June 1, 2006
It seems to me that evangelism today often consists of sharing how God can benefit you - give you joy and peace in your heart, meaning in life, etc. - some mention of how sin causes separation from God, then you pray a prayer asking for forgiveness, and boom: assurance of salvation, Christ lives in your heart. Is it the gospel really that simple? Our evangelical tracts (useful witnessing tools that they are) and even our preaching I think sometimes fail to give the full message of the gospel.
First, we’re not always explaining the full gravitas of sin. It is man’s nature to sin – by nature, we are God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), objects of God’s righteous wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Yes, God is love, but God is also a holy, righteous, and just God, and man’s sin not only separates us from him – it sets us dead against him, and we deserve God’s wrath. We like to say that man is "separated from God," and that our sin is keeping us from having abundant life here on earth and eternal life in heaven. True enough. But when we fail to fully characterize the blackness and the filth of sin, and the utter depravity of the human soul (Romans 8:7-8), I think we’re doing the unbeliever a disservice by downplaying sin’s nature, its effect, and its consequences.
Second, we’re not explaining the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. How easy it is to say "Jesus died for sinners." Well, what does that mean? Christ, the Messiah, took our place; though he had never sinned, and was God in the flesh, the wrath and judgment of God the father fell on God the son, Jesus – and that wrath and judgment and punishment is what we deserve. (Isaiah 53:4-12; 2 Corinthians 5:21) To explain the phrase "Jesus died for you," we need to explain fully not only that we deserve the full force of the righteous wrath of God, but that in His death, Christ got what we deserve. Simply saying, for example, that Christ died to "show how much he loved us" doesn't express how it shows that love - nor why it is such a great expression of love, or what was actually accomplished on the Cross.
Third, we don’t even begin to describe the consequences of following Christ. We make it sound so easy – and in a way, it is a simple thing to trust Christ, if we are willing to sacrifice our pride and humbly admit our sin, and trust in Christ alone for our salvation. But how many people know the costs? The same Jesus who said "…I have come that they [my sheep] may have life, and have it to the full," (John 10:10) also said, "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me" (Matthew 24:9) and "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25) Suffering – sometimes intense suffering – and self-denial is part and parcel of the Christian life, as hard as it is for we pampered, materialistic Americans to imagine.
I think the message that we often come across with is, "turn to Jesus, and you’ll be happy, and have a full, abundant life." That’s a consumer-friendly message in our culture, but it’s an incomplete gospel! Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not advocating hellfire/brimstone/damnation preaching without any word about God’s grace, mercy, and love. But can the full impact – the full, true value – of the grace and mercy of God be appreciated by anyone, especially an unbeliever, without an adequate conviction of his sin? And how will a new believer react to suffering when it inevitably comes, if all he is prepared for is peace and joy and abundant life?
This is reading like a rant, but that’s not really my intention. But in so many of our churches today, especially in America, the faith of the apostles, of the martyrs, and of the reformers seems to have been replaced by an Osteen-esque "Christianity Lite," in our efforts to draw more people to our churches. Nobody wants to offend anyone; who wants to be hated? But we've consequently sanitized the message of salvation to avoid alienating anyone. Not that we should try to offend, of course; on the contrary, we must speak with love and grace. The gospel is good news indeed, but I think we often fail to remember that it starts with bad news – the VERY bad news of sin - and that the cross is inherently offensive to the world (I Corinthinans 1:18).
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Next time I'll do two things: first, I'll archive the May posts on a separate page; and second, I'll do a less-intense post meditating on a hymn. While I like to write, maybe I shouldn't try to be so serious all the time...
May 20, 2006 (2)
The boldness of Paul and the timidity of the modern American Christian
During the last week I was in a training class on IT disaster recovery with several of my GAO colleagues. The instructor (a cross between Tony Robbins and... well, nobody) illustrated some of his points with stories about people that he knew, many of which attended his "Sunday Morning Establishment."
My first reaction was to roll my eyes in disgust. How is it that this man had become so private about his faith and so afraid of offending anyone even in the slightest, that he wouldn't even refer to his church as a "church?" I certainly talk fairly openly about my church membership around my colleagues, most of whom are unbelievers.
However, how many Christians - myself included - are truly open about sharing our faith? Now please understand that I don't know the spiritual condition of the class instructor: his "Sunday Morning Establishment" could be anything from Evangelical Protestant to Unitarian Universalist. But how quick I was to turn up my nose at the speck in another person's eye while missing the plank in my own! Two thousand years ago Paul wrote the following words:
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:14-17, NIV, emphasis mine)
Here was a man who had been shipwrecked, beaten, and imprisoned for the sake of the gospel, loudly proclaiming that he was not ashamed, and eager to preach in Rome, as hostile a city for Christians as existed at that time. Yet here are we modern American Christians, barely mentioning church and neglecting to tell our friends, neighbors, relatives, and colleagues that they are slaves to their own sin, and that Christ will take the penalty for that sin and set them free (see the hymn below) if they will only repent - we keep silent for fear of offending others or being labeled "intolerant" - or worse. Such miniscule, insignificant suffering, compared to the blood shed by so many martyrs! Shame on us - shame on me - for preferring cultural comfort to the joy of suffering (even a little) for the gospel.
May 20, 2006
In 1738, reflecting on his own conversion, Charles Wesley penned the following hymn; like others, I was unfamiliar with it before I joined CHBC, but I've come to love its awe-inspiring, astounding declaration of how Christ has rescued and transformed His people.
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Oh, that churches everywhere would look past the ubiquitous, angel-food cake praise choruses and rediscover the great hymns of the faith! What a great statement - "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed Thee!" How amazing that God saw fit to set us free from our prison of sin - a prison that we labored to build ourselves, with bars and shackles that we wrought ourselves, yet only Christ supplies the key!
May 13, 2006
I am spending the weekend at my parent's house in Christiansburg, VA; since it is Mother's Day weekend I figured it was a good weekend to come down. We had dinner at a fish fry sponsored by the Mount Tabor Ruritan Club; I told my folks it was completely "anti-Northern Virginia." Sitting at picnic tables, in a field behind a little country church, next to a cow pasture, with an Appalachian band, catching up with people from all over town... it's a cultural experience - of real community - that is rare nowadays, particularly in a cosmopolitan, transient metropolis like DC. People do experience community in their churches and workplaces (a fact that I'm thankful for, particularly for the church family at CHBC), but so often we don't know our next-door neighbors...the towns and communities in Fairfax, Montgomery, and Loudoun counties seem to lack any identity of their own, apart from their common anchor in Washington. Maybe in small town living you don't have symphonies, or lots of restaurants or movie theaters, or world-class museums, but there's something to be said for places that don't have interstates and shopping malls and three million people rushing around in too much of a hurry to get to know their neighbors.
I spent the drive down listening to a Reformation and Modern Church History course that I downloaded from Covenant Seminary (a PCA seminary in St. Louis, MO). I've missed most of the church history core seminars at CHBC this quarter, but these lectures go into much greater detail than is possible on Sunday mornings. After I finish with the church history class, I have another set of Systematic Theology lectures downloaded; I've been putting my iPod through its paces! However, I wish that I had the patience and the attention span to read as much as I'd like (as opposed to just listening). I admire (okay, I envy) people who are voracious readers of theology, church history, and the Bible... I'd love to study a Systematic Theology text, John Owen, the writings of Luther, or of Spurgeon, or Calvin's Institutes; but I find such reading to be hard to digest: my inability to concentrate is probably my greatest frustration. I probably have six or seven Christian books that I've bought from the church bookstall that I know will take me a very long time to work through. So, I'm thankful for audio resources!
May 5, 2006
This entry doesn't contain anything profound, because it's only a test entry! I wanted to be sure that I knew how to create HTML tags that will navigate directly to particular posts on this page. So, for future entries, the links on the main page will go directly to the entry for the date that you clicked (except for the first one, which will navigate to the top of the page). Go back to the main page and click on May 4 to see how it works.
May 4, 2006
The Government Accountability Office building, where I spend much of my time, is in downtown Washington, DC, directly across G street from the National Building Museum. The museum is housed in an 1880s-vintage building originally housing the agency that administered the pension program for Union veterans of the Civil War (thus its common moniker, the "Pension Building"). It's an enormous red brick structure with a large open space in the center - it's often used for inaugural balls and political receptions.
Well, this evening the Building Museum is hosting yet another event, apparently for some Very Important Rich, Influential, and Powerful Person; from the window by my cubicle this afternoon I could easily see the line of well-dressed and apparently well-heeled people stretching halfway around the block, as each person was carefully checked against the guest list and each purse and camera bag was searched. As I was leaving for home I caught a glimpse of the metal detectors; the building perimeter was being carefully watched by police and by stern-looking men in dark suits wearing earpieces who looked like they could crush me - a big guy at 6'5", 225 lbs. - like a bug on a windshield. Security was very, very tight; it was obvious to me that a) the guest of honor was probably the President (although I don't know that for sure), and b) if anyone tried to get in without being on the guest list, that person would get an up-close and personal encounter with the U.S. Secret Service and a Federal prison.
As I walked through downtown to catch the Metro home, I couldn't help but think about how similar that picture is to what life with Christ is like - and, at the same time, how dissimilar. For the Christian, we have been invited to a great feast - we are guests of the Most High, our name is on the guest list, and the dirty rags of our sin have been replaced with the clean clothes of Christ's righteousness. But we weren't made guests because we are rich, or influential, or well-connected, or because we deserve a seat at the table for any reason - we are guests purely by the goodness and graciousness of God! Jesus' parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22 is a great description of how we - the undeserving, the lowly, the wretched, the Gentile, the sinful - have been brought into the great feast of Christ in spite of our sin. What a blessed truth that is!
I'll probably write more on the topic of my church on another day, but one reason I love my church so much is its oldness; that is, its deep reverence for the scriptures, the heroes of the Church through all of history, the great teachers of the Reformation, and the great hymns of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. So many of our choruses of today are fluffy; theologically empty - but Oh! how Watts and Crosby and Wesley could express their love for God in word and song! A hymn that I've grown to love over this last year was written by Isaac Watts in 1707:
How sweet and aweful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!
Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.
While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?
“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”
’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.
Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.
We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.
What a wonderful image! The police and the Secret Service aren't patrolling the perimeter of the banquet hall to keep out the undeserving - we are the undeserving, and the banquet is for us - for us, and for the glory of God! Jesus Christ himself became sin for us, to give us a place at the table. How selfish and prideful I am to eschew daily time in prayer, in reading God's word, in witnessing to the people in my life, in favor of surfing the Internet and watching "CSI." I've been given a place in God's kingdom! How can I act as though that doesn't matter?