Last week I wrote a post called The Gospel Of Ideas. I shared an excerpt from the book "Searching For God Knows What" by Donald Miller wherein he posed a question to the students of the Bible class he was teaching. I want to follow-up on that post and share Mr. Miller's excerpt from the same book to answer the question.
"The story bears repeating: I presented a gospel to Christian Bible college students and left out Jesus. Nobody noticed, even when I asked them to think very hard about what it was I had left out. To a culture that believes they go to heaven based on whether they are morally pure, or that they understand some theological ideas or that they are very spiritual, Jesus is completely unnecessary. At best, He is an afterthought, a technicality by which we become morally pure, or a subject of which we know, or a founding father of our woo-woo spirituality. These students loved Jesus very much, and they were terrific kids whom I loved being with, it is just that when they thought of the gospel, they thought of the message in terms of a series of thoughts or principles, not in mysterious relational dynamics. The least important of the ideas, to this class, was knowing Jesus; the least important of the ideas was the one that is RELATIONAL. The gospel of Jesus, then, mistakenly assumed by this class, is something different from Jesus himself."
Sometimes I think churches have reduced this relationship to a formulistic equation. A+B+C = Salvation. Admit, Believe, Confess and you are Heaven bound! I know a lot of Christians who adhere to this formula, yet do not seem to know Jesus himself. I also know many morally good people who see Christ as unnecessary. I encounter these two scenarios almost every day of my life. Both make me sad. Both spark anger. Both cause me to speak with holy boldness (thanks CM). And I believe both are what caused me to step away from church and concentrate on knowing Jesus better. I believe that Jesus is the only way to God. The book of Romans is clear on this subject; faith in Christ is necessary for salvation. I also believe salvation does not end with a formula. We are not called to stay in our holy huddles, pat ourselves on the back, and be comfortable in our chosen pew. Actually, Jesus us told us to do the exact opposite and quiet honestly, I am weary of living a safe, comfortable, lukewarm type of life.
The last few months I have taken an honest look at my life and what I see in myself is exactly what Francis Chan outlines in his book "Crazy Love"...
"Lukewarm people:
...attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe good Christians do, so they go.
...give money to charity and to the church...as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living.
...tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict. They desire to fit in both at church and outside of church; they care more about what people think of their actions than what God thinks of their hearts and lives.
...don't want to be saved from their sins, they want to be saved from the penalty of their sins.
...are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act.
...rarely share their faith with neighbors, coworkers or friends.
...gauge their morality or goodness by comparing themselves to the secular world.
...say they love Jesus and He is a part of their lives. But only a part.
...love God, but not with all their heart, soul and strength.
...love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves and mostly focus their love on those who with who they connect. Their love is highly conditional, selective and generally comes with strings attached.
...think about life on earth much more often than eternity.
...are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. Untold numbers feel called to minister to the rich; very few feel called to minister to the poor.
...do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty. They do the bare minimum to be "good enough" without it requiring too much of them.
...are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control.
...feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican or live in America.
...do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They have their savings account, their retirement plan, their life is figured and mapped out, their refrigerators are full and for the most part are in good health. Their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.
...probably drink less and swear less than average, but besides that, they really are not very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn't be more wrong."
2 Corinthians 13:5 tells me to "examine myself, to see whether I am in the faith; test myself." And so I did. I am far lacking. Not a pretty picture at all!
Jesus also says in Luke 14:34-35, "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out." Not a pretty analogy is it? Lukewarm and uncommitted faith is completely useless...not even a benefit for a manure pile. Ouch!
As I have studied and read over the passed few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that the culture and the church has manipulated the gospel to fit its preferences.
Now what?
To be continued......
(This post is dedicated to a dear friend whose granddaughter is pregnant and unmarried. Her family wanted to give her a baby shower at the church where her granddaughter attends, but the pastor felt it would be "inappropriate under the circumstances". She was also advised to no longer sing in the choir as it wasn't proper to stand in front of the congregation. I'm pretty sure the members carry large bags of rocks with them. My heart breaks for her. Isn't it a good thing Mary wasn't living in our culture?)