The Problem With “Just as I Am” Christianity

Over his long ministry, Billy Graham preached in packed stadiums around the world. His crusades typically concluded with an altar call while the choir sang the hymn “Just as I Am.”

This hymn captured the essence of Mr. Graham’s theology, that people should come to Jesus just as they are. 

Some estimate that around 3 million people responded to these altar calls, but how many of those people remained committed churchgoers is unknown. 

The story of “Just as I Am”

“Just as I Am” was written by Charlotte Elliott in 1835 and is one of the most recognizable hymns in Protestant Christianity.

As the story goes, at the age of 33 she was visited by a Swiss preacher who asked her if she really was a Christian. She later admitted to him that the question greatly troubled her, and she told him, “I want to come to Jesus; but I don’t know how.”

The preacher answered simply, “Why not come just as you are? You have only to come to Him just as you are.”

Years later, Miss Elliott penned the hymn “Just as I Am,” which eventually became a standard in Protestant hymnbooks. Each stanza begins with the phrase just as I am followed by Miss Elliott’s understanding of what it meant to come to Christ.

“Just as I Am” and feel-good religion

“Just as I Am” isn’t merely a song, but represents the approach of much of Protestant Christianity. The idea is that upon hearing the message of Christ, all a sinner has to do is come to Jesus in faith, without making any attempt to try to change or spiritually clean up his or her life first. 

In modern times, the “Just as I Am” approach has deeply infiltrated modern Protestantism and has led many churches to embrace an ultra-casual approach to their services—one that markets comfort, acceptance and belonging as its core selling points. 

Many churches teach and practice a feel-good message over a be-good message.

His purpose was not for them to come just as they were—but to help them become entirely new people. Instead of focusing on commitment, struggle and character growth, many teach an easy form of Christianity. All one has to do is accept Jesus. Jesus loves you just as you are and just wants you to feel better about yourself.

Becoming a Christian is portrayed as being as easy as coming forward for an altar call or repeating a short prayer for Christ to “come into your heart.”

After years researching evangelical Christianity, psychological anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann summarized it this way in an interview with Christianity Today: “What people want from faith is to feel better than they did without faith.”

In simple terms, it’s all about feelings and experiences.

Jesus preached a very different message

If Jesus were walking the earth as a man today, would His ministry be anything like the modern evangelical approach?

The message He proclaimed 2,000 years ago remains unchanged today (Hebrews 13:8). His followers today should closely follow His example, regardless of modern religious trends. 

Sadly, the modern evangelical approach neglects many elements of the calls to action Jesus actually taught. Jesus interacted with and taught people who were looked down on in society for their moral failings—tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:10). But, as we will see, His purpose was not for them to come just as they were—but to help them become entirely new people. 

Consider these elements of Jesus’ message that are often missing in the modern approach.

1. A strong call to real repentance

Modern evangelical Christianity emphasizes belief and profession.

Believe on Jesus. Just accept Jesus. Give your heart to Jesus.

Of course, believing Jesus in faith is a crucial part of Christianity—but genuine belief isn’t just an intellectual or emotional recognition that Jesus is Lord and Savior. Many scriptures show that true belief and faith must be married with action (Matthew 7:21; James 2:14-24).

To align with Jesus’ approach and teaching, we must emphasize believing and acting upon what Jesus actually taught. There is an immense difference between just believing in Jesus—and actually believing Jesus!

Jesus Himself lamented that many people believed in Him (calling Him “Lord”), but did not believe or do the things He said (Luke 6:46).

Jesus would associate with sinners and was even harshly attacked for doing so! But Jesus clearly explained why He did that. He likened Himself to a physician helping the spiritually sick (Matthew 9:12). He came to make people better—to raise them to a higher standard—to call sinners “to repentance” (verse 13).

Jesus’ message was all about a call to repentance from sin (Mark 1:15; 2:17). That requires identifying exactly what sin is—“the breaking of law” (1 John 3:4, Holman Christian Standard Bible). That is why the 10 Commandments must be regularly taught. If churches don’t teach about God’s law, people won’t even know what to repent of! Teaching about God’s law and sin should produce guilt. Not the kind of guilt that debilitates and festers in our lives, but the kind of guilt—or “godly sorrow”—that motivates us to repent and change (2 Corinthians 7:10).

The apostle Paul strongly taught that we must change: “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). 

Unfortunately, in an effort to get away from the “fire and brimstone” messages of past preaching, many preachers today focus entirely on a feel-good, “just as I am” message. 

They often emphasize that God loves us—which is true—but leave out the fact that His love is all about helping us fundamentally change who we are and become more like Him.

To learn more about this often-neglected message, study our articles on repentance.

2. The necessity of baptism

Many churches do practice baptism in various forms. Some practice full immersion; others, sprinkling or pouring. Others bypass baptism altogether and encourage new converts to simply make a verbal confession of Jesus Christ as Savior.

But if we accept the premise that Christianity should be based on the example of Jesus (1 Peter 2:21), then we can easily cut through the confusing melee of modern practices. In Matthew 3 we read that Jesus came to John the Baptist and was baptized. That baptism was clearly by full immersion because Matthew describes Jesus coming up “out of the water” (verse 16, King James Version).

Technically, Jesus had no reason to be baptized. Baptism is a symbol of repentance (verse 11)—and Jesus had no sins to repent of. But He did it to set an example and show the necessity of baptism.

Just as His ministry began with His own baptism, His work on earth ended by giving His Church the command to make disciples and baptize them (Matthew 28:19). The rest of the New Testament shows many examples of the early Church following this command closely (Acts 2:38, 41; 8:12; 18:8).

It is to modern Christianity’s shame that true repentance and baptism have been replaced with a shallow, spur-of-the-moment verbal confession of belief. 

Biblical baptism, instead of being a spontaneous confession of belief, should be pursued after one genuinely repents and has already shown a willingness to obey God (Matthew 3:8; Acts 3:19; 5:32; John 14:15-17).

To learn more about biblical baptism, read “What Is Baptism?” and “Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?”

3. Christianity is a struggle

The acceptance of a feel-good, “just as I am” Christianity has also veiled another important part of Jesus’ message. Jesus did not describe Christianity as just feeling better about ourselves. He did not portray His Church as a place where Christians go to feel good and be entertained.

Jesus described Christianity as a struggle—a lifelong battle against sin!

Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily [an analogy of self-sacrifice], and follow Me” (Luke 9:23, emphasis added).

When Jesus talked about self-denial, He was describing a life of battling against sin and human nature.

In one of His most shocking teachings, Jesus said that if our eye or hand causes us to sin, we are to “pluck it out” or “cut it off” (Matthew 5:29-30).

This was a powerful word picture to show the importance of fighting sin. Our eyes and hands don’t literally cause us to sin; sin begins in the mind. If our mind is dwelling on sin, we have to remove those sins from our mind. If we are practicing sin through our body, we have to make drastic changes to our thinking and environment in order to stop.

The Christian life isn’t built around just feeling good about ourselves and avoiding guilt. It is a continual, disciplined struggle against sin and a proactive effort to develop the character of Jesus Christ with the help of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 9:27; Romans 13:14).

To learn more about the necessity of building Christ’s character, read “Developing Christian Character” and “Eight Character Traits for Spiritual Maturity.”

From “just as I am” to “just as He is”

The modern “just as I am” approach misses the heart of Jesus’ teaching.

Christ’s message was not that God accepts you just as you are—but instead that God wants us to become just as He is. This means struggling, day by day and year by year, to inch closer and closer to becoming “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)! Jesus set the ultimate standard for Christians very high.

Will you embrace His standard or stay just as you are?