Jeans On Wednesday

Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing

Something has always not quite sat right with me about issues-driven churches. I know that statement needs a bit of an unpacking, so lemme do it with an example.

A few months back, I was talking with a friend who had recently moved, and we were talking about the new church he and his family were going to.

The thing that stuck out to me was he said (paraphrase), “They’re really into social justice and that’s something we like about them.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for social justice. The Old Testament is full of it. It’s a dominant theme throughout the entire book of Jeremiah. And you can certainly look at how Jesus held up the marginalized members of society during his time (women, Samaritans, etc) for examples of social “justice”.

But there’s just something about when a church starts to define its character (or brand, if you will) by something other than the gospel that I start to squirm a bit. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I wiggled until I read a passage in C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters the other night.

If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s a series of letters to “Wormwood” (a young demon) from “Screwtape” (his “affectionate uncle”) on how to best go about the business of leading Wormwood’s “patient” into Hell as opposed to Heaven.

The timeframe is WWII, the patient has just become a Christian, and leading up to the relevant quote Screwtape says:

I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged.

He goes on to discuss the merits of either approach, and then concludes the letter with this:

Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the "cause", in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more "religious" (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.

—from Letter VII (emphasis mine)

It clicked.

(And if you already knew what my issue was after reading the first sentence of this post, then you’re just a more astute person than I am. Congrats!)

The last thing Jesus told his boys to do was to make disciples of all nations and teach believers to obey everything Jesus had taught. That’s the core of the church’s purpose: preach the gospel to save people, and then teach the gospel so people can grow and live abundant lives that bring God glory.

Everything the church does—and it is called to do quite a few things—should support and sustain those two purposes. Nothing is more important than making disciples and teaching them. And no small part of the gospel is more important than the whole gospel.

In fact, you could possibly make a case that the teaching part is more central than evangelism. That evangelism will naturally flow out of preaching the word of God and from people living godly lives, but that’s another post.

There’s nothing wrong with a church being concerned about social justice or any other “godly” issue. The problem is when these issues become the driving focus, the defining characteristic. Because then it changes from being a healthy part of gospel living into a distraction from the real task at hand.

ADDENDUM: Ha! I was more prescient than I thought. Read Letter #23 the other night. This was the final paragraph. Reminder: "Enemy" = "God".

About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything—even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist's shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner. Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the ground that "only such a faith can outlast the death of old cultures and the birth of new civilisations". You see the little rift? "Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason." That's the game.

Servant Or Son

Monday found us having lunch with some friends at Bucca di Beppo. If you’ve never eaten there, imagine an Italian restaurant colliding with an Italian grandmother’s attic full of photos and memorabilia. There isn't a bare spot on the walls. Or ceilings.

While waiting for the food, I took Ali for a walk around the place to burn off some energy. We stumbled upon a high-backed wooden chair with red velvet cushions. It looked kind of royal (in a Middle Ages sorta way), so I sat down and said something about being the king of all the land of Bucca.

Ali takes a step back, does the best curtsy a 5 year old (who has never been taught how to curtsy) can muster, and says, “Would you like me to be your servant?”

Without really thinking, I replied, “How about you be my daughter princess?”

And as those words were dying in the air, I thought, “Wow. Isn’t that the story of what God does for us?”

The only thing we deserve is death (Rom. 6:23). Sin has tainted us through and through, and the just reward for that, frankly, is hell. We don’t deserve heaven because we certainly haven’t earned the perfection required to stand in God’s presence. We all deserve to stay slaves to our sin and suffer the consequences.

Yet God steps in and says, “How about you be my heir? Prince or princess is a lot better than servant or slave.” Or as Paul wrote it, “[When redeemed by Christ] you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal. 4:7)

And this theme isn’t a one shot deal. When writing to new believers in Rome, Paul talks about it again, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Rom. 8:17)

When instructing Titus, he writes, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

I look at my sin—daily, intentional, wicked sin—and I want to run away. I want to hide from God, like Adam and Eve did. I think I’m not worthy to be anything but a poorly treated servant.

But God says, “Come. Be my child.”

Further reading: "Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel" by John Piper

Why I'm Still Saved

Quick update, in case you didn't know: Laura and I are no longer the "youth directors", but now are "directors of young adult ministries". We've graduated to the college kids!

Over Thanksgiving, all the college students were back in town, and Laura and I were sitting behind a bunch of them in church. During a pause in the service, one of them leans over to us and asks, "Do we believe that you have to repent to be saved?"

Now that's not the type of questions you can really unpack in the middle of a church service! I mean, the quick answer is, "Yes" but I was very curious as to why she was asking it. And in that way. After some more talking later, we found out that it had more to do with a friend at college who is a member of the Church of Christ. They had been talking about the differences between what "they" believe and what "we" believe. And an important discussion it is.

I had to bail in the middle of the discussion, which was just starting to scratch the surface, so I wrote the student the next day with a more detailed response. Figured I'd post it here, too.

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I was asking Laura last night what else you two had talked about after I'd left during service yesterday. While she and I were talking, I remembered something from my reading on the Church of Christ that I think will shed a lot of light onto your friend's comments/questions. Namely, they believe that you can lose your salvation. This is, in fact, in stark contrast to what "we" (as orthodox, Reformed Christians, including historical Presbyterianism) believe. This explains to me a bit more what your friend might have been getting at when she asked you "Do you need to repent to be saved?"

First, a little foundation.

Do we need to repent to be saved? Yes. We must confess that we are sinners in need of a savior and that only Christ has made a sacrifice sufficient for our salvation. But here's the key part—the whole process of salvation is directed by God. That is, the faith we have is from God. The grace that saves us is from God (Eph. 2:8-10). The sacrifice was made by God. The forgiveness if God's to offer. What I'm getting at is that our salvation is enacted and only made possible by God.

This is key because there are those, like the Church of Christ (your friend's church) and the Catholic church, who say that you can lose your salvation. Most notably by committing an egregious enough of a sin that you will be out of God's favor. The Catholic church terms these "mortal" sins (as opposed to "venial" sins). I'm not sure how the Church of Christ determines it.

The reason we believe that you can NOT lose your salvation is because our saving faith is empowered and made possible by God himself. And if we could lose it, that would say that somehow God's work was insufficient to fully and eternally save us.

With that in mind, what I assume your friend was getting at was "What happens to people who repent, are 'saved', but then keep sinning? Are they still 'saved' or do they need to repent again?" Assuming she believes that you can lose your salvation, she would probably answer, "Yes, they need to repent (and be re-baptized, perhaps) again." But I'm just guessing based on reading about the faith. She may very well answer differently

I think that, perhaps, if you continue to sin and grow to a point of no repentance of your sin (in fact, not even seeing it as sin), then perhaps you have not lost your salvation—rather, you have shown that you never had it to begin with.

With that in mind, there are some presuppositions that need to be addressed. Here are a few quotes that get to the heart of the issues:

Somehow we've come to believe that 'repent' means to stop doing something, and if we don't stop doing it, then we haven't repented and therefore don't qualify for forgiveness. If that's true and the required salvation sequence is to repent and be saved, then none of us is saved, because none of us has stopped sinning. All of us are living in deliberate and open sin because in each human life there is observable behavior that violates God's word, and is knowingly and willfully repeated. It's not that we discover one sin in our behavior and root it out only to be made aware of another. We deliberately repeat the same sinful behavior over and over. If we could progressively root out and eliminate the sins in our lives we could eventually stop sinning and wouldn't need a savior.
Forgiveness, Part 2

And one more:

The most frequent objections to the belief that a Christian cannot lose salvation are: (1) what about those who are Christians and continually live an immoral lifestyle? – and – (2) what about those who are Christians but later reject the faith and deny Christ? The problem with these two objections is the assumption [that they] “are Christians.” (1) The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a continually immoral lifestyle (1 John 3:6). (2) The Bible declares that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he/she never truly was a Christian (1 John 2:19).
Can A Christian Lose Their Salvation?

That second link (from GotQuestions.org) has a good overview of what occurs at salvation, which is foundational to discussing whether or not what happens at salvation can be revoked or lost. But basically, we believe that our salvation is God's work by His power and grace, and He promises that nothing can separate us from His love. Perhaps the most direct verses on the assurance of our salvation are John 10:28-29:

"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."

That is a great pair of verses to memorize. They are a comfort in times of stress and confusion.

I hope this helps. By all means, shoot us an email or gives us a call if you want to talk some more. We're here to help. I imagine it can be difficult at times having a close friend who you disagree with on stuff as important as faith. We'll be praying for you.

-doug

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Since that email, I came across two great Master's Seminary chapel messages given by John MacArthur titled "All Things Work Together For Good" (MP3s: Part 1 | Part 2). Part 1 deals a lot with assurance of salvation. Good stuff.