Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The softening of the Gospel

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Softening the waxListening to a Podcast on the way to work this week, I heard Tim Keller use an illustration that I found helpful. He used a wax seal to illustrate the impact of Biblical law upon the heart of a man (or woman).

To seal a letter, some wax is melted onto the letter and then a seal is pressed into the wax to show the identity of the one who sealed the letter. To do this properly, the wax had to be softened to take the impression of the seal.

Without softening, the seal would have difficulty in making an imprint upon the wax. Either the seal would leave a superficial impression on the hard wax, or the seal would crush the wax into pieces.

Without the Gospel, the Biblical law will have a superficial impression on a man or it will crush him. If a man does not operate under the good news of the Gospel, if he does not acknowledge his moral failure and helplessness to change, the law will either crush him or make him proud.

The result of a superficial application of the law is spiritual pride and intolerance. I saw an example of this recently when a well known comedian applied the ten commandments to his life in such a way as to prove that he keeps the Ten Commandments even though he doesn’t believe in God. To make his proof he had to offer a very superficial understanding and application of the commands. The result was that this comedian comes off as a bit condescending to those who have a different understanding of those commandments.

But non-believers are not the only ones who experience a superficial application of the law. Some who claim to believe the Gospel have also demonstrated this. They may even make every effort to live up to their understanding of the law and may genuinely believe that they are pleasing God by what they do and that they are in the right for the way that they live. The most extreme example of this can be found by following the misguided activities of the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Their antics display the shallowest impression of the law upon their hearts and a law devoid of any Gospel.

On the other hand, if the law is applied without the softening of the Gospel, a man may be crushed by it. A proper understanding of the law will lead to the correct conclusion that no man can or will completely live up to the standard presented in the law. Any attempt to do so will end in disappointment or despair. If you doubt this, just think about how far into January the average person makes it with his New Year’s resolutions.

Prior to his understanding of righteousness coming as a result of faith, Martin Luther was a man that was crushed by the law. The best example of this is a line from the movie Luther, where Martin says to his superior, “I am too full of sin to be a priest.” Martin understood how far short of the Biblical standard he fell and was overwhelmed by that understanding until he discovered the Gospel.

When Christianity is presented as simply a moral code or philosophy of living, it is not good news, there is no Gospel in such a presentation. The only result will be pride or despair.

But, with a proper understanding of the Gospel, and how much we are loved by God, then the law becomes a tutor (NASB) or guide (ESV) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). When we understand that Jesus has satisfied the law on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) we are no longer bound by the standard of perfect law keeping. Jesus kept the law for us.

Because Jesus has done this for us, we have no basis for pride or condemnation of others. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

Also, when we understand how much we are loved, we will not be crushed by the law. Jesus loved you and I so much that he was willing to endure the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that we might be in relationship with him. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much God loves us and how far he has gone to bring us into relationship with himself.

Under the Gospel, our hearts experience the softening that allows for a proper understanding of the role of the law (Tweet this).

My guess is that each of us, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will gravitate toward one or the other of these superficial applications of the law. Either we will be drawn toward pride over our law-keeping or we will be overwhelmed by our inability to live up to the standards in Scripture.  Personally, I am easily sucked into the vortex of the latter.

The antidote to both reactions is a proper understanding of the Gospel, which I like to summarize in two lines (this is a quote/paraphrase from Tim Keller). The Gospel tells me:

I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to believe
I am more deeply loved than I ever thought possible

That is indeed good news.

Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself

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Finger PointI borrowed the title of this post from a song written by Bo Diddley and also recorded by Eric Clapton, but it seemed appropriate for my topic.

In responding to the cultural climate, unfortunately large segments of the church fall prey to one of two errors. One extreme is to acquiesce to the culture and thus ignore scriptural mandates and prohibitions. The other extreme is to loudly denounce those who refuse to acknowledge the authority of Scripture. Instead of these extremes, we need to allow Scripture to contend with the parts of our culture with which it disagrees and validate the parts of culture with which it agrees.

I take Scripture very seriously and where the author intended it to be taken literally, I seek to do so. But there is a danger of becoming like the Pharisees in that we can miss the work of God in another person’s life because of our prideful grandstanding on hot issues of the day. When we take scripture and use it to point the finger at others, we are in grave danger of misrepresenting both God and Scripture.

For example, in Romans 1:18, Paul writes,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (ESV)

Paul tells us that God’s wrath is upon those who suppress the truth.

The word suppress is in the present tense, it is an ongoing suppression of the truth. The problem is that we all suppress the truth to one extent or another. Because of this, we should be wary of denouncing other people who are openly hostile to God. In our rush to separate ourselves from a particular viewpoint, my may become angry and judgmental and as a result misrepresent the Jesus we worship.

The Gospel tells us that we are all tainted by sin and every part of us displays this taint. There is nothing that I do from completely pure motives. There is nothing that I do that is not alloyed with selfishness and pride. When I am giving ground to my selfishness and pride, I am actively suppressing the truth about myself and my God. Therefore, I should be reluctant to accuse anyone else.

In support of this idea, I would point to two places later on in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Romans 2:1 encourages us to stay away from judging others because we are prone to the same corruption that is displayed by those we would like to condemn. In Chapter 12 of Romans, Paul tells us that we are in need of transformation by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). In other words, we are not thinking straight and need to have our minds reprogrammed.

Yes, in the United States, our culture is moving away from a Judeo/Christian ethic. There are decisions being made on moral issues that are contrary to Scripture. My intention is not to soft sell this or to make it seem like rebellion against God’s laws is acceptable or good. We need to live by and be open about God’s standards for human behavior.

That being said, we need to be careful in our denunciation because we are made of the same stuff. I know for a fact that I am no less a sinner than one who is openly hostile to Christ or Scripture.

What is interesting to me is that in the preaching of Jesus, I don’t see him denouncing anyone other than the hypocritical religious leaders. He simply offered them something better than what they already had. He offered them himself.

Does the church bring freedom or coercion?

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Freedom or Coercion?A common perception of Christians is that we are a bunch of people who want to impose our form of Sharia law on the rest of the world. In other words, we are viewed as people who use coercion to get people to conform to a set of laws to which they would rather not be bound.

Yet what I find in Scripture should cause the Church to be perceived as a group of people who strive for freedom in response to the spiritual freedom that the Gospel has brought into our lives. Consider the following:

  • Jesus came to provide freedom – In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1 in the synagogue and applies that Scripture to himself as one who brings release to the captives and freedom to those who are oppressed.
  • In Galatians 5:1, Paul reiterates Jesus’ claim that the gospel sets us free.
  • The History of the last 2,000 years supports the idea that Jesus Christ brings freedom. The countries in the world where freedom is currently experienced can tie that freedom to a Christian heritage.

We do have to admit that the Church has not had a perfect record in the area of coercion. My own experience lends support to the idea that the church can be coercive in her tactics. This is a point that the church needs to face up to and change.

In too many congregations, there is pressure to conform to a standard of behavior. In some cases the coercion is overtly proclaimed from the pulpit, in other cases the pressure is more subtle. When someone does not live up to the standard of behavior he is either directly chastised or the subject of gossip.

When I read the Gospels, I see no coercive tactics used by Jesus. Jesus told people where they went wrong, using the law as his guide, but loved them through the entire process. In reading the story of the woman at the well in John 4, it is difficult to imagine that the woman felt shamed or coerced. One gets the sense that she already felt ashamed and Jesus offered her love, hope and a way out of her bondage.

What can the Church do in response?

  1. Live out the claims of the Gospel – demonstrate by changed lives that the Gospel is indeed true. We need to allow God to “will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13)
  2. If we are yielded to God we can then love like Jesus loved – those outside the church community must feel our love before they will be willing to hear our message. In reading the accounts in the Gospels where people came to faith in Jesus, it is obvious to me that they felt Jesus’ love and were drawn to him by that love.

We do not need to impose any standard of behavior on the world around us. Paul wrote his letters to communities where moral decay and depravity were rampant, and I find no hint of an assertion that the church should work for a legislative response to that decay.

Coercive tactics should find no place in the church. We are called to speak the truth in love (Eph 4;15), not bully people into conformity.

God does not like bullies any more than we do.

The law of unintended consequences

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Airplane
The airline did not anticipate the consequence of their policy.

Every decision has consequences. Good leaders anticipate those consequences and will take them into consideration when choosing a path forward.

Recently I had an experience where an airline implemented a policy of charging $50 to fly standby on an earlier flight (the airline I usually fly will allow me to fly standby for free).  I can only assume that some manager thought this a good way to increase revenue. For me the real consequence is that this airline will now be my last choice when choosing a carrier. My reluctance to use this airline again is an unintended consequence of a policy that must have seemed a good idea at the time.

Wisdom would say that we should not sacrifice long term goals to achieve a short term one. By trying to bilk an extra $50 out of me the airline will now get no revenue from me in the long term until they change their policy or other airlines become equally senseless.

In the same way, the church can sacrifice long term progress for short term gains. Our time frame for evaluation of our effectiveness is eternity. We will be judged on how well we did in making true disciples with whom we will spend that eternity.

To pump up programs and cultural relativity to bring people in the door and then waffle on teaching them to obey the commands of Scripture is to sacrifice the long term goal for short term gain. We do not need more attendees but we should want many more true disciples.

In the end, Jesus will not evaluate you on the church budget, the church attendance, the TV ratings or the number of programs. The question will be “did you make true disciples?”

Don’t sacrifice a long term relationship for $50 today.

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