The Gospel is not Good News unless it is for everyone.

 John 3:16-17 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

               I have been rereading Philip Yancey’s book, Vanishing Grace. He talks candidly about how we have often muddled our faith by mixing it with all kinds of things so that the Gospel is no longer good news for many people. Then he masterfully talks about both why the Gospel is good news and how we can communicate that to a world that desperately needs good news.

               For many years I have struggled with the conflict between what is called reformed theology, which states that everyone’s eternal destiny is predestined, and the idea of free will. I have gravitated to the side of free will. To me, predestination makes a mockery of the Gospel. Let me try to explain.

               For me simply, the Gospel is not good news for anyone if it is not good news for everyone. If some people are arbitrarily included while others are excluded, how can we embrace that as good news?

               As I read the New Testament, I can see how some theologians have come up with the idea of predestination, but, in the process, they have to negate all of the passages that speak of a free choice given to all people. So here are my thoughts.

               God’s love is large enough to encompass the entire world. John 3:16-17 clearly states that Jesus came into the world for the benefit of the world. He didn’t come for the benefit of some of the world but for the entire world.

               God’s compassion is large enough to extend salvation to all who will receive it. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) If we take Peter’s words at face value, then God’s perfect will is for everyone to be saved. The key to attaining that salvation is repentance, which requires a choice on the part of every individual.

               God’s invitation is open to all who will receive it. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 (NIV) Jesus is inviting all who feel overwhelmed and discouraged to come to Him. There is no disclaimer saying that this invitation is only for those who have already been chosen to believe.

               God’s grace is large enough to include all who, by faith, receive His invitation. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet 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 1:10-13 (NIV) Notice that there is a clear choice given here. “To all who received Him.” The words receive and believe speak clearly of making a conscious choice.

               Throughout the entire Bible there is an open invitation for people to come to God in faith. He offers the free gift of salvation to all those who respond. God has clearly placed a choice before us. It is up to each individual to decide how they will respond. Only then is the Gospel truly good news.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

LIVING IN THE WORLD

 

John 17:15-18 (NIV)
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

               One of the challenges that every believer in Christ faces is how to live in the world without being of the world. When Jesus prayed for his disciples, he didn’t ask God to take them out of the world, but to make them an effective witness in the world. Jesus’ prayer applies to all of us who claim to be followers of him. What does it mean for us to be in the world but not be of the world?

               To live out what Jesus prayed for us means to live a distinctly different life in the midst of a secular world. Unfortunately, we have often chosen to be more of the world than we realize. We have been seduced by political power and influence. We have bought into the methods of the world in our attempt to “recapture” our culture. The results have been less than stellar.

               I have been reading Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace. He makes the observation that the image of Evangelical Christians today is primarily a negative one. We are seen as anti this and anti that. Instead of being seen as dispensers of grace, we are perceived as dispensers of hate. It is a criticism that we should take seriously. But it is not a true understanding of who many, if not most, Evangelicals are today. In fact, Yancey gives numerous examples of how Evangelicals are leading the way in helping the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed. When a person looks behind the popular caricature of Evangelicals, they often find something very different.

               Each one of us who claim the name of Christ has a role to play in changing the world’s view of us. Jesus made it clear that there will always be those who see us in a negative light. But we can do much to change our image among many others.

               At the beginning of 1900’s a clash arose between those who promoted a social gospel and fundamentalists. The social gospel focused on humanitarian issues, like feeding the poor, with little or no emphasis on faith in Christ. The fundamentalists focused on proclaiming the truth of Jesus with little or no emphasis on social issues. Today, we have learned that the gospel actually blends these two into an effective strategy. Evangelicals today are often leading the way on social issues without failing to share the truth about Jesus.

               Jesus made it very clear that proclaiming the Gospel and caring for others must go hand in hand. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used the image of a city on a hill to bring these two concepts together.

Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

               Notice that the way that we best communicate God’s love to the world is through our good deeds for the world. Later, Jesus made this even more clear when he equated service to him with service to others.

Matthew 25:31-40 (NIV)
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

               Like Jesus, Both John and James make it clear that if our faith does not demonstrate itself in practical ways, it is useless. The way we treat those around us, especially those who are different from us, is a measure of the depth and genuineness of our faith.

               We have been called to carry the good news of Jesus into the world. We need to do this with both our words and our deeds. If we are going to change the image of Evangelicals, we need to change the way that we interact with the world around us. We have not been called to capture our culture, in some political way, but to live radically different lives from our culture that causes people to take notice and see God at work.

1 Peter 2:12 (NIV)
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 

WHAT WAS GOD THINKING?

 

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

               There is a story in the Old Testament about a man named Gideon. God came to Gideon at a time when Israel was living under the oppression of a foreign power. God called Gideon to lead Israel against the Midianites and free them. Gideon was reluctant at first, but God convinced him to trust God and move ahead. Gideon amassed a great army to fight the Midianites, but God told Gideon that he had too many men. God began the process of whittling down Gideon’s army until he was left with only 300 men. Gideon must have been wondering, what is God thinking? This is disaster. But God had a reason and it is the main point of the story. God was going to deliver Israel from the Midianites with only 300 men so that everyone would know that God did it and not Gideon.

               I have been reading a book by Philip Yancey called Vanishing Grace. Yancey raises the question of why God chose to use the Church to be His agents in the world. Over the centuries, the Church has often made mistakes, even really bad mistakes. The Church is filled with flawed people who often mess up. Yet, the Church remains God’s plan A to reach the world. There is no plan B. What was God thinking? The point is that God uses flawed people to show that the power comes from God and not from people.

               The place where we most often mess up is when we start to think that we can do God’s work in our own power. We get an inflated view of ourselves and pride takes over. Soon we are claiming credit for whatever success we have. It is usually at that point that God pulls the rug out from under us and brings us crashing back to earth. Everything we accomplish of any eternal value happens because God is working in us and through us. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, we are just jars of clay so that God’s glory might shine.

               The greatest evidence of God’s power in the world is when he uses flawed people to accomplish amazing things. Paul had to remind the Corinthian believers, who were struggling with an ego problem, that it was not their greatness that counted, but God’s greatness.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV)
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

               God is still using weak, frail, faulty people to accomplish amazing things for His glory. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things so that everyone will know that God did it. This was a lessen that the Apostle Paul had to learn. Before Paul became a follower of Jesus he had a pretty big ego. He thought that he was God’s agent to purify the people of Israel. God had to humble him and show him that all his accomplishments meant nothing if he was doing them in his own strength. Later, Paul wrote about what he had learned. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 (NIV)

               Many people today have turned away from the Church because some in the Church have chosen to use the weapons of power, politics, and personalities to wage war with the world. Historically, the Church has always been its weakest when it has the most political clout. The Church shines the brightest today when ordinary people do extraordinary things out of love for God. God is still using what the world sees as the weak and unimportant to confound the strong and to transform our world.

               Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He commissioned His less than stellar disciples to take His message into all the world. He is still calling ordinary people to do extraordinary things in His power, so that the world will know that God is at work.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Zechariah 4:6 (NIV)
So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

 

 

GOD’S ABIDING PRESENCE

 

John 14:16 (NIV)
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--

               Sunday, June 8, is Pentecost Sunday. It is the Sunday that the Church remembers and celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all believers. It reminds us of that powerful day, recorded in Acts 2.

Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

               It was on that day that God fulfilled Jesus’ promise to send another Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. From that day on, the believers were empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to the entire world. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NIV)

               For many believers, this is much more a historical event then a present reality. When I was growing up in church, we rarely spoke about the Holy Spirit. Our focus was on what Jesus did for us on the cross. That is essential, but it is only a part of the story. For us to become the transformed, new creations promised in the Bible, we need the abiding presence of God in our lives; we need the Holy Spirit.

               Paul makes it clear that if we do not have the Spirit living in us, we are not a part of the Body of Christ. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9 (NIV) The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is the affirmation, the guarantee of God’s saving, redeeming, and transforming work in our lives.  And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV)

               The role of the Holy Spirit is to guide us through life. He leads us into truth and guards us against falsehood. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13 (NIV) He will shape our character and reshape us into the image of Christ. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

               The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in every believer’s life. He speaks to us at the deepest levels of our soul. He guides us in the paths of righteousness. He guards us from the influence of the Evil One. But we have a part to play in this. We must listen to the Holy Spirit. He is not going to overpower our will. He gives us the information we need to make wise decisions. He also gives us the power and the courage to follow through when we choose to listen to His voice. We can resist His influence, but that always leads us in the wrong direction.

               For us to grow and mature in our faith, we need the Holy Spirit. We need to recognize His presence. We need to tune into His voice. We need to follow Him in obedience.

               This Sunday, June 8, is Pentecost Sunday. Let it remind us that we have been empowered by the Spirit to be Christ’s ambassadors in our world.

Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

 

 

A SEARCHLIGHT OR A MIRROR

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

               As followers of Jesus, we revere the Bible as God’s Word. We see it as our guide for life and for holiness. The Bible makes us aware of our sinful state and offers to us the amazing gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bible plays a central role in the life of every believer.

               Having established the authority of the Bible, it raises the question, is the Bible a searchlight or a mirror? For many people, the Bible is viewed as a searchlight. It is used to “shine the light of truth” into other people’s lives. The Bible is often shined on other people to expose their sin and their misdeeds. It becomes a weapon to be used to condemn the world and justify the saints. We have to ask, is that really the best way to use the Bible?

               I want to suggest that the Bible is not a searchlight but a mirror. God intends for us to see ourselves in the pages of His Word. As we study the Bible we begin to see our own sinfulness. We see all the ways that we fall short of God’s glory. It also helps us to see that, through faith in Christ, we are redeemed and children of God. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul invites us to take a long look in the mirror. The focus is not on exposing other people’s faults, but taking an honest look at ourselves.

               The Bible is meant to teach us about God, about ourselves, and about God’s design for His world. It is filled with wisdom and instructions about how to live a godly life in an ungodly world. In many ways, it is a training manual for godly living. But it is more than that.

               The Bible is meant to awaken us to our sinfulness. We all have spiritual and emotional blind spots in our lives. The Bible makes us aware of these and calls us to change the direction of our lives. Paul highlights this aspect of God’s Word in Romans 7.

Romans 7:7 (NIV)
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

               Paul’s point was that he was ignorant of his failure until the Word of God opened his eyes to see it. The same is true for us. We are all ignorant of our sinfulness. We take certain aspects of our character and life as just being normal. That is until we see the reality in the Bible.

               Once our eyes have been opened, the Bible then takes us one step further. The Bible is meant to correct the shortcomings of our life. The Bible’s primary purpose is not to condemn, but to redeem. What would you think of a doctor who accurately diagnosed cancer in your body and then failed to offer you treatment? God, in His grace, does not want to leave us in our sin. Instead, He wants to redeem us and bring us back into a genuine relationship with Him. His goal is to remove us from the kingdom of darkness and invite us into the kingdom of light.  ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV)

               But the Bible is not done with us yet. The last goal of the Bible is to train us for God’s service. Someone has said, God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. God’s ultimate goal is for us to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Once we become a child of God, through faith in Jesus, He begins the work of reshaping our lives. The goal is for us to be fully equipped to be and do what God desires.

               If we see the Bible as a searchlight, it becomes a weapon that we use against others. But if we see the Bible as a mirror, it becomes an instrument in God’s hands to change and transform our lives. The Bible is a powerful tool. Used in the right way, it is redemptive and energizing. Used in the wrong way, it become destructive and divisive.

2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

 

DILUTED OR FULL STRENGTH

 

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

               I have been reading The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton. It is a challenging read and sometimes a little confusing. In one chapter he talks about the development of the idea of “the gods” in history. He makes the point that even as the idea of multiple gods spread, there remained in the background the idea that there was one ultimate God who was the source of all the rest. The idea of multiple gods was a dilution of the concept of one God.

               His point was that the more we expand the number of gods, the less we have of God. It is the difference between experiencing something at full strength vs a diluted strength. In our secular world today, we want to continue to expand and add onto the idea of being spiritual. What was once a fairly pure concept has become a diluted solution that only has a faint taste of the real thing. In essence, the more “gods” we add to the equation, the less of God we experience.

               One of the reasons for this is that experiencing God at full strength is so overwhelming. When the people of Isreal encountered God at Mt. Sinai they pulled back. They told Moses to go and speak with God on their behalf because it was just too much for them. I think the same is true today. People would rather have a diluted version of God than to encounter Him full strength. It is just too much.

               The Bible invites us to encounter God at full strength. Rather than moderate the commands of God, it gives us a clear, undiluted picture of what God requires. This often makes us uncomfortable. Especially today, we are reluctant to take God’s Word at face value. Instead, we want to nuance it, to make it more palatable for today’s sensibilities. But in doing so, we move farther away from God, not closer.

               I am not suggesting that we go back to a legalistic approach to faith, where everything is about keeping a set of rules. What I am suggesting is that we need to get back to the very basic reality that there is one God who is supreme and has the right to rule and reign in our world.

               At the very heart of genuine faith is the concept of one God. It was the foundation of all faith. It is stated clearly in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Jesus affirmed this reality and applied it to the way we live our lives. "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) Knowing and believing that there is only one God who deserves our praise ands service shapes the way we are to interact with one another.

               Many people today want to camp on the second half of Jesus’ words. They have made love for others the top priority. At the same time, they want to deny the first half of this statement. Genuine love for others is born out of a genuine love for God. When we take God out of the equation, we dilute what it means to love one another. We get to redefine and nuance it to mean whatever we want it to mean. We can excuse all kind of behavior by appealing to love. What we end up with is a watered-down version of love that has lost most of its real meaning.

               God has set a high standard for us to live by. It makes us uncomfortable at times and we often chaff under it. But God is offering us a full-strength encounter with Him. As Jesus put it, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 (NIV)

               We are in the habit of diluting things to make them easier for us to handle. But what we lose in the process is genuine effectiveness. It is just like diluting a medication to make it more palatable, but sacrificing its healing effects. We live in a world that has pulled away from a full-strength encounter with God. We have tried to substitute many diluted versions of “the gods” to make it easier for us. In essence, we want to shape God to our own wants and wishes. In the end, we lose God all together.

               If we want the healing, restoring power of God in our lives, we need to encounter Him full-strength. No diluted version will do.

              

IS OUR FOCUS WRONG?

 

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

               There are so many things that grab our focus. It is easy for us to get caught up in whatever the current crisis or cause of the day is. I received a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post once that said, “I’m for whatever is the current hot issue.” There are so many things that are clamoring for our attention that we can easily lose focus on what is most important.

               There has been a trend in the church in general to adjust our message to speak to whatever is the current hot topic. In our effort to be relevant, we have placed some important things on the back burner. We still think they are important but we don’t give them much attention. One of those things is Heaven.

               When I was growing up in church, I heard much about heaven. Most people, whether they were a committed believer or not, thought about heaven. People were concerned about what happened to them after they died. They wanted some assurance that death was not the end of their story. Those that were cynical quipped that many believers were so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good. The real truth is that when we forget about heaven, we lose our perspective on earth as well. Most people today think very little about heave, if at all. It is not even on their radar screen. They are so focused on today that they have lost sight of eternity.

               C.S. Lewis has pointed out that a person’s hope in heaven is a great motivator for how they live their daily lives. He made the point that those in history who did the most for this present world were those who thought most of the next.

               In my devotions today, I came across this quote from Lewis that puts things into perspective.

“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: Aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

               It is clear from scripture that a vivid hope is heaven was the motivation for the heroic efforts of the early Christians. They understood that what a person does with his life here on earth has eternal consequences. They were willing to make great sacrifices for others because they knew that God would reward them in heaven.

               Today, we are caught up in seeking temporary rewards while we pay little attention to eternal ones. We are caught up in focusing on making this a better place to live instead of preparing better people for eternity. It is like redecorating a sinking ship rather than assuring that everyone has a life preserver.

               This is not to say that we are to ignore the issues of our day. Instead, we are to view the issues of today through the lens of eternity. It is always right to seek justice and show mercy, but not as an end in themselves. We are to seek the best for others so that they might see the light of Christ and turn toward him. All of our efforts will come to nothing if they are only for today. It is only as we place our efforts in the context of eternity that they will last. We don’t just want better people living in a better world, we want redeemed people headed for a better eternity.

               If I may refer to C.S. Lewis again, the way we live our lives each day is shaping the person we will be for all of eternity. We are either drawing closer to Christ and becoming more like him or we are drawing further away from Christ. We are either becoming glorious, eternal beings or hideous, demonic ones. Our eternal path is set now, in this life, in this world.

               We need to care for this world, not just to preserve it for future generations, but because it is God’s creation and we have been given the responsibility to steward it wisely. We need to care for other people, not just to make their life better here on earth, but because they were created in God’s image, to be in relationship with Him for all of eternity. Living our best life on earth is God’s will for us. Keeping our eyes focused on heaven is the motivation that keeps us moving in the right direction.

Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.