The Gospel of Twilight?

 Many of you have probably read the books in the Twilight saga and many more have 

probably seen the movie.  But perhaps none of you would imagine that there could be lessons for Christians to learn from vampires.  Well, I am here to tell you that the Cullens have much to 

teach you about being a Christian.  No one could possibly understand better than the Cullens 

what it means to be just and sinful at the same time.  After all, they are the “good guys” aren’t 

they?  But at the same time they are the “good guys” they are also still monsters.  They are 

vampires.  Regardless of how many times they suppress the desire to drink human blood, they 

still have that desire.  They burn for a drink of that forbidden liquid. 

 The Christian is very much the same.  Sure we don’t want to drink blood, but we are 

driven by our natures to do other things.  Sinful things.  You see, just as the Cullens could not 

help being vampires, we cannot help being sinners.  We inherited this sinful nature from our first 

parents just as the Cullens inherited their vampire natures from the one that bit each of them.  

They didn’t ask for it, but they received it.  They simply had to learn how to deal with the 

situation in which they found themselves.  But the Cullens weren’t all bad were they?  They were bad, but they did not allow themselves to become as bad as they could have been.  No matter what, they were monsters, that would never change.  The Christian’s situation is a little different.  

We are also bad, we are sinners.  We will always be sinners as long as we live on earth.  But that 

is not the end of the story for us.  You see, the Christian is always a sinner, it is his nature, he 

cannot help it.  But as one of the baptized children of God he is also justified.  At one time the 

Christian is both sinful and justified.  The Christian has no redeeming qualities, just like a blood 

sucking vampire has no redeeming qualities, both are monsters in their own way.  In the books, 

the Cullens attempt to redeem themselves by use of their self control.  Such an idea is surely 

fiction.  The Scriptures clearly tell us that we cannot help ourselves.  Every thing in us is inclined 

toward evil.  We will always be sinners just like the Cullens will always be vampires.  But that is 

not the end of the story.  

 In the books we are told that Carlisle refused to drink human blood because he refused to 

become enslaved and debased by his nature.  We cannot refuse to sin.  We are too weak. But the 

bond that was once upon us is now broken.  We are no longer sons and daughters of darkness.  

We are the baptized children of God.  What does this mean?  It means simply that we will always 

be sinners just like the Cullens will always be vampires.  But the price for our iniquity has been 

paid.  In the sight of God we are justified.  How can this be?  It can be and it is because in the 

waters of Holy Baptism the stain of original sin and guilt was washed from our souls and the 

righteousness of Christ our Lord was imputed unto us.  Maybe the Cullens can try to become 

better by the exercise of their own wills but we can’t and we don’t have to try.  Christ made us 

good when we could be nothing but sinful.  So is the whole idea behind the goodness of the 

Cullens wrong?  I don’t think so.  There is one point that we do well to note.  Though they 

cannot stop being vampires, they don’t have to give themselves over to the wicked desire that is 

ever with them.  They may be vampires by nature but they are not as far gone as they could be. 

 Some believe that just because we cannot stop being sinners, we should not try to stop sinning. 

“Christ has paid for this so I can do what I want”, they say.  Absolutely not!  That was St. Paul’s

 answer to a similar question.  “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means”!   

So which way is it then?  Can we stop sinning or can’t we?  We cannot stop being sinners.  We will always be inclined to sin, but that does not mean we should stop trying to avoid it.  We do not have to give ourselves over to evil entirely.  Baptism frees us from that bondage.  We should remember that avoiding sin is not counted as merit for us.  We will see heaven only because of Christ’s merit.  But avoiding as much  sin as we can pleases God, so we should strive for holiness as an act of worship and expect nothing in return  knowing that we have already been given more than we could have ever earned or even hoped for. 

Note: This article was published in Higher Things magazine in the summer of 2009.