Flip a coin

Paul says our salvation "depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Rom. 9:16).

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 250). Kindle Edition.

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6, v. 44).

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 259). Kindle Edition.

These Scriptures seem pretty specific. And to be honest, downright scary. Because as I understand them, they mean that salvation is out of my hands, and I don't like that. I guess I prefer the formulas, the guarantees.

But then there are those Scriptures which seem to say the opposite. Philippians 2:12 comes to mind. "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." 
That sounds better, because now I am back in control.

But which is it? Am I in control or not? Perhaps I should just flip a coin. Or not.

Here is my take. Salvation completely depends on God. Not even 1% can be attributed to me, no works, no decision on my part, nothing. I know that many would disagree with me, and I am okay with that. I understand how hard it is to accept such thinking. And even for those who agree, there are many divergent paths from this point forward. Not time to discuss those now.

That being said, I don't know who God has chosen and who is not chosen. Therefore, since I am the instrument of God, I obey and carry the Gospel with obedience and great care. And one of the things that I must be careful of is not to get the big head, thinking more of myself than I ought just because God has chosen me. This is the God of the universe we speak of, and I am but a mist. I should never forget that.

Why religion stinks

A church that is deeply aware of its misery and nakedness before a holy God will cling tenaciously to an all-sufficient Savior, while one that is self-confident and relatively unaware of its inherent sinfulness will reach for religion and morality whenever it seems convenient.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 243). Kindle Edition.

Makes sense, because I believe that the same could be said of the individual. Institutions, just like individuals, need humility. I think that is something that is incredibly lacking in the American church. But if you are a regular reader here, you already know that.

There is just something about nakedness that bothers most people. When we are naked, are flaws are exposed. Especially as I grow older, I have a tendency to buy looser fitting clothing. It is as if I think you won't notice my flaws because you can't tell the folds in my sweater from the folds in my flab.

So imagine standing "naked" before God. Not only are your flaws exposed, but they are exposed in the light of his perfection. That is why when we do stand before God, the only confidence that can possibly mean anything is our confidence in Christ alone. Alone. In Christ alone. Notice the clinginess. Like hiding behind the big kid in dodgeball, only better.

Which is why religion and morality ultimately stink.

The fate of the church

The kingdom of God is something we are receiving, not something we are building (Heb. 12:28). The Lord of the church did not say, "Build my church"; he said that on the "rock" of the confession that Jesus is the Christ, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 233). Kindle Edition.

How wonderful to know that the fate of the church is in the hands of God, and not sorry sinners such as myself! I find so much peace in that thought.

The butler didn't do it

We may think that it is we who need to serve God rather than vice versa. Nevertheless, Jesus tells us as he told Peter that this is actually an insult, a form of pride. We are the ones who need to be bathed, clothed, and fed, not God.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 229). Kindle Edition.

Doesn't the Bible teach both? That we serve God (Romans 12:1-2) and that He serves us? I think the key word in the quote is "need." God does not "need" us to serve Him, but we do need Him to serve us.

Now that can be twisted. I am not talking about God serving me by fulfilling my every desire. Yet without the cross, without the sacrificial service of Christ, we are doomed. We need that. Without God's daily provision to keep our bodies functioning, the world spinning, the sun providing warmth and energy, we are gone. We need God, and it is this realization that both humbles and empowers us. At least it should.

Pass the butter?

We do not simply remember Christ or rededicate ourselves to Christ in this meal; rather, Christ gives himself to us as the Bread of Life.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 219). Kindle Edition.

I think when it comes to communion, I drift to the idea of works based religion more than any other time. Have I been good enough? Am I worthy to partake. The answer should always be, "No, not outside of the grace of Christ." So perhaps partaking in a worthy manner is not about me, at least in the sense of my behavior. But it is more about me and the question, "Am I willing to accept the gift that Christ is offering?" Am I willing to understand my own sinfulness and partake of the body and blood of Christ, fully understanding that without this sacrifice, I am damned. Those are strong words, but communion is a strong image. One that I believe is intended to evoke a great appreciation in the hearts of Christians.

How can some be forgiven more?

Those who are forgiven much love much (Luke 7:47).

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 205). Kindle Edition.

Some might ask, are some forgiven more than others? No, I don't believe so. The context of this quote really goes to the perception of the one who is forgiven. If I think I am an okay guy, if I think I follow all or most of the moral obligations thrown my way, if I compare myself to others and see them as worse than me, then perhaps my level of the perception of my forgiveness is not all that high, and therefore my understanding of the depth of God's grace is not so high either. But if I see myself as a sinner saved by grace, no better or no worse than any other sinner, and I perceive the depth of God's love to me in the giving of His Son, then how can my reciprocation of the love not be great? Not because I want to prove my worth to God, but because I have seen my worth to Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What he said...

In the second scenario, the church is its own subculture, an alternative community not only for weekly dying and rising in Christ but for one's entire circle of friends, electricians, and neighbors. In this scenario, the people assume that they come to church primarily to do something. The emphasis is on their work for God. The preaching concentrates on principles and steps to living a better life, with a constant stream of exhortations: Be more committed. Read your Bible more. Pray more. Witness more. Give more. Get involved in this cause or that movement to save the world. Their calling by God to secular vocations is made secondary to finding their ministry in the church. Often malnourished because of a ministry defined by personal charisma and motivational skills rather than by knowledge and godliness, these same sheep are expected to be shepherds themselves. Always serving, they are rarely served. Ill-informed about the grand narrative of God's work in redemptive history, they do not really know what to say to a non-Christian except to talk about their own experiences and perhaps repeat some slogans or formulas that they might be hard-pressed to explain. Furthermore, because they are expected to be so heavily involved in church-related activities (often considered more important even than the public services on Sunday), they do not have the time, energy, or opportunity to develop significant relationships outside the church. And if they were to bring a friend to church, they could not be sure that he or she would hear the gospel.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 190-191). Kindle Edition.

Okay, I think this is a bit of a blanket statement. Not everyone who goes to a specific church believes this, but I think that there are many who even unknown to themselves have this type of belief system. And I think that many specific churches, perhaps unintentionally, promote this type of belief. The list of items in the quote are not bad things, they are just not the end itself. Christ is the end. And sometimes our programs promote this type of belief. We promote slogans like, "Be the Church." Yet instead of telling us what it means to really be the Bride of Christ, we promote specific behaviors. Perhaps what we really need is marriage counseling! We follow slogans like, "Be Jesus" instead of encouraging belief in Jesus. To be Jesus is a heavy burden I cannot bear, although perhaps I would like to think I could. Believing Jesus, on the other hand, gives me hope.

What's in your preaching?

Often in popular preaching today it seems that the goal is to get through the interpretation of the passage in order to arrive at the contemporary application, which typically evidences the preacher's own hobbyhorses and recent diet of reading or movies. Usually, application equals law-to-do lists-rather than using the passage to actually absolve sinners of their guilt and rescript them in their new roles as those who have been transferred from the covenantal headship of Adam to Christ.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 145). Kindle Edition.

I think back to most of the in-person preaching I have heard in the past 5 to 10 years. While my opinion of some of it was okay (at that time), I now look back and say to myself, "Where was I really challenged to grow?" or "What did I hear that was not something that most in the audience did not already agreed with?" or "Yeah, I remember reading that book too."

I still go back to inviting my heroine addicted brother to come to church with me, and him actually saying yes. Then, after the service, when I had heard what at the time I thought was powerful, I dared to ask what he thought. He replied, "I thought it was lame." It took me a while, but I think so too now. What we had heard was a rah-rah session for believers. No gospel, just a statement of we as Christians are right! Jesus is the answer for white, middle-class America. Sign-up now for your spot in heaven!

But now that I see that I am a sinner, that is not what I want to hear. I want absolution. I want to know that Christ offers that to me. I can go to the movies myself.

If at first you don't succeed...

When my conscience leads me to despair, the exhortation to try harder will only deepen either my self-righteousness or my spiritual depression. In other words, it will draw me away from my location in Christ and gradually bring me back to that place where I am turned in on myself. If the conscience is to find peace with God, there can be no help from the law; in fact, it is the law that arouses my conscience to my utter sinfulness.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 130). Kindle Edition.

Another interesting thought, one that has proven itself true in my experience. Now I know there are some who can excel just through their will. At least for a time. My brother is a great example. He kicked a heroine habit just by gutting it out. After being homeless, living on the streets, stealing just to get the next fix, he finally gave up and went home. When mom and dad picked him up at the airport, they barely recognized him. He went through the withdrawl phase and did not pick up a needle again...for about 10 years. They say heroine is the hardest drug to overcome, its addiction is so powerful. So ten years is an amazing feat. But once he picked it up again, he couldn't put it back down, no matter how much he wanted to. He went through the withdrawal phase time and again, but soon after was back for more. Finally, in utter despair, he took his life.

The world says keep trying. Or try harder. Jesus says something completely different. He tells us to come to Him. He says surrender. Those are difficult words for folks in our culture.

Dad started doing the dishes

We are not called to live the gospel but to believe the gospel and to follow the law in view of God's mercies.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 124). Kindle Edition.

I find this to be an interesting quote. Doesn't living the gospel sound like a good idea? I hear people say things like "Be Jesus," and "What would Jesus do?" Aren't these things okay?

What does God really want from us? Many people would answer "relationship." But I think that depends on your definition of relationship. The Bible says God wants belief. But even that can be a tricky word to define. And then there are James' words that "even the demons believe - and shudder!"

So the belief that we have is not merely intellectual assent. It is a knowledge that leads to an action.

For some reason, I have been thinking about my Dad a lot lately. Growing up he was the bread winner, and Mom took care of the house. He got home from work at 5:00, and dinner was on the table as he stepped through the door. Afterwards, he did the man things that needed done around the house. Or sometimes took a nap on the couch. But after he retired, Dad was often found in the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes, even though Mom told him he didn't need to do it. (But I could tell that she really liked it.)

Why did he do it? Was it an attempt to get Mom to love him more? I don't think so. Was it guilt over all of the years she had done so much in the kitchen while he seldom set foot in there? Nah. I think it was just a deep expression of his appreciation and love for her. Over the years they had done so much for each other. I can still see Mom in the kitchen, making Dad an extra sandwich with the cheese that smelled worse than my socks after gym class. Same thing. She did it out of love, and not obligation or guilt. He worked hard to provide, and this was a way of expressing her appreciation.

So what does this have to do with the quote from today? I think it is the same idea. We don't try to live the gospel, but because we believe the gospel we respond to it in certain ways. I don't have to live under the burden of being Jesus or trying to figure out what he would do. I am not Jesus. I just have to believe in what He has done and respond in deep appreciation, not in perfection or obligation. The demons shudder because that is the part they lack, the appreciation that works itself out in their lives. They believe the gospel, but that very gospel itself makes them angry and in opposition to God.

So maybe that is why Jesus says that when we feed the hungry or visit those in prison "in his name," we have done a great service to him. It is not the action, but the appreciation because of our faith that he enjoys. Likewise, when the action occurs without the belief, it does not impress him. So what I need in my life is not more effort, but more faith that leads to the kind of response lets God know that even though all of the actions in my life could not repay the debt I owe, I deeply appreciate the fact that I no longer owe that debt.

Huh?

The following graphic is used in the book.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 196). Kindle Edition. 

There is a huge difference between the two approaches. So the question for me becomes, is either one okay? Does God care if we land on one side, the other, or somewhere in the middle. Or maybe this is not a fair representation. I know that many who I consider to hold to the "Law Lite" position do not see themselves in that mold, and would argue that they do hold to the gospel.

Because these positions are so divergent, I don't think both can be acceptable. However, I do believe that God has some in each party, just as Satan has his minions on either side. That's just my opinion. I am not saying the theology is unimportant. I just happen to believe that a heart for God trumps bad theology. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. I believe that if that is done with all sincerity, God will honor that love and provide a way. 

Not everything is Gospel.

Not everything in God's Word is gospel; there are a lot of exhortations, commands, and imperatives. They are to be followed. However, they are not the gospel. Not everything that we need is gospel. We also need to be directed. We need to know God's commands so we will come clean, acknowledge our sins, and flee to Christ and also so they can direct us in grateful obedience.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 109). Kindle Edition.

We need to be directed. I agree. But direction without destination is futile. Some focus on the direction, but lack the destination. Or some confuse the destination. I read a quote today, and it sounds so good. It was on a preacher's Facebook page.

"There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams. All he is waiting on...for us to ask. Dream big, PRAY big."*

I want to believe this. Trouble is, the Bible doesn't bear this out. David's son died. John the Baptist was beheaded. Jonah's shade was withered. Stephen was stoned. Paul was imprisoned. Jesus asked that the cup be taken from Him. I could go on. If God is all about fulfilling our dreams, didn't some of these men have a place at the front of the line?

There is nothing God loves more than His Son. Yet God allowed Him to suffer to keep His promise to Abram and to us. He has answered the prayers of the suffering, by giving them a vision that their suffering will not be eternal as they call out to Him. His greatest joy is to see that His Son's sacrifice was not in vain. That is the miracle of miracles. That is the fulfillment of the greatest dream ever, not to avoid the certainty of Hell, but to spend eternity in the presence of God.

I m not saying don't pray. Yes, pray your guts out. Like David, lay everything on the floor before God and leave nothing out. Share your pain and struggles, your frustrations and your joys. Expect miracles. Trust in Him completely. But remember the destination. The destination is eternity with God. It means that we love Him above all else and whatever we have to endure down here, we do faithfully.

*Upon doing some checking, I found that this quote is from a book by Mark Batterson.

Go down two blocks, then take a left.

"What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?"'

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 104). Kindle Edition.

I once asked a preacher why he was always telling people what to do or how to live. He replied that the Bible is full of such admonitions. And while that point is true, those admonitions are usually or maybe even always preceded by a gospel declaration, something that was not present in his preaching.

Michael hits pretty hard on Joel Osteen in his book in a few places, but rightfully so in my opinion. I guess it boils down to whether you believe the gospel is about your best life now or the best God of the universe. While I believe that God wants what is best for us, I don't believe it looks like what Mr. Osteen often promises.

Hurry up, company is coming!

"Ever since his temptation by Satan, Jesus had been offered glory without a cross, but it was a false promise. That's why Jesus rebuked Peter's attempt to dissuade him from the cross by saying, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (Matt. 16:23)."

"Paul regularly picks up on this theme. Familiar to suffering himself, Paul was always joyful not because of his circumstances but because of the gospel's promise that after we suffer for a little while we will share in Christ's resurrection glory."

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 95-96). Kindle Edition.

This whole Christianity thing would be so much better if it weren't for that bloody cross. At least that is what many think. It's like when you know company is coming over and you don't have much time to clean, so things start getting stuffed in places that they don't belong so we give the appearance of being neater than we really are.

We shouldn't have to clean up Christ to make him look better. If the God of the universe was willing to be naked on a cross, battered and bruised, then I think he can handle it if people know about that today.

Jesus said our burden is light. That is because he did all the hard stuff. He went to Calvary and endured God's wrath so that we wouldn't have to. If you take away the cross, then all that is left is us trying to be better so that we can earn God's favor. Are we really ready to take on the wrath of God ourselves? I'll take the cross instead.

Not a damn thing.

There are half-truths in all of these pleas, but they never really bring hearers face-to-face with their real problem: that they stand naked and ashamed before a holy God and can only be acceptably clothed in his presence by being clothed, head to toe, in Christ's righteousness.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 73-74). Kindle Edition.

Our best efforts cannot satisfy God's Justice. Yet the good news is that God has satisfied his own justice and reconciled us to himself through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. God's holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (p. 91). Kindle Edition.

What do I hope to get by serving God? Not a damn thing that I don't already have. My righteous acts are but filthy rags before Him. I don't do it because of what I will get, I do it because of what I already got. (My apologies to those who are offended by my grammar.)

I did it all by myself!

By contrast, if we adopt Pelagian or semi-Pelagian assumptions, we will carry the burden of trying to produce conversions, relying on our own cleverness and communicative power rather than on God's Word and Spirit.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 62-63). Kindle Edition.

I use tools to make things. The tools can not assume any of the credit, for without me they are useless. God uses people to accomplish his plans, but the problems begin when we think we deserve some of the credit.

Churches boast about how they are growing as if they were doing something better than the church down the street, or as if their god were better than the others. Yet according to Scripture, it is God who causes growth, not man or even a well intentioned group of men. (My mind wanders to the Tower of Babel.)

It's not that growth is bad, but if growth were the true indicator, then we might as well sign up for Joel Osteen's church now.

So if God is in charge, why are we so distracted by all of these other things? Why are we promoting anything else? And perhaps most importantly, what are we trying to win people to?

Grab your bootstraps!

I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups.

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 16-17). Kindle Edition.

So what do we do to combat this? I seriously struggle with this. It is difficult to listen to a speaker and rarely or never hear the name of Jesus. Does this bother anyone else?

Wrapping it up.

The gospel is counterintuitive to our moral reasoning as sinners, not to reason itself. (Ch. 10)

I am going to wrap up the book with this quote from Chapter 10. It is an interesting thought, one that challenges us to be honest, something that I know that I have a hard time doing.

The gospel, the message of Jesus, that He came and stood in my place, is counterintuitive to who I am, because I would have a hard time standing in someone else's place, and to think that the God of heaven and earth did that for me is mind blowing. But there are also other things that go against my sinful mindset. Like the idea that, to quote Jesus on the cross, "It is finished." The atoning work is done, and I didn't do it, it didn't earn it, there is nothing left for me to do but to appreciate it.

And then there is reason. I still have a hard time seeing God doing this for me, but that is why He is worthy of my worship! But my reason tells me that there is no other way. There is no way that I can earn or deserve what God has done in the Gospel. There is no other way for me to get to heaven than to climb on His back and let Him take me there.

No matter how hard we want to believe that somehow we have earned a part of our salvation, true reason tells me otherwise. No man with a few pennies in his hand can put Bill Gates in his debt. I don't deserve what God has given me. But I can appreciate it.

You can't handle the truth!

Wouldn't it throw the whole industry of church marketing for a loop if our churches were truly defined by the cross? (Ch. 8)

Yesterday I spoke of how we tend to focus on words like "salvation," and sometimes this takes our eyes off of other words like "gospel" and 'power." I speak for myself, because this is something I am guilty of. But this quote takes it a step farther than just what I personally do.

Let me ask you, what drew you to your church? For many is it a program that met a personal need. While that is great, is that what we see in the Bible? Yes, there were times when Jesus healed someone, and that person's life was changed, and they followed Him. But there were also times when Jesus said hard things, and in doing so drove people away. Where does that fit in a church's marketing strategy?

So what if we threw out marketing strategies, and focused on living a gospel driven life? Could God handle it if instead of a kickin' band drawing in the younger crowd, we had some kickin' sermons that challenged people, were Bible centered (so we would have to talk about other subjects besides sex), and both lifted us up and cut our hearts? Yes, I think God could handle it, but could we?

You have to look a little to the left...

Once we realize that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, our action becomes a "reasonable service." However, if our service is front and center, the church may easily (wittingly or unwittingly) proclaim itself as the Messiah. (Ch. 7)

Now on the surface, this sounds obvious. We have heard verses about this and probably even heard such language in sermons. But have we stopped to think about the implications?

I can only speak for myself, but I think that I have had a tendency to focus on the word "salvation" when I hear such statements. My salvation is in the gospel, and the gospel is the good news about Jesus, and I want salvation so I confess and say I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. From there, it becomes a matter of saying and doing more right things, like going to church, not cursing, grace before meals, and maybe even an appropriate "Amen!" now and then.

But what if instead of focusing on the word "salvation," I focus on the words "gospel" and "power." Now instead of wanting salvation for myself, I find myself just being in awe at what the gospel has done. I now see that I cannot just give some lip service to such a thing, thinking that by doing that I am saved. It is not my confession in the gospel that saves me, it is the gospel itself that is the power of salvation. So now I see that next to the gospel, my good actions are but filthy rags.

So here is the paradox. If I focus on my salvation, I do the good things because I want to be saved. But in doing so, I dishonor the gospel, become my own savior, and since I have not lived a perfect life, I end up damning myself to hell. Or, I can focus on the gospel, be in awe of the beauty of a Savior who would do such a thing for me, and my life is changed, maybe to look just like the life of the one who seeks to be their own savior. Only I am not doing it to achieve salvation, I am doing it because of my love for the one who offers salvation to me.

That is a Gospel Driven Life.

******************************************************************

For fun, but also application, have you taken the awareness test yet?


If you have taken the test for the first time, chances are, you did not see the bear at first. It is because your mind was focused elsewhere. Just like we sometimes focus so hard on salvation, that we miss the gospel. Salvation is a by-product of the Gospel Driven Life. But having the Gospel Driven Life is not always a by-product of chasing after salvation.