I was listening to a podcast on Issues Etc. earlier this week and I was struck by a profound thought. The title of the podcast was “The Vocation of Minister.” I’d normally link directly to it but the site appears to be down as I’m writing this, nothing will load.

The guest speaker was talking about how the word minister means “servant,” but most churches today prefer to look to ministers as leaders or CEO’s, and ministers are all too happy to accept this role. The proper role of a minister is that of a servant, and his chief task is to “administer” what God has given, His gifts.

The guest speaker then said this:

“We approach [the vocation of the minister] as a social issue, we look at what the people want. Let’s look at the word ministry. There’s an old saying… ‘The customer is always right.’ The customer knows what he wants and if you’re going to serve the customer, you better give him what he wants or you’re not going to do business with him. That’s precisely wrong when it comes to the church, because the customer is always wrong. And God is always right.

In other words, we must approach the vocation of the minister theologically (not socially). A minister of God must often preach God’s Law and His Gospel to people who don’t want any part of it. Often people don’t realize the depth of their sinfulness (including me), and they must hear God’s Law. Other times the Law has done its work and people have been cut to the heart, then they need to hear the Gospel. The customer (not a good term but I’m using it simply to make a point) is always wrong. He doesn’t want what he really needs. I am so often guilty of this. I often want authenticity, community, and whatever – but what I really need is the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. These other things are secondary to this primary need.

It is too easy to lose sight of Christ as the focal point of our churches when we operate with the assumption that the folks in the pews are right. That’s how we get mega-churches that acquiesce to, rather than transform, culture. Give the people what they want and you will grow numerically, but that’s not how ministry progress ought to be measured.

“What God’s Word really means when it says that man is justified and saved by faith alone is nothing else than this: Man is not saved by his own acts, but solely by the doing and dying of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the whole world. Over against this teaching modern theologians assert that in the salvation of man two kinds of activity must be noted: in the first place, there is something that God must do. His part is the most difficult, for He must accomplish the task of redeeming men. But in the second place something is required that man must do. For it will not do to admit persons to heaven, after they have been redeemed, without further parley (talk). Man must do something really great – he has to believe. This teaching overthrows the Gospel completely.” – C.F.W. Walther

I’m currently reading a book entitled The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. It’s been a very enlightening book that talks about what constitutes genuine spirituality. I was struck by this quote:

By “spirituality,” I do not mean any kind of content-free, theologically-vacuous quest for transcendent experiences for their own sake. Rather, “spirituality” has to do precisely with the content, what fills abstract theology, mundane institutions, and the everyday life of the Christian with their real substance.

The quest for this kind of spirituality is, I think, genuine and important. Many people today, in our shallow, mass-produced, materialistic culture, yearn for depth, for richness, for transcendence. Many do not even find spiritual substance in their churches, many of which have adopted the slick superficialities and manipulative commercialism of American pop culture, mutating into what can only be described as pop-Christianity. Interestingly, many casualties of pop-Christianity are drifting into older faiths that do seem to offer a measure of spiritual substance. A huge exodus is taking place from Protestantism into the Roman Catholic Church and, perhaps even more significantly, into Eastern Orthodoxy (p. 14).

In the past I’ve written that for most folks in our society, it is cool to search for God, but it’s not so cool to find Him, but the meaningless fad “spirituality” that our culture seems obsessed with seems to run deeper than just our culture. This culture has also permeated the church. I myself have even spoken with an Eastern Orthodox priest and my wife and I attended a young adult ministry of the Roman Catholic Church. Why? Because we have been yearning for substance, not the fluff that consumes our culture and most Protestant churches.

Much of American Protestantism has become little more than another false religion on the smorgasbord of faith groups, because it has drifted into moralism, speculation, and/or mysticism – all which are us striving towards God. But the reality of true Christian spirituality is that all human effort to reach God is futile. Christianity is all about what God does, not what we do.

Fluffy teaching may show me how to be positive, it may even help me become a better person. The Law is good at making us feel guilty about our sins and eager to try harder next time. The problem is, we always fail. We can never be good enough. That’s why we also need to hear the Gospel: Jesus Christ was credited with our sins and we are credited with His righteousness. What gets us into heaven isn’t how good we are, it’s how perfect Jesus is. Teaching with real substance uses the Law to show me my sin, but then shows me my Savior through the Gospel.

To purchase this book, follow the link below:

“I ask you what you think of the faithful minister of Christ, who honestly exposes sin and pricks your conscience. Mind how you answer that question. Too many, nowadays, like only those ministers who prophesy smooth things and let their sins alone, who flatter their pride and amuse their intellectual taste, but who never sound an alarm, and never tell them of a wrath to come.”
         J.C. Ryle, Holiness

I’m tired of people using the cliche that Christianity isn’t about do’s and don’ts, it’s about a relationship. This is true, but it’s somewhat of a false dichotomy. It often masks antinomianism (belief that we no longer have any obligation to God’s Law because of Christ). All relationships are guarded and preserved by rules. Try telling your wife after you’ve had an affair, “Come on, I thought our marriage was about the relationship, not all these do’s and don’ts.”

So sure, it is about the relationship with Jesus. But all relationships have boundaries for protection. Keeping those boundaries doesn’t make the relationship go well, but the relationship certainly will not go well if you do not keep them.

It’s no big secret that the gospel of American Christianity is really no Gospel at all — see my recent post entitled American Jesus: A Manifesto for more on that. But this is much more significant than just the presentation of “Decision Theology” and other Pelagian ideals, it involves a complete removal of Christ from the message, a Christless Christianity. I recently read some excerpts from Michael Horton’s book Christless Christianity at Truth Matters. It says:

“Where everything is measured by our happiness rather than by God’s holiness, the sense of our being sinners becomes secondary, if not offensive. If we are good people who have lost our way but with the proper instructions and motivation can become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a redeemer. We can still give our assent to a high view of Christ and the centrality of his person and work, but in actual practice we are being distracted from “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). A lot of the things that distract us from Christ these days are even good things. In order to push us off point, all that Satan has to do is throw several spiritual fads, moral and political crusades, and other “relevance” operations into our field of vision. Focusing the conversation on us—our desires, needs, feelings, experience, activity, and aspirations— energizes us. At last, now we’re talking about something practical and relevant.” (pg 15-16)

“…I am not arguing in this book that we have arrived at Christless Christianity but that we are well on our way. There need not be explicit abandonment of any key Christian teaching, just a series of subtle distortions and not-so-subtle distractions. Even good things can cause us to look away from Christ and to take the gospel for granted as something we needed for conversion but which now can be safely assumed and put in the background. Center stage, however, is someone or something else…So much of what I am calling “Christless Christianity” is not profound enough to constitute heresy. Like the easy-listening Muzak that plays ubiquitously in the background in other shopping venues, the message of American Christianity has simply become trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant.” (pg 20)

“If the message the church proclaims makes sense without conversion, if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time so that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it is not the gospel. When Christ is talked about, a lot of things can happen, none of which necessarily have any lasting impact. When Christ is proclaimed in his saving office, the church becomes a theater of death and resurrection.” (pg 141)

These are some great thoughts! As I’ve said before, when we remove the offense of the Gospel, we have no gospel at all. If sin is a generic condition everyone has, and we never internalize it and begin to examine specific sins we commit, then perhaps we don’t have a real savior. No real sin, no real savior! Horton says it well.

Paul McCain, author of the Cyberbrethren blog, wrote a post today entitled the same thing. In it he writes:

The crisis in Christianity is not liberal v. conservative, not whether the Bible is, or is not, inspired, and is not who is “missional” and who is not. The crisis in Christianity is constant and a long-standing one. It is the crisis over the question of the supremacy and centrality of the proclamation of the message of Christ: the righteous, innocent Savior of all mankind.

The great crisis in Christianity is that in many quarters and places, pulpits and homes, the Gospel is an afterthought, an aside, something for conversion, a cliche, a Shibboleth, quickly mouthed in order to permit something other to be said, proclaimed, advanced and promoted, and usually that “something” is nothing but law, driving the sinner not to Christ, but to his feelings, emotions, personal opinions—turning a person right back into himself. . . .

. . . Over the years I’ve come to realize that is is precisely a Christ-less Christianity and a No-Good-News Gospel that is truly at the heart of every crisis, challenge and problem facing the Christian Church. We are at war against sin, death and the devil, and without the actual good news of Jesus Christ, we may as well be using sticks and stones against the principalities and powers of this age, whose only goal is to crush and destroy our faith, and the Christian Church. We forget that with “might of ours” we can not prevail and soon will be undone. . . .

. . . Bloodless Christianity is the crisis. When the blood of Christ is not splashed about, all over people, when our pastors preach and when our teachers teach and when our parents parent: there is where to look for the source of the crisis in modern Christianity. [emphasis mine]

Well said. Will the church of 2009 take strides towards re-focusing on Jesus, or will it give us “more of the same?” Only time will tell. . . .

For an in depth treatment of America’s “Christless Christianity,” be sure to see my post American Jesus: A Manifesto.

A good friend and spiritual father to me (1 Corinthians 4:15), Dick Rockenbach, recently asked me to begin thinking about the differences between the American Jesus and the Real Jesus — which is a really interesting topic. I had intended to first write a post about connections and evangelism, but that has been sitting in draft mode for almost a week now and I’ve developed writer’s block in regards to it. This topic is also far more pressing, because it gives me another opportunity to share the Gospel — and I’ll take all of those opportunities I can get!

I have been in some indirect email correspondence with David Breitenfeld, a friend of Dick’s, regarding this post. I’ll be quoting his emails to begin (with his permission).

It really bothers me that American Christianity really is no faith at all — it is missing some core elements. I posted some videos and frustrations about one such deception, the heresy of the sinner’s prayer, recently. But this is just one such product of America’s individualistic Christianity and me-centered Jesus.

The Origins of ‘Decision Theology’
Breitenfeld explains where this American theology originated:

Americanized Jesus is based on the reform doctrines of free will and the rejection of original sin, which dominated the early founding religious practices and denominations- basically reformed understanding.

Choice, Choice, and more Choice is the American motto. Our history as America is built on this idea. I think Charles Finney is the guy to give a lot of credit to for starting the “Altar Call” here in America. After him other people took up the practice “and with slight variations the new method spread with increasing popularity through Finney and, later, Dwight L. Moody, and finally into virtually all of nineteenth and twentieth century evangelicalism. Peter Cartwright, Sam Jones, R. A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, Bob Jones, Gipsy Smith, Mordacai Ham, John R. Rice, Billy Graham all employed the method with impressive success. The invitation system had come to stay (Source: http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/ecclesiology/altar.htm).

It was not practiced by others before him: prophets, priests, Jesus, disciples, apostles, early church fathers, Lutherans nor any of the other reformers.

Charles Finney believed that salvation depends on a person’s will to repent and it is not forced by God on people against their will.

“What was the content of Finney’s Christianity? Very simply, he disagreed with Scripture on some fundamental points. First, he denied original sin. In spite of the clear words of Psalm 51:5, he claimed that man does not come into this world at war with God and with a disposition to sin. Rather, his will is intact and he can choose to do good spiritual works apart from God’s Spirit working in his life. “Let him [the preacher] go right over against them, urge upon them their ability to obey God, show them their obligation and duty, and press them with that until he brings them to submit and be saved.”

This leads to the second and much more grievous error. If man can turn himself to God, then why does he need a Savior? The answer for Finney is, basically, man does not need a Savior – at least not in the scriptural sense! He is his own Savior. Finney does not view Jesus’ death as payment for the sins of human beings who cannot save themselves. Rather, Jesus’ death demonstrates God’s anger over sin and his great love for humankind. Jesus becomes merely an example of what we should do for God if we really love him – give ourselves totally up to him. This notion, the so-called “moral government” theory of the atonement, compromises the biblical doctrine of salvation, where Jesus came to offer his life as a ransom for imprisoned and helpless sinners (Matthew 20:28; Source: http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissar52.htm).

So Decision Theology is the American Jesus way. Man needing to control his life the way he intends and by his own understanding: choices and more choices. Now some may use the same words and same definitions, but it all hinges on man doing something, so that he can base his life on what he has done and gain confidence, that is the key. Oh, some may give credit to Jesus, or Christ died for my sins, etc (say the right words, but the firm foundation is based on “I gave..” or “I made a decision..”, “I said the Sinner Prayer..” By the Way, the sinful nature can not trust God or Jesus so as long as the person is calling the shots, he is made to believe he is saved.

David made some great points. I’d like to expound even more on what he said and clarify some points. We are not even able to make a decision to follow Christ. You are saved because God chose you. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:63 says “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” The Greek for 6:44 literally says that no one is capable of coming to Jesus unless the Father drags him. The phrase translated “no help at all” in 6:63 implies that the flesh cannot help, aid, benefit, profit, or gain anything – only the Spirit gives life. I’m not advocating Calvinism here, I’ve already explained in a past post that I view Calvinism, Arminianism, and Pelagianism as doctrinal extremes to be avoided. Keep reading and hear me out. . . .

We cannot do anything that results in our own salvation, including make a decision for Christ. That’s why Jesus likens salvation to being “born again.” How much of a role did you play in being born into the world? None. The same is true of your salvation. You were regenerated (born again) into it by the Holy Spirit creating faith in your heart, you may have responded to it by praying a sinner’s prayer, but that is not what saved you and it is not the moment you were saved. You were saved before you responded to it. In fact, Romans 5:8 points out that you are saved while dead in your sin — not after you give it up. You don’t have the power to give it up, the flesh is hostile to God and unable to give up sin and submit to God (Romans 8:7). Even repentance is a gift, not a work of our own (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). I encourage you to look up all of the Scriptures I quote in this post so that you can see this for yourself.

Justification is our salvation, it is when God counts Jesus’ righteousness as ours, and when He looks at us He sees only the perfection of Jesus. Justification is ENTIRELY God’s work; we have nothing to do with it. Sanctification is the process after we are saved in which we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become more holy while on earth, before we are completely perfected in righteousness on the last day. Just as you cannot effect your birth, you have no role in justification. But when it comes to sanctification — you have a big role to play. You still must rely solely on Jesus to bear any fruit, but it does require an act of your will to choose to obey and submit to God. Just as you could commit suicide and thus end your physical life, you can commit spiritual suicide by choosing not to fellowship with Jesus Christ and other believers.

I know a lot of people who tell me that they can’t follow Christ because they aren’t ready to give up their sins. But they are unable to give up their sins, that’s the point! That’s why we needs Jesus in the first place. If we could choose to stop sinning and turn from sin on our own, what would we need Christ and His Spirit for? But that’s the problem with American Christianity, and that’s the problem with the sinner’s prayer. Americans like individualism; we believe we can control everything in our lives. And so we simply export that philosophy into our faith and abra cadabra! We choose to be saved. That’s not the case, though. We CANNOT choose to be saved, that’s the point. That’s why it is such a gracious act of God! Any method of salvation that involves my own reason or strength puts too much credit in the human race. We are completely depraved, completely spiritually bankrupt — inclined to evil all the time. Without the grace of God, we would die in our sins. But by the grace of God, God grants us repentance and the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts.

Gospel – Law = False Conversion
So if that’s the case, how can I accuse so many of not being saved, especially many so-called Christians who have prayed the sinner’s prayer? The problem is this: American preachers completely ignore God’s Law. The Law cannot save us. Romans 3:20 says it best: “No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” The Law makes us aware of our sin. The American Gospel looks like this: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Anyone would accept that! And all you have to do is pray this prayer and you are saved. WRONG. What creates faith in our hearts? The Holy Spirit. How and why? Romans 10:17 — “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Read the Gospels. Watch how Jesus spoke to people. He spoke Law to sinners who were secure in their sins in order to make them realize they were truly evil. To those who were already broken over their sins He spoke love, grace and truth. He revealed Himself to them. Americans rarely hear the Law, and thus are rarely broken over their sins. Brokenness is the fertile ground God seeks, not to hurt us, but to show us how utterly dependent we truly are on Him. A little earlier in that passage in Romans 10:9-10 is the passage sinner’s prayer advocates like to use in defense of it. It says essentially that if you confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. This is true, but we must put the verse back into its context! Check out Romans 10:1-4. Paul is pointing out how the Israelites were zealous for God, but had no knowledge of Him. They tried to establish their own righteousness instead of trusting completely in the fact that they are only saved by grace! The point is not to ask people merely to confess something and if they really believe it they are saved, the point is that people are zealous for God without really knowing who He is, and they are trusting in themselves and their own deeds rather than trusting in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone to atone for their sins.

Because preachers are not preaching the Law, people are not truly broken over their sins, and they still believe that they are essentially good people. No one can come to God believing he is already good apart from Him. We can’t even approach Him in that mindset. That’s because if we believe we are a good person, we are proud. Pride is the root of all sin, and it is the original sin that caused Lucifer to fall and thereby become Satan. The reason pride is so evil is because it is by nature competitive. C.S. Lewis explains this well in his best-seller, Mere Christianity:

Each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. . . . Two of a trade never agree. . . . Pride is essentially competitive – is competitive by its very nature – while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

So why is this relevant? Because we don’t simply think we are good, we believe we are better than others. This is why so many so-called Christians run around today acting “holier than thou.” They believe they are better than others, whom they label “sinners.” Even when we come to Christ, we are no better than the lowliest murderer, we simply are blessed to have been found by God’s amazing grace, and we ought to desire for the murderer to come to partake of this same grace. A sinner who has truly been broken over his sins understands his evil nature and praises Christ for saving him from it. Dan Kimball said that “there is more ministry occurring in the A.A. meeting in the basement of the church than in the Sunday morning service above it.” There is a lot of truth in that statement. Whether someone has been sober 40 minutes, 40 days, or 40 years, they don’t judge the new alcoholic who stumbles in the door – because they remember when they were in that condition – or possibly even worse off. Christians don’t simply forget where they’ve came from, they don’t believe they have ever been bad in the first place.

The Real Gospel Offends People
The Gospel is truly an offensive message. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Nobody likes being told they are bad or evil, no one especially likes being told they deserve death because they are evil, and everyone hates being told that they cannot do anything about it, they don’t even have that option. In an effort to remove the necessary offense of the Gospel, many American preachers no longer preach the Law, which shows us our need of a Savior by showing us how rotten we really are. The Law brings us to a point of desperation where we realize that we deserve death and can do nothing to change our course from hell, and just at that moment the Gospel should be explained to us. Conversion occurs when a person learns from the law that he or she is a lost and condemned sinner and then comes to faith in the Gospel, which offers them forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation because Christ died in our place on the cross. The Holy Spirit draws the believer to Christ through the Word and creates faith in his or her heart.

1 John 1:6-10 says that “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

Too many people have never been truly broken over their sins and have never truly known Jesus Christ. Sadly, they’ve never come to understand the magnitude of what He desires so desperately to do in their lives. While we can do nothing to become saved, we can do a lot to resist the operation of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. If we do not believe we are evil without Christ (meaning even the nicest thing I do is an evil deed without it being centered on and done in Christ and giving Him glory), then we cannot know God. Isaiah 64:6 says that “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Did you catch that? All of our righteous acts are like filthy rags, the implication here is a menstrual cloth. In other words, even with all of the good deeds Mother Theresa did, if she trusted in the Roman Catholic doctrine of works-salvation she died in her sin. Because no matter how many good deeds you do, you cannot enter heaven. Only when we recognize this and give up and stop trying will we be able to simply accept God’s grace, the fact that He has done everything and we are not even capable of doing anything.

If we are proud, we are always looking down on others, because we believe ourselves to be better. If we are always looking down, we cannot look up and see God. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). God’s laws and commands were not given to us to give us as a road map to heaven so we can find our own way there; they were given to prove to us that we really are lost! I love quoting this:

“‘Run, John, run,’ the Law commands,
But gives us neither feet nor hands.
Far better news the Gospel brings,
That bids us fly and gives us wings!”
       – John Bunyan in “The Pilgrim’s Progress”

God isn’t in the home improvement business. He isn’t remodeling. He’s into demolition and construction. New life in Christ means death to the old life in self.

The central truth of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died in our place, not because it was the nice thing to do, but because it was the only thing He could do to rescue us from hell. He took on Himself the punishment we deserve so that, through faith in Him, we could have peace and eternal life with God. Somehow this message has gotten lost, muddied up, and watered down by well-meaning people who’ve forgotten that Christ will offend – must offend – us, or He can’t help us. It has to hurt, or no spiritual surgery is occurring.

Herein lies the danger of the sinner’s prayer. Unregenerate people who have never come to a point of brokenness are lead to believe they are now saved because they prayed a prayer and believed in a bulleted list of doctrines about Jesus. The Gospel is not a checklist – it’s a person. Jesus Christ is the Gospel, and we cannot even approach Him because He is so holy. The miracle is that He became a man and chose to approach us, and He died for us while we spat at Him, beat Him, and nailed Him to the cross. That’s the love of Jesus. That’s the amazing “good news”, or Gospel.

The Magnitude of the Fall
This becomes particularly amazing when we consider those things that can effect our reasoning abilities. If my salvation depends on my understanding and recollection of a decision I made, then what happens if I later develop Alzheimer’s and involuntarily begin using profanity all the time in my old age (I’ve seen this happen to a very upstanding pastor)? Do I lose my salvation? Of course not — but not because I am no longer “accountable” for my sins.

God created man in his own image and after the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12-21). Because of this we are born into what is called original sin (Psalms 51:5), meaning that man has lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and he has become subject to the power of the devil (Genesis 6:5; Psalms 14:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:6). Therefore every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace (Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:6; Romans 3:10-19; 8:6-7; 1 John 3:8).

We are by nature sinful, we are born deserving death — even in the womb (Psalm 51:5; Romans 6:23). But if faith was created in me by a work of God and not by a work of my own — I have nothing to fear — because “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). What if a woman miscarries a child? Is the child going to heaven simply because they have not yet reached the non-scriptural “age of accountability?” The Bible seems to indicate that from the moment of conception that child was sinful and worthy of death and damnation because of original sin — something Finney and America have rejected, because Americans don’t want to face the magnitude of sin. Now do I think that baby is going to hell? A reminder about what Romans 10:17 says about faith is in order: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” If the mother had read Scripture aloud during her pregnancy, or if the Word was being preached in church and the child ‘heard’ it, then God can (and I believe does) create faith in that child’s heart.

Allow me to give a short explanation of the Scriptures here. Think of John the Baptist, who leaped for joy while in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:44). Remember also that Jesus said that “if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42). Notice that He said little ones “who believe in me,” indicating that these little ones possessed genuine faith in Christ. The Greek for little ones in both of these passages is μικρων (mikron), which implies children under the age of three. Psalm 22:9-10 says, “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” 2 Timothy 3:15 points out how “how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures. . . .” The word used for infancy in this passage is βρέφος (brephos), which means an unborn child, embryo, baby, or infant! God can clearly create faith in anyone’s hearts — even infants, mentally handicapped, and Alzheimer’s patients — because salvation does not depend on our own reasoning abilities. This might even offend our reason and sensibilities, but the Scriptures are clear that infants and children can and do have faith. A child is upheld in the Bible as the ultimate model for how to receive Christ as Lord, for Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

The Bible is careful to show how faith is a gift of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The gift of God is precisely the faith through which salvation comes. “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29). “You were raised with Him through faith in the working of God” (Colossians 2:12).

Faith is a gift, created by God’s Word. Once again, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Of course, God does not do the believing for us. It is we, infants and adults, who believe, just as it is we who live, and yet just as God gives and sustains our life, so God gives and sustains our faith.

Counting the Cost
Jesus always asked His disciples to count the cost of following Him. Becoming a Christian is dangerous to us – our pride, reputation, etc. “Jesus said to his disciples, “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). Too many people are looking for fire insurance and not sacrifice. But to listen to today’s preachers, you would think that becoming a Christian is a simple three step process. Remember when the rich man asked Jesus how to be saved? He told him to go sell everything he had and give it the poor, then he would have treasure in heaven. When the man walked away sad, He didn’t chase after him and lead him in a prayer. If you wish to become a Christian you must surrender everything to God. Without God this is impossible, but through Him it is not (Matthew 19:25-26). If this appears to be difficult, it is because we value something more than God. We need to hear the Law. The Law will help us realize that without Christ we have nothing and nothing is more valuable than Him! In Matthew 13:44 Jesus says “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” When we recognize how much we need Christ and how amazing His love is that He would die for people as unworthy as we are, out of joy and gratitude we would give up all we have to simply know Christ.

I don’t lead people in a prayer or do altar calls. I refuse to turn a relationship into a formula. You need to approach God your own way, but you will only discover that He has already approached you – and that’s the beauty of it. Philippians 2:12-13 says “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Notice God is the one working in us to help us want to do what He asks of us.

This is precisely the promise made regarding the new covenant in Christ which can be found in Ezekiel 36:25-27 –

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

In the Hebrew, the last phrase says that God will place His Spirit in you and CAUSE you to obey. If we are saved, we bear the fruit of salvation – good works. These works do not get us saved nor do they continue our salvation – only Jesus’ righteousness counts for our salvation – nothing we do or don’t do has any bearing on that. But if we truly are saved, then we will bear fruit. Jesus said, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” But He also said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” That simply goes to demonstrate what I’ve been saying so far. Everything we do that is “good” is merely out of God’s grace; we bear fruit because of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. John 15:8 says, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” James 2:14-26 explains this very well. Verse 17 says that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” This is why many Reformed preachers say that we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Saving faith produces fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8). The works themselves do not save us; they are the evidence of saving faith. We do them out of gratitude for what He has done in our lives and we are motivated to do them by the Holy Spirit, who as Ezekiel wrote, “causes us to obey.”

The main idea here is that good works cannot earn nor secure our eternal salvation; however, a true and living faith will bear the fruit of good works. The difference can be seen in our motivation. A living faith will bear good deeds out of gratitude for the love of God found only in Christ Jesus. A person trying to secure his or her salvation under the Law will be driven by guilt and a necessity to do good things in order to be in a right standing before God. This includes daily prayer and meditation. If these acts are driven by a sense of obligation, they are mere ritual observances bound by the Law. But if Christ’s love compels us to do these things, then we will experience the true joy of our relationship with God.

What happens weekly in American churches is similar to what happened in Luke 18:9-14:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Both men prayed, no one lead them in prayer – but only one man’s prayer was heard. The first man was ignored because of his pride, just as God must ignore many Americans’ prayers because of our pride. In Matthew 19:24 Jesus explains how “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Many in the world live on less than $2 a day. Almost EVERYONE in America is rich. Because of this we are complacent and have many distractions to keep us from God. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” That doesn’t sound like the American Gospel, but then again, many Americans don’t trust in the real Jesus, they trust in an American Jesus – who is no Savior at all.

Many professing Christians are trusting in the sincerity of their decision rather than looking onto the finished work of Christ. True salvation results in a person hating the sin they once loved and loving the God they once hated. Yes we still sin while on earth, but in God’s eyes, we are perfect. Jesus’ righteousness gets credited to our accounts and THAT is what gets us into heaven – not a decision we make or a prayer we say. We can rely on nothing but Christ’s perfect work at Calvary, because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9).

“To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Notice we cannot be born into His kingdom through human decision, but by God alone – He gives us the right or ability to be His children, we cannot earn it or decide it.

I hope I created more clarity than confusion, but then again, Jesus continuously confused His disciples, and He rarely took the time to explain Himself to everyone. Not that this should be a goal of Christians, but the Bible has many “tensions” that may not be entirely rational at first glance for a reason. God is so much bigger and more intelligent than us that it is likely impossible for Him to explain everything in a language we can actually grasp. Consider it truth from another dimension.

I apologize for allowing this to become a manifesto rather than just a regular post, but it is crucial to understand that a majority of churches in America preach an American Jesus and a Decision Theology that places salvation in my hands, or at least allows me to be a participant in it. This is simply not what the Bible teaches! And believing this causes me to trust in myself and not solely in Christ for my salvation — the real Jesus, not the American Jesus who gives me the choice to accept or reject Him, as though my own will were intact and sufficient enough to determine my eternal destiny. The offense of the Gospel is that I don’t even have the ability to choose to do the right thing without Him, He must do it all for me. Our reasoning abilities are not a prerequisite for faith as the American Jesus teaches, but rather they are often a hindrance to it.

The Real Jesus, Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was crucified for our sins, is a very rugged individual who doesn’t fit into the neat little boxes we like to make for Him. I often have said that if Jesus were to come to America, the church wouldn’t pray to Him, they’d pray for Him. He would be too abrasive, too politically incorrect, too angry (even though His zealous anger is justified), and too confusing for most folks. He would confront secure sinners with the Law and make a lot of people uncomfortable. Jesus would cause many to question their salvation — but I think that’s a healthy thing. For if we rely on anything or anyone but Him and His work on the Cross for our redemption, maybe we don’t really know Him. Maybe we have been trusting in a fictitious American Jesus.

I’ve spoken before about the tensions in our faith: Law and Gospel, Sinner and Saint, etc. I also talk about it some in the About page on this site. I have been participating in a really good conversation lately in the comments section of one of Daniel and Heather’s blog posts entitled, Reflecting on the Trinity…………. They pose the question: “What are some of your thoughts on the trinity, and how [does] our understanding of these relationships affect the way we should live with each other as the Body?” I commented about how I was having a discussion about this with Pastor Nar on Facebook recently. He said something profound that I will continue to use:

“The Trinity is not a doctrine I believe, it’s a relationship I embrace.”

Someone then (anonymously) left a comment which I thought was profound. I thought a lot of them were great, but this one jumped out at me:

Reformed theology is simply biblical theology without the rationalization. It takes all of Scripture and holds them together with all it’s tension. For example: “Jesus is 100% man & 100% God”. “God is absolutely sovereign and man is a 100% responsible free agent.” “Salvation if 100% free, but it will also cost you everything”, “There is only one God, but three persons”. etc…. Both truths in each statement seem to be contradictory doctrines but are biblical truths at the same time. Mystery is certainly involved and there is tension in these doctrines that we cannot explain. It’s when you leave historic Reformed theology that you begin to rationalize things in Scripture. Arminian theology down-plays the sovereignty of God and has a host of verses it must explain away. Hyper-Calvinism down-plays human responsibility and it also has a host of Scriptures to explain away….

Very interesting, and very true. Let’s look at the tension between Law and Gospel for instance. The Law demands absolute perfection as the standard of holiness. Any failure causes one to be responsible for breaking the entire law. The just sentence for breaking the law is death and eternal punishment. There is no way out of this — not in the Old or New Covenant. The Gospel is the “good news” that Jesus has taken our sin upon Himself that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). While this is offered free to us, it is not free — it came at a great price and carries a great cost (another tension). Many Christians fail to maintain this tension, leaning towards one end or the other — both lead to death. They are both fully true. God’s standard has not changed, nor has he become more lax in dealing with mankind. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). A failure to take sin or grace seriously results in a falsehood. Both cost us a lot, yet both are freely available to us.

The relationship between faith and works is another one that tripped me up for a few years. On one hand, good works cannot contribute anything to your salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9); on the other hand, if you don’t do them you are not saved (James 2:17). It took me awhile to figure out that the main idea here is that good works cannot earn nor secure our eternal salvation; however, a true and living faith will bear the fruit of good works. The difference can be seen in our motivation. A living faith will bear good deeds out of gratitude for the love of God found only in Christ Jesus. A person trying to secure his or her salvation under the Law will be driven by guilt and a necessity to do good things in order to be in a right standing before God. This includes daily prayer and meditation. If these acts are driven by a sense of obligation, they are mere ritual observances bound by the Law. But if Christ’s love compels us to do these things, then we will experience the true joy of our relationship with God.

The anonymous quote mentions Arminianism vs. Hyper-Calvinism. I won’t bore you with too many details, I’ll just give you a simple breakdown of the two sides, which actually represents another great tension of the Bible. I use the term “stereotypical” for both because each side argues that their opponent skews their beliefs into “Hyper-Calvinism” or into “Hyper-Arminianism / Pelagianism.”

Stereotypical Arminianism holds to the following tenets:

• Atonement is for all people: Jesus died for everyone, not just for the elect.
• Grace is resistable: The offer of salvation through grace does not act irresistibly in a purely cause-effect, deterministic method but rather in an influence-and-response fashion that can be both freely accepted and freely denied.
• God’s election is conditional on faith in Jesus
• Salvation can be lost, as continued salvation is conditional upon continued faith

Stereotypical Calvinism adopts what many call the TULIP model, which stands for:

• Total Depravity: We are completely dead in our trespasses and sins, we can do absolutely nothing to bring ourselves even one inch closer to salvation in Christ.
• Unconditional Election: Since, a dead person is unable do anything on their own, they are unable to choose God. So God out of love chooses those who are dead in their trespasses and sins.
• Limited Redemption: When Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, His Blood was sufficient for all, but is only efficient for those who believe in Him.
• Irresistible Grace: Since we are completely dead in our sins, we do not have the ability to choose God nor reject Him. He chooses us and completely saves us with no cooperation or effort of our own.
• Perseverance of the Saints: Another term used for Perseverance of the Saints is Eternal Security. This is best summed up by saying once you are saved, you are always saved and can never fall away. Since nothing you can do gets you saved, nothing you can do can cause you to lose your salvation.

Now I could spend hours unpacking both of these doctrinal extremes, but they are just that, extremes. There is a great tension in the Bible about whether or not we can lose our salvation — and the tension must remain. We get into doctrinal trouble when we try to put God into a logical box and turn revealed truth into bulleted lists and acronyms. Arminianism and Calvinism are both doctrinal extremes which are to be avoided, the truth lies in the middle. Both are man-made doctrines, and neither are entirely scriptural. The way I answer this question these days is simple: whether you lost your salvation or whether you never had it in the first place, the bottom line is that you need it now. Rather than skirting around the real issue, why not get to the heart of it. When the Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up using doctrinal conundrums, He always spoke to their hearts — not to their minds. He refused to be defined or cornered.

One thing that Christians like to do is put labels on people and put them into neat little boxes. Consequently we try to do the same thing with God. We do this with denominational labels, theological terms, political designators, etc. I think a big part of being a Christ follower is refusing to be labeled by worldly standards. David Kinnaman, in his book unChristian writes:

[Jesus] was not willing to be defined by His enemies. When His detractors wanted Him to make a clear statement against something, He always seemed to redefine the boundaries of the debate. He kept opponents off-balance, leaving them flustered. If His inquisitors tried to corner Jesus about religious laws, customs, and restrictions, His response was often to raise another question or tell a story that changed the parameters of the argument. Should the Sabbath be kept holy? Of course, but for what reason? Should He associate with sinners? Who needs real help, anyway? Should the woman “waste” money perfuming Jesus’ feet? If she is baring her soul and honoring God, what’s your problem exactly?

The only labeled allegiance we should really have as believers is allegiance to the kingdom of God. In other areas, we should be constantly encouraging people to look at the world relationally. Issues are important, but only because they affect people. People are the real focus, and people are best affected through relationships. If we lose sight of the real focus, we may be tempted to argue issues from an ideological or philosophical standpoint, completely removed from the actual focal point. This is what happens when Christians spend more time trying to impose moral standards on society through legislation (the recent California gay marriage ruling, pro-life legislation), rather than showing people Jesus and His love by befriending them.

Christianity 2.0 could care less about setting up “doctrinal camps” or labeling every scriptural ideology under the sun. It is far more concerned with relationships, getting back to what the faith is all about — people. The Church is the Body of Christ, His Bride, His chosen people, a royal priesthood. It is not an organization, but an organism. Attempting to resolve the tensions of the Bible in our finite minds results in heresy. Returning to what Pastor Nar said about the Trinity, “It is not is not a doctrine I believe, it’s a relationship I embrace.” That says it pretty well. We must embrace doctrine as it relates to how we live, not just to how we think. It’s easy to keep God at shoulder’s length by treating His word as a philosophy text, rather than as a love letter and life manual. My advice: don’t resolve the tensions. They are there for a reason. . . .

• What other “tensions” of our faith can you think of?
• Do the tensions you came up with come from the Bible or from man’s finite logic?
• Have you ever been confused about an issue in the Bible, only to have it make sense when the situation was later reframed? Do you suppose Jesus “reframed” a lot of conversations for this reason?
• Do you think it’s possible that it is impossible to grasp many truths about the nature of God due to the limitations of our dimension, i.e. time and space?