Gospel vs. Religion, Part One

There are two kinds of preachers: those who preach the Gospel in everything they do, and essentially non-Christian preachers. Non-Christian preachers may look like Christian preachers, and they may themselves be saved, but their message is essentially non-Christian. Just to be upfront at the outset, I have preached in many cases like a ‘non-Christian’ preacher.

The Gospel is a message completely unlike any other religious message. It compels you to "do good" because you have been accepted by God, not in order to be accepted by God. As Tim Keller points out, every other religion says ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted.’ Christianity says, ‘I am accepted, therefore I obey.’ Much of our preaching implies the former.

This is not just an issue of how we think we’re getting to heaven. Salvation is more than just "getting to heaven," it is restoring the sense of acceptance we had in the Garden of Eden. Our separation from God there has caused us to feel naked and ashamed—and this manifests itself in the feeling that we are unapproved, unloved, and meaningless. So we spend all of our lives trying to find salvation—some reason we can be loved and accepted by God and others. We turn to what Martin Luther called "functional saviors." It may be making money that makes us feel valuable, being successful, gaining a good reputation, sensual thrills, family, or whatever. Quite often it is being a good religious person that makes people feel acceptable. Someone thinks, because I am "x" (i.e. smarter, richer, more moral than other people, etc)I can be loved.

This is works-righteousness, and, as Luther said, we have a natural proclivity toward it. It is as if life is like one continuous Survivor episode, wherein we are trying to convince everyone else (and God) why we shouldn’t be the one thrown off the island.

Religion-centered preaching, which is woefully abundant in evangelical circles, teaches people that happiness and acceptance is found in living the religiously approved life. The preacher ESSENTIALLY says, "You should change your habits, because it’s really the right thing to do. You want to be a good Christian, don’t you?" "Or, don’t you want a God-centered marriage? Here’s what one looks like. Do this, and you can feel good about how religious you’re becoming and that you have a God approved marriage." The person listening says, "Yeah, i want to be a good person or good husband and I want God to be happy with me, so I’ll do this."

Don’t get me wrong. You can see some good and postive changes from this type of preaching. But such change is what Tim Keller calls ‘mechanical change,’ which is a change in outward behavior to conform to an approved standard. Christianity brings organic change, however, which is a fundamental change in the heart. And what organically changes the heart is knowing the love and grace of God in the Gospel. When you know how much you’ve been forgiven of, then you don’t have a problem feeling like you could forgive and love others. And your approach to your marriage then becomes COMPLETELY different. It is a natural response to the Gospel.

In the same way, when you know that you are accepted in God, you quit feeling compelled to overwork and cheat and lie and steal in order to find acceptance by others. Christian preaching must teach people to find their acceptance in the Gospel, and then to live out the implications. Soren Kierkegaard said that "Sin is finding your identity in anything but God." Our preaching must people that God accepts them fully in the Gospel, and to value that acceptance above all other things.

So, it doesn’t matter how cool the videos, hip the language, how relevant and catchy and applicable the points are, how tied into the first century the speaker is, or how sophisticated in the Greek and Hebrew language use, or even how many cross references the speaker uses, or how expository he preaches, unless the point of each message is what the knowledge of your acceptance by Christ mean in this situation, and flows from your security in him, the message is essentially non-Christian. It is just really creative, cool, religious legalism�trying to change you through mechanical means.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for heavy application. But the focal point of the Christian message is that 1) God’s acceptance is all we need for happiness, purpose, meaning and security; 2) we have that in Christ; and 3) the knowledge of that in the power of the Spirit changes how we live and love.

Yes, I have quite often preached like a non-Christian. I’ve discovered that I’m a recoving legalist. But I’m trying to quit. I wear a Gospel patch on my inner thigh each morning. To my dismay, I discovered that for many of my messages, if you took out the name of Jesus and substituted it for ‘Mohammad’ then most Muslims would agree with the gist of the message.

Many of my charismatic friends preach continually the victory of the Spirit. That’s wonderful, but it should not replace the centrality of the Gospel. The victory of the Spirit cannot organically change me—i.e. transform me from within. Ony remembering the mercies of God can do that (Romans 12:1-2).

My fundamentalist ancestors often focused on the lifestyle of the Christian (look like one, talk like one, etc). Nothing wrong with that either—standards have their place. But they replaced the centrality of the Gospel with the centrality of an approved lifestyle.

My emergent and theologically-moderate friends are passionate about the kingdom. They say real Christians are revolutionaries—they care about the poor, are activists against racism and oppression, etc. Amen. But I listen to some of their messages and never hear the actual Gospel exalted and our gracious acceptance in Christ given as the impetus for change. The implication is that if we would all live like Christians in the first century or be passionate about social justice then God would approve of us. We should, of course, live like Christians in the first century and we should be passionate about social justice. But we should not be lured into any type of "I obey, therefore I’m accepted" type of thinking.

My "relevant, cutting edge" friends are truly amazing at cleverly packaging legalism. "Do these three things, consider these questions"—but again, they never seem to focus on the Gospel. They motivate me to change through mechanical means.

I have been dazzled by some speaker’s knowledge of Jewish customs. But again, it is not knowledge of the first century that will save my soul. My salvation is complete in my knowledge of Christ and the Gospel (2 Peter 1:3).

Preach the cross.

(for more on this, see "Gospel vs. Religion, part Deuce" and "Radical Generosity")

Comments

[Tre' Faulkner]

We are all guilty of this bro'. You are so right. It is hard not to call names of those who claim Jesus, but preach a foggy message. "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved." Acts 4:12

[Mike Van Buskirk]

Thank you for this insightful post. From now on, I won't be able to help but ask myself..."could what I'm preaching possibly be applied to anyone other than Jesus?" Is it religious or is it gospel?