Once upon a time there was a movement called the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was a recovery of the biblical doctrine of salvation “by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone, on the authority of Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone”. It was a genuine move of the Spirit of God. Many people found genuine spiritual life through the Protestant Reformation, as the Spirit of God empowered the preaching of the Word of God, which led to the awakening of the people of God. It was a rediscovery of the truth of New Testament Christianity, but that truth was soon to be corrupted. What happened next?
An error was introduced into the picture— the error of “nominalism”. Within Protestantism, there arose the teaching that as long as professing Christians recite the right creeds and sing the right hymns and believe the right doctrines, they are saved. The argument went as follows: If salvation is “by grace through faith and not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9), then all a person has to do is believe all the right doctrines in order to be saved. Faith began to be redefined as mental assent, and the magnificent grace of the cross of Christ became redefined as what we might call “cheap grace”. Salvation became separated from the process of becoming more like Christ, and began to be seen less as a transformative lifestyle and more as only an escape from condemnation and a free pass into eternal life. Christianity morphed from being a life-transforming experience into being a legal pronouncement of forgiveness that had little or no effect on a person’s lifestyle. The reproduction of the character of Christ in the life of the believer became divorced from the salvation of his or her soul. Rather than being two sides of one coin they became two completely separate issues. To be a Christian became synonymous with being saved from hell, minus the implications of a transformed life. Becoming a follower of Christ began to be dropped out of the equation. To the nominalist, one could be a Christian without being a follower of Christ. One could be saved without having a new heart and a transformed lifestyle. Some people saw through the error, but in their zeal to correct the problem they rushed headlong into the opposite error— the error of “legalism”. Legalism was a misguided but sincere attempted to separate the real Christians from the nominal Christians by seeking to measure the degree of person’s holiness by his or her observance of long lists of rules. The “holy” Christians were the ones who followed all the rules. The salvation of everyone else was suspect. This led to the idea that “real Christians” were the only decent people in a society full of sinners. Churches became conservative enclaves where frightened people huddled together to protect themselves and their children from being corrupted by the evil influences of the world. Genuine spiritual transformation was morphed into observance of rules, and the Church began to be conceptualized as a place where rules-oriented Christians gathered in an attempt to keep themselves insulated from the corrupting influences of the world, rather than as a launching pad that would send transformed sinners into the world to engage the world with the transforming truth of the Gospel. Genuine spiritual transformation was bypassed in an effort to follow the rules. As I see it, the legalists, though well-intentioned in their zeal to correct the errors of nominalism, made three errors of their own:
Great wisdom and discernment are needed here. A congregation does need to take steps to keep itself pure and holy. It also needs to take steps to reach out to a needy world. If we were to try to keep all the sin out of the Church, then the Church would be empty, for there is no one without sin. If we were to allow unrepentant sinful behavior to continue unchecked in a congregation, then we would not be the Church, for the Church is the company of the redeemed, ever moving toward greater holiness as evidence of their redemption. We need to ask God how to reach out to a sinful world without compromising our own holiness. The key is to be at all times very aware of our own sinfulness and our own need for God’s continued grace and mercy. We didn’t suddenly become perfect the day we came to personal faith in Christ, but we did begin on a trajectory toward holiness. God loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to allow us to stay as we are. We are all “works in progress”. Also, we need to become very aware of our own tendencies toward nominalism and legalism before we are in a position to be able to help others to deal with these errors. Rather than developing a critical spirit against those who have nominalistic or legalistic tendencies, we need to check our own hearts. We need to understand that many nominalists and legalists are sincerely trying to correct each other’s errors. In many cases these are well-intentioned overcompensatory swings, rather than intentional attempts to be something other than genuine Christians. We need to remember the words of Jesus: "And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye". (Matthew 7:3-5 NLT) Theological errors take on a life of their own when they are passed on to the next generation. What happens to the next generation of nominalists and legalists? Let’s follow this through using the fictitious examples of Joe Nominalist and Mary Legalist. Joe Nominalist is raised to believe that Christianity is all about being saved from hell, not also about being a follower of Christ. Joe starts meeting people who are not church-going Christians and he finds that many of them are very decent people who care about the things that all decent human beings care about. Joe Nominalist reasons “If non-Christians can be decent human beings, and if the only thing that makes a person a Christian is a fire-escape plan from hell and a free ticket into heaven, then I don’t need that. I’d rather just be a decent person without calling myself a Christian”. Joe Nominalist may think that he has rejected Christianity, but in reality he has rejected nominalism. He may have never really experienced true Christianity. He has rejected the counterfeit, thinking that the counterfeit is the real thing. Mary Legalist is raised to be believe that Christianity is all about being morally superior to everyone else. Mary starts meeting people who are not church-going Christians and she finds that many of them are very decent people. In fact, many of them are more decent than the rules-following crowd back at church. Mary’s new friends aren’t grumpy, judgmental rules-followers. Many of them are compassionate people, perhaps more compassionate than the people back at church, and they are actually out there trying to make a difference in the world rather than burrowing themselves into conservative enclaves of self-protection. Mary reasons “If the only differences between non-Christians and Christians are the rules that they follow, then I don’t need to be a Christian. I’d rather be a compassionate person who is out to make a difference in the world than a rules-following Christian who hides in church while the world goes to hell”. Mary Legalist may think that she has rejected Christianity, but in reality she has rejected legalism. She may have never really experienced true Christianity. She has rejected the counterfeit, thinking that the counterfeit is the real thing. if nominalism is an error, and if legalism is an error, then what is the truth? The truth is that Jesus Christ came both to forgive sinners and to transform sinners into Christlike, loving, compassionate people who learn to love God and to love others as the Spirit of God enables them to overcome their sinful and selfish tendencies and habits and to reproduce within them the character of Christ. The truth is that the grace of God that forgives us is the same grace of God that changes us. Salvation involves a change of heart, not only a change of eternal destination. The truth is that we are all sinners— including the most rules-observant Christian. Salvation is like “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”. Proclaiming the Gospel is saying “I am a sinner and you are a sinner. God has forgiven me, He has set me on a transformative journey where He is gradually overcoming my sinful acts and tendencies and addictions and habits and is reproducing the character of Christ within me, and I am forever grateful to be called one of God’s own children. Won’t you join me in this journey? Let’s journey together”. Christianity does not reduce Christianity to a “free ticket to heaven” (nominalism), but neither does it gave us any reason to presume that we are morally superior to other people (legalism). Christianity is Jesus Christ the Son of God becoming a man, living a perfect life in intimate relationship with and total dependence upon his Father, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, rising from among the dead, ascending into heaven, coming back again to rule and reign over his kingdom. It is God’s gracious gift of forgiveness freely bestowed upon those who do not deserve it, transforming their character as they yield to His empowering Holy Spirit, and forever grateful to God for all eternity for inviting them into this eternal experience of God’s grace and mercy. That’s what we celebrate at Christmastime. That’s what what the Christmas carols are all about. This simple and beautiful and life-transforming message is corrupted when we try to reduce Christianity to a “free ticket to heaven” (nominalism), or when we assume a “holier than thou” stance because we follow rules that others don’t follow (legalism). Christianity is the great equalizer. It reminds us that we all need the forgiveness and the transforming power that is rooted in the cross of Christ and that is available through the grace of Christ. We are all sinners, even the most rule-observant Christian, and we invite other sinners to enter into the same healing and transformative journey that we are on. We need to know that we are sinners who are on a journey towards transformation, healing and wholeness before we can invite other sinners to join us in that journey. Our message is “journey along with me”, not “I have already arrived”. In the Christian journey there is no place for nominalism or legalism. There is only the transforming power of Jesus that is available to both the most rules-observant church-goer and the most outwardly blatant sinner and everyone in between. In God’s eyes were are all equally sinful and all equally needy of the forgiving grace and transforming power of the Gospel. We can’t say “I may be a sinner but he or she is a Really Bad Sinner”. The Gospel doesn’t work that way. It has been said, “The ground at the foot of the cross is level”. We all come as guilty sinners, equally needy of God’s grace. If we have really experienced the grace of God and if we are really experiencing the transformative power of God, then we will become people who care. Rather than the Church hiding from the world in an attempt to protect ourselves from darkness, the Church will go out into the world with the light of the Gospel, and we will be agents of change. Jesus called it being “salt” and “light”. We will not hide away in congregations of safety and close our eyes while the world all around us goes to hell. We bring the light into the darkness, not with a “holier than thou” judgmental attitude but as those who are experiencing our own deliverance from darkness into light and who want to invite others into that journey. Henri Nouwen tried to help us to see this: "Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: “Who can take away suffering without entering it"? (Source: Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society). If we are experiencing our own transformation and if we are desirous of inviting others to join us in the process, then rather than turning our congregations into inward-focused bunkers of safety we will turn them into outward-focused, vibrant communities of joyful and loving and grateful people, where the lifestyle of Christlike love and compassion is fleshed out corporately. We will become counter-cultural communities that will be attractive to those who are being drawn to the light as we engage the world in creative ways. This is what the Church is all about. Here is what Jesus had to say about this: "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father". (Matthew 5:13-16 NLT) The story is told of an artist who was working on a beautiful painting of The Last Supper. In the painting, Jesus and his twelve Apostles are gathered around a table in a dimly-lit room, eagerly waiting for the bread and the wine that Jesus had begun to distribute. On the table, in front of Jesus and each apostle, are found a plate for the bread, a goblet for the wine, and a lit candle for light. The light from the flickering candles is reflecting on the plates and the goblets and then further reflected into the faces of the men who are sitting around the table, so that their faces are bathed in the soft glow of the candlelight, creating the beautiful imagery of light shining through the darkness as it is reflected in the faces of Jesus and his Apostles. When the painting was finally complete, the artist asked a friend to come in and view the painting and to give his honest critique. The friend came in and was enthralled by the beauty of the painting. After a few moments of stunned silence, the friend remarked “This is truly a beautiful painting. What I like the best about it is the way that the soft candlelight is reflected in the rose-gold coloring of the goblets”. When he heard this, the artist became furious and began to cover his painting with streaks of black paint, destroying the painting. The friend was alarmed and said “I said it’s a beautiful painting! Why are you destroying it?” The artist replied “I wanted you to see Jesus. You saw goblets”. My heart breaks for a generation that fails to see the beauty of Jesus. My concern is that the fault is at least partially our own, maybe more than we realize. Instead of showing them Jesus, we have shown them goblets. We have shown them a version of Christianity that has been corrupted by nominalism or legalism. We have shown them a Jesus who sometimes acts more like a White American Republican than like the Jesus of the Scriptures. If they have not fallen in love with Jesus, perhaps it is because we have shown them the wrong Jesus.
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One of the most clever tactics of the Enemy of God has been the relegation of Christianity to the category of “tradition”.
A tradition is a quaint practice, like our annual December habits of bringing out chestnuts and holly and mistletoe and hot chocolate with marshmallows and eggnog and playing music about snowmen and reindeer and Santa and elves, that brings us a degree of warm and fuzzy sentiment, gives us some excuse to celebrate when the winter gets cold, and helps to keep life from becoming too dull and boring. Traditions make us feel good. They give us a little something that we can pass down to the next generation, for what it’s worth. If the next generation finds the tradition helpful then they can hold onto it. If they don’t find it helpful then they can put it to rest. No harm done. It’s only a tradition, and letting go of it will do no harm to the universe. Casting it aside will do no damage to the cosmic order of things. How did people ever start to use the words “Christianity” and “tradition” in the same sentence? Where did we ever get the idea that Christianity is a tradition that was intended to make us feel good and that can be set aside if it no longer gives us the intended warm fuzzies? People are not persecuted for the sake of maintaining a tradition. The early Christians weren’t thrown to the lions for the sake of preserving a tradition. Christ didn’t die on a cross so that he could start a new tradition. Christianity claims that God became a human being so that human beings could be reconciled to God. It claims that humankind is in a state of rebellion against God and that the only way for the effects of that rebellion to be overcome was for God Himself to come to the earth that He created, as a human being, to pay for the sins that humans committed against Him. God, the Creator of the universe and the righteous judge of all the earth, assesses the earth’s inhabitants and finds us all guilty, but then comes to earth to pay the penalty Himself. A spiritually and morally bankrupt creation is incapable of paying the debt that it owes to its Creator. The Creator must die for the sins of His creation if those sins are to be forgiven, and that is what happened when Jesus died on the cross. He paid that debt. Only He was able to pay it. Christianity claims that God’s radical love for the human race is what motivated Him to take such unspeakably extreme action in order to reconcile us to Himself. God loved us so much that He died so that He could get us back. He’d rather die for us than live without us. Christianity claims that God was so eager to show us who He is and how we can relate to Him that He not only sent us prophets and gave us Scriptures but that He came to us in person. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus. When we look at the life and character of Jesus, we see what God is all about. Christianity claims that the purpose of life has nothing to do with the positions that we attain or the possessions that we obtain. We come into this world naked, and we leave naked. Our possessions and our positions count for nothing, yet we waste all of our energy investing ourselves into pursuits that will not bring us ultimate happiness and that will, in all probability, be forgotten by the next generation. (Most of us don’t even know the names of our great grandparents, let alone what they accomplished). Christianity blows the cover of the lie that has deceived the world for countless generations. It breaks the illusion of the ultimate value of trivial pursuit and it shatters the delusion of success, charm, popularity and accomplishments as a cover-up for spiritual and moral bankruptcy. By showing us who God really is, it exposes us in all of our fragility and human vulnerability. It shows us who we really are so that we can turn to Him who loves us as we are but who loves us too much to leave us as we are. Christianity, following in the footsteps of Judaism, claims that what is important about life is loving God and loving people. It’s about forgiving our enemies. It’s about treating others with compassion and respect and dignity, not because of their status or accomplishments or utility in society or what they can do for us, but simply because they are human beings created in the image of God. It’s about loving those who are unloveable, unfriendly, and perhaps, at times, downright nasty. It’s about putting the needs of others before our own needs. It’s about “doing good unto others”, no matter what the cost, because that’s what God did when He allowed humans to strip him naked and nail him to a cross. It’s about loving as God loves. Christianity is about looking into the casket of a loved one and knowing that, because Christ has conquered sin and death, that person will live again, and will one day be reunited to his or her loved ones, because that is what Jesus accomplished when he arose from the dead. It’s about marching into a world that is filled with war and terror and famine and homelessness and violence and human rights violations and oppression and injustice and nuclear weapons and crooked politicians and racism and people with big egos making big decisions that affect multitudes, and confidently and joyously declaring hope. It’s about being light in a dark place. It’s about a confident expectation that one day all the wrongs of the world will be set right, and that this change begins here and now as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, following His example, guided by his Scriptures, empowered by His Spirit, sharing life together as His Church, living as He lived and loving as He loved, and, if called upon, being willing to die as He died. If what the Christian faith proclaims is really true, then the acceptance or rejection of this truth will have herculean consequences in the cosmic order of things. Its acceptance puts us into proper relationship with our Creator and with all that He has created. Its rejection is the exchange of the truth for a lie, and the abandonment of the only hope of the universe. What is the world going to do with Christianity? It appears to me that we have only two options. We can embrace it with everything that we have and with everything that we are, and spend the rest of our lives in hot pursuit of the God who is in hot pursuit of us, or we can spend the rest of our lives trying to expose Christianity as the biggest farce ever to hit humankind. We can’t take Christianity and wrap it in pretty paper and place it under a tree and call it a tradition. Its claims are too serious to trivialize, and the consequences are too huge. Either Jesus Christ stands at the center of the cosmic order of things, conquering sin and death and reconciling us to God and showing us how our Creator intended for us to live and to die with dignity and meaning and purpose, with the promise of a world that will one day be made right, or it’s a sad joke, and all Christians have been brainwashed by it. We can embrace it or we can hate it, but we dare not insult it by calling it a tradition. Jesus did not live and die for a tradition. Only the Enemy of God, who is also the Enemy of our souls, could have come up with such a notion. |
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