As Irrelevant as the Outer Mongolian Dung Beetle
As Unbelief grows stronger in our Western culture, which languishes under the curses of the Covenant, Christians are finding out first hand the enmity that exists, by Divine placement and decree, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
A natural response is for Christians to seek peace. The response is biblical in some important ways. Paul says, as far as it is possible, live at peace with all men (Romans 12:18). But more often than we would care to admit the search for peace with Unbelief comes at the expense of the Gospel. Modern Christians want to assure Unbelievers that the Living God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. When this is taken out of a proper biblical context, it makes the Gospel anodyne. It also does nothing to remove the enmity that exists between Belief and Unbelief.
We saw an example of this in much of the public Christian commentary on the Christchurch earthquake. Official Christians emphatically affirmed that the earthquake was not an act of God. Bad news for insurance companies then who routinely attempt to avoid paying out on damages caused by such divine acts. But more seriously what on earth were these erstwhile representatives of God trying to say? If the earthquake was not an act of God, who then caused it? Did amorphous, impersonal nature cause the earthquake? Did the Devil? Did it happen without the express will and purpose of God? If so, then of all people, Christians are the most pitiable on the earth.
We are sure that these official Christians were attempting to communicate that, despite the earthquake, God still loves the people of Christchurch. To suggest otherwise would be to invite their anger and wrath--which Christians would rather not face. But when living at peace with all men leads us to hide the truth something is terribly wrong. Maybe we should remember that several times during His public ministry the Lord Himself--the Prince of Peace--so outraged his listeners that they sought to kill Him. Maybe we should consider that His death occurred because the High Priest and his fellow conspirators hated and despised the Christ for what He said. Maybe we should bear in mind that our Lord clearly told us that if the world hated Him it would also hate us. Maybe we Christians should just harden up, become more faithful to our Lord, and expect the inevitable loathing and anathema, counting it as nothing.
Modern Christians have forgotten, or have preferred not to hear, that the Gospel is bad news before it is good news. Or, to put it another way, the Gospel only becomes good news when people realise just how wretched and lost they truly are. Without that realisation--which the ancient divines called "conviction of sin", the Gospel is not good news at all--it is an irrelevance at best, a provocative nuisance, at worst. Why tell me God loves me when I could not care less? As useful and relevant to tell me the outer Mongolian dung beetle has nocturnal habits. Quaint, but an irrelevant waste of breath.
In John 3:36 we are told that, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Now that is very bad news indeed. Christians generally don't want to say this to Unbelievers, even though they know it is true, because they fear the opprobrium and wrath that would descend upon their head.
Now, to be sure, there is an appropriate time and place for all speech. But when it is time to speak of our relation to the Living God, we must not fail to remind our listener that he abides in and lives under the wrath of God as long as he remains stubborn, independent, and unrepentant. The good news, the Gospel, is that today God will yet be merciful, if he repents of his slights toward God, and seeks His forgiveness offered in Christ. But, tomorrow? Who knows.
This message, this Gospel, cost the Lord His life. Far better that we stand in His steps, instead of lusting for the approbation and approval of Unbelief.
No comments:
Post a Comment