“Radical Gospel?”

Casual, uncommitted Christians populate the Church. Many ‘sin and grin’ acknowledging their failure to live a holy life with a wink, occasionally feeling a passing pang of guilt. Of their lives they say,  “Normal human behavior,” and they are right. What of the call of the Father to keep step with the Spirit?  Do those who allow sin to clutter their soul really know Christ? As a shepherd of God’s flock, the question is not academic to me. Not a day passes that I am not conscious that I will stand before my Shepherd to give an account for the way I led and taught. My work has eternal consequences!

I admit to sometimes being strongly tempted to follow the path of ‘scared straight!’ Remember that tactic used with juvenile delinquents? Kids that were heading for trouble were taken to prisons where tough men shouted at them, described prison life in vivid detail, and told the kids how eager they were to have them join them in the big house. The goal was to frighten the kid so much that he would change course. The results were marginal, as most kids shrugged off the threats, convinced that they were somehow different, that it could not happen to them. As a preacher sometimes I wonder if I should preach more Hell, if I ought to adopt the tone of an Old Testament prophet!

But, I am dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Galatians we learn of a group of Christians who decided to mix their rules with the Gospel. The result was "turning away … from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7, NLT)  Making religious laws and coercing people to keep them produces behavioral change, but not mature disciples of Christ. “Holiness” that is based on style of dress, attendance at church, levels of giving, avoiding certain kinds of entertainment, and controls on daily life looks great from the outside - - for a while, but then the hidden rot of an unchanged heart bubbles to the surface and the ‘disciple’ often disappears from the church, ashamed of his inability to ‘be as good’ as those who play the game better than he does.

The Word says that a “Christianity” based on religious rules is Christ-less and is no gospel at all. The true Gospel that makes us right with God is centered on Christ. The Scripture says that "regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Colossians 2:23-3:2, NIV)

Are you committed to a radical Gospel?

Are you courageous enough to completely trust Christ to save you completely from your sin?

The Gospel does save. Christ does transform sinners to saints. Holiness that comes from an inside out change is real. So I will preach Christ with the goal of leading people to love Him wholly, until they "reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:13, NIV)

Here’s the word from the Word.  "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-18, NIV)