command.