The Gospel

Note: I owe a great debt to Brad Jersak and his book “Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem,” for thoughts shared in this article. I highly recommend the book.

The gospel I learned as a little boy went something like this. God loves you. And God wants you to go to heaven when you die (or when Jesus comes again). But God is also just. God always does the right thing. And since you are a sinner, the right thing for God to do is punish you by sending you to hell forever. (You can only imagine how my five-year-old brain processed this information!) To solve this dilemma, God sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross in your place. When Jesus died in your place, God put all your sin on Jesus, poured out all his wrath on Jesus and turned his back on Jesus. That way, God could be just and punish someone for your sin without actually punishing you. Now, if you will just believe this “good news” you can go to heaven when you die.  

And I did believe it. In fact, I jumped at the chance to believe it! I said the “sinner’s prayer” so fast it would make your head swim. Nobody had to ask me twice. This gospel served me well for a while. But the more I learned about God, the more I struggled with this version of the “good news.” 

I don’t exactly believe that version of the gospel anymore. Here’s what I do believe. God created human beings in his image and God loves us. God wants to live in perfect harmony (shalom) with us. But human beings consistently sin, and we turn our backs on God. So, God comes to us. Miraculously, God came to us as a baby born to a virgin girl named Mary. And when we turned our backs on God, he kept turning toward us. 

A woman who was caught in the act of adultery was brought to God by men who said she should be stoned to death. Then God looked at the woman’s accusers and said, “whoever is without sin cast the first stone.” The men dropped their stones and, beginning with the oldest, they all walked away. Then God looked at the woman and said, “I do not condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” 

A man was under the control of the dark forces of Satan. He suffered in a hellish existence. He was completely possessed by his demons. He lived in the graveyard. He was naked and he cut himself with stones. But then God sailed across the sea of Galilee to meet this demon possessed man. And God set the man free from his demons. And then the man found himself sitting at the feet of God, fully clothed and in his right mind. 

In the Gospels (the books that record the biography of Jesus) there are many stories like these. 

Finally, when humanity was completely lost in the hell of our hate and fully surrendered to our sinfulness, we nailed God to a cross. But what did God do? God the Son prayed to God the Father and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And, of course, God did. 

That’s the gospel I believe. And that’s the gospel I invite others to believe. Is it possible to reject this gospel? Yes, I think so. I think people do reject it. Some reject it because they can’t bring themselves to believe in a God that doesn’t require us to do anything to earn his love. So, we create methods by which we save ourselves, like praying a special prayer or believing a certain set of doctrinal statements. But when all is said and done, God just keeps coming to us, turning toward us even when we’ve turned away from God, and inviting us to believe that we’re already forgiven. 

I believe that is the gospel…the good news.

 

Picture from ABC News

Overturning Roe v Wade 

Many churches around the country are rejoicing over the reversal of Roe v Wade in triumphal celebration.  But is it really a triumph?  I’m not so sure.     

(Before you start posting comments about my left leaning ways, please read to the end.  Then you can post away.)

I consider myself pro-life.  I’m for the lives of unborn babies and I’m for the lives of their desperate mothers.  And just to be clear, I believe the reversal of Roe v Wade was the right decision.  Mothers should give birth to their babies.  Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself.”  And a fetus is about as close a neighbor as you can get. 

But I have a pastoral question.  Why was the church unable to end the demand for abortion simply by doing what we were commissioned to do? 

The last thing Jesus said to us before his ascension was not, Go and get in bed with the empires of this world so that you can use their power to accomplish my goals.

Jesus said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded.  Jesus said that his disciples are to make other disciples.  Those who follow Jesus, those who hear his words and obey them, are to invite others to follow Jesus, to hear his words and obey them.

History teaches us that when the church does what Jesus said to do, the church is truly influential in our world.  We make a real difference in the world when we are making disciples.  We exercise real power when we teach people, mostly by example, to obey Jesus.  It’s that simple.

So, why is the church more dependent on Supreme Court legislation than Jesus’ Great Commission?  Why doesn’t the church just make disciples who will do the right thing?  Because, in my opinion, the modern church is not very good at making disciples.  That’s the hard truth. 

And here’s an even harder truth.  The church is not very good at making disciples of Jesus because the church is not very good at being disciples of Jesus.  We are not good at leading people to follow Jesus because we are not good at following Jesus. 

For example, we tell mothers they should love their babies and give them life, but the church has a long track record of failing to love our enemies (as Jesus taught) and giving them life.  We have endorsed and supported our government when it goes to war with our neighbors and kills innocent mothers and children. Can you see how our “opponents” might not be convinced by our pro-life rhetoric?

From the genocide of native Americans to the war in Iraq, the official representatives of the church have endorsed (sometimes even participated in) the systematic extermination of human life.  Maybe instead of taking a victory lap, we should run to the altar to repent of our complicity in these evils. 

More repenting, less rejoicing!  More confessing and less celebrating!  More humility, less hubris!

I’m not saying that Roe v Wade should not have been reversed.  I’m saying that we shouldn’t gloat over it.  I’m saying that the church has once again carefully navigated around the beam that is in our own eye, relentlessly pawing at the speck that is in our brother’s (or sister’s) eye, failing to realize that we’re both still blind.