Kevin DeYoung's post here is worth reading carefully. If you--like me--sometimes walk around with a foggy feeling of guilt that you're not doing more for the Kingdom, then what Kevin says here will likely be a fresh breeze of gospel air.
It is loaded with risk, of course, to say what Kevin is saying, because some will interpret it as a license to coast. But it shouldn't prevent us from offering this nuanced message, for some in the church truly need to hear it.
Here's the conclusion:No doubt some Christians need to be shaken out of their lethargy. I try to do that every Sunday morning and evening. But there are also a whole bunch of Christians who need to be set free from their performance-minded, law-keeping, world-changing, participate-with-God-in-recreating-the-cosmos shackles. I promise you, some of the best people in your churches are getting tired. They don’t need another rah-rah pep talk. They don’t need to hear more statistics and more stories Sunday after Sunday about how bad everything is in the world. They need to hear about Christ’s death and resurrection. They need to hear how we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. They need to hear the old, old story once more. Because the secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.
Z comment:
Reminds me that a focus on the Gospel will fuel right motivation to actually act and will also free us from the self-condemnation of not doing enough!
This also speaks to the importance of knowing your audience. I would contend that especially in the culture of ease that we live in in America, way more people need to be thinking about the implications of the Gospel (meaning how they should live in light of it) than those who are riddled with guilt for not doing enough. But certainly this message above needs to be heard and preached to those who are struggling under the weight of guilt.
Like the final scene of Schindler's List where Schindler laments the fact that he didn't do more, having that sense of wanting to do more might be a good sign that you are in the right place! Certainly the Gospel has to speak to that sadness and free one from it, but how much better that than not having any sense of needing to do anything at all!
6 comments:
I think I understand you to be saying that you're feeling the tension of knowing that people may not know how to respond to the Gospel (implications in their actions), but I fear that all too often the solution is to tell people to get off their bums and do more without a grace-filled appeal. I don't think that's being sensitive to ones audience. An "audience" often has multiple types of persons and not one single lazy American Christian.
That is to say, it's not gracious to me to say "Jesus rose from the dead and you can't even get out of bed." (Keith Green - not ripping on him as a person - just these particular lyrics). Yeah, his exhortation includes Gospel and the implications of the Gospel (you should be getting out of bed and doing something). What it is lacking (which most preaching I've heard lacks) is this: a call to act with a.) illustration, b.) in community, and c.) by the power of the Spirit. That is to say, the preacher who says "you need to evangelize more because Jesus loves you so much and you're lazy" doesn't do much but guiltify the people being preached at. There's no illustration of the joy of evangelism - no exhortation to come alongside others (or to come and be mentored by you, the preacher) in doing it - no appeal to the Spirit living in the people.
So, maybe your particular preaching would be a.) gracious, b.) illustrate the point, c.) have community oriented application, d.) include Spirit empowered exhoration (read: telling the folks they have the Spirit), but your blog post didn't include this, as far as I could tell. I'm up for your thoughts on this. Sorry about the essay I've written here.
Eph 2:8-10 is a great grid through which to look at this issue.
z
Man, if Justin Taylor has "a foggy feeling of guilt" that he isn't doing more for the kingdom (not to mention Kevin DeYoung) then I am in BIG trouble. :)
I have 2 things that help me:
1. making sure that the little kingdom/ministry things I do (like going out for coffee with a male teenager to hear what he thinks about "things") are not viewed by me has not worthy of kingdom work
2. obeying God when He calls me to do something - when I know God is telling me to go up to the man standing by himself at a men's meeting - I need to go do that
At the end of the day, if I am obeying the Spirit's promptings and also seeking out ways to serve, I avoid a lot of guilt about not doing enough.
Not to mention the fact that thinking about doing enough oftentimes moves very close to legalism and works/salvation - Jesus already did it all for me - now I just have to abide/obey
Z - You said, "Eph 2:8-10 is a great grid through which to look at this issue." Leave it to Scripture to say it better than anyone;o). That's exactly where I was coming from and now see that's where you were coming from. My initial impression was that you were saying that "some people need to be preached the Gospel and some need to be told to get off their chairs and act." Now I see that you weren't saying that. My long post was a reaction against being told by preachers in various locations *constantly* to "do more for God" without a Gospel framework/lens.
Zach, I hear you about fighting the culture of ease that exists in America. In that vein, however, I do think that Reformed Christians, especially, need to be measured in our "redeeming the culture" exhortations. Most Christians in America work anywhere between 40-80 hours a week (many of my friends in D.C. would be on the higher end of that scale), and while we should not simply shut ourselves up in Christian ghettos, there is really only so much that most Christians can do to "redeem" the culture. I sense that when some brothers and sisters hear such ideas from us, they feel a bit overwhelmed and think, "Great! One more thing that I 'should' be doing for God that I'm not doing."
I just think it might be a matter of helping people lovingly set Biblical priorities.
z
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