The difference.

After our long, incredible trip to Ireland, this week it’s back to the grind.  We dug right in with our speaker Bret Jensen.  He talked to us about the importance of the gospel, not just for new believers, or even just for evangelizing, but as more of an everyday enamor-ment. 

To show us some examples of what it means to be enamored by the gospel, Bret pointed to scriptures that had been written out of pure enamor-ment of God. 

First Peter was written more than 30 years after Christ left the Earth, and yet Peter is still SO enamored by what he did.  1 Peter 1:3-12 speaks of inexplicable joy and the power of salvation.  30 years into his ministry, Peter is still moved by the power of the gospel. 

In Ephesians, we see Paul take on a completely different writing style in order to throw in a brief snippet of his enamor-ment of the Gospel.  Typically, Paul writes very direct theological, informational passages.  However, Ephesians 1:3-19 is a very poetic passage where Paul becomes very repetitive, using lots of adjectives and words of love for Christ.  He takes puts his agenda to the side to stop because he is so caught up in worship of his Lord and Savior.  Later on, in chapter 3 we see worship overtake him once again.  In verses 20 and 21, Paul seems to have thrown in a random prayerful interjection of worship.  Its as if he has thrown in a doxology in the middle of his letter to the church at Ephesus.  Although these are generally found at the end of a letter, we see these mid-book doxologies several times throughout scripture. 

In Matthew, we see a different type of enamor-ment.  In chapter 6 verses 9-13, we see a fairly well known passage, the Lord’s Prayer, changed over time by someone so caught up by the greatness of the gospel.  In many versions of the bible, this passage is concluded by the phrase, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, amen. “  However, recently discovered transcripts have revealed that this phrase was not a part of the original text, but most likely added in by a scriptural scribe.  A man so enamored by God’s goodness that he could not help but add in his own doxology. 

These are all examples of men that have been moved by the gospel.  Why aren’t we enamored by the gospel anymore?  What is stopping us from being as passionate about salvation as these men were? 

For so many, it is because we are stuck with an elementary view of the gospel.  Think… What would your life be like if your education stopped after elementary school?  You probably wouldn’t be working the job you have... Probably wouldn’t have many friends... Probably would not be living as comfortably as you do... You would feel insignificant when compared to everyone around you.  Now, the gospel is the same way.  It can be understood by children… but is it really that simple? 

In Romans 1:18-3:20 we see Paul go into detail about man denying God’s existence.  He calls us out on the fact that we give our hearts in worship to stupid things, and there are consequences because of it.  God sees through all of our facades.  He sees straight through all of our ‘good works’ to the heart behind our actions.  And if it’s not right, you can’t convince him it is.  Although every single person in the world thinks you’re a saint, if you aren’t doing it for His glory, God knows it.  We are all damned.  None of us are righteous. 

But Romans 3 goes on to explain how this weight is lifted.  God’s righteousness has been manifested, or revealed to us through Jesus Christ.  The law says, “I will earn through obedience a good standing before God.”  But we are not made righteous by simply following the law.  We are justified by His grace.  This grace is faith based, not deeds based.  We have been redeemed, or paid for… all of us; the entire human race.  But what we don’t fully realize the impact of is that the only thing that could pay the overwhelming weight of debt of humanity was the blood of Jesus Christ. 

God is holy.  He is a perfect being.  He takes offense to our sin.  Think of King David.  He did a lot of things wrong, and he made a lot of people mad.  But when push came to shove, he knew that he had SINNED against God.  What are we doing to satisfy the wrath of a perfect being? 

In order to understand the great meaning of Jesus’s sacrifice, we examined the driving forces of His life.  First of all, he was a fulfillment of prophecies.  He lived his life knowing that this would be tortured and killed for the very people who tortured and killed him.  In Gethsemane, he sweat drops of blood because he was under so much weight of sin.  The cup of God’s wrath was poured out on him.  Imagine the enormous stress he must have felt… He lived a sinless life, and then at once the weight of the world was poured out on his shoulders.  But he appeased the wrath of God.  In his some of his final words, he asks, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  And we see that he has taken the wrath of God. 

Another reason we have lost a passion for the gospel is because it has been displaced in our lives.  Many of us believe that the Gospel is just step one… the coming to faith.  That is a lie that Satan has put into the minds of so many churches and Christians in general in order to take away our passion for God.  In reality, the Gospel is key to progress in the kingdom. 

Many people today see religion as moral effort and rituals, but the gospel speaks of salvation through grace.  We put too much emphasis on the ritual making us like the Pharisees in our legalism.  We need to learn to be humbled by the gospel, and accept his undeserved grace. 

In Luke 15, we find a fairly well known story about the Prodigal Son.  Bret helped us to take a different look at this parable, and see a side I had never examined before.  In this story, we see a father with two sons.  The younger of the two asks his father for his inheritance, essentially saying “I wish you were already dead, so I could have my money.”  He leaves to go to a far off land, which is probably very lavish and fancy, where he squandered away all his money living frivolously, to the point where he literally hits rock bottom, and gets a job working with pigs on a farm.  This was one of the most degrading jobs in this time.  The pigs were treated better than he was as a servant.  So, he decided that he would go back and plead with his father, not expecting more than a job from him.  But his father saw him coming from a great distance.  He was watching…waiting for the day his son would return to him.  And when he saw him, he ran to meet his son.  He gave him his robe and his signet ring, taking him back in as his son.  His father called for the servants to prepare the fattened calf, the most expensive type of food available at that time.  The eating of this calf, because it was so big, usually instigated a party that would last several days until the calf is gone.  However, the part of this story that is typically overlooked is the reaction of the older brother.  He was in the fields working when he heard music and dancing at the house.  He asked a servant what was happening, and learned of his brother’s return.  He was so mad that he would not even go inside.  His father came and tried to convince him to come in and celebrate with them.  Yet he fought with his father.  He asked why he had wasted his fattened calf on the son who had taken his property and wasted it away when he had been faithful to his father, working for him, and obeying his commands.  But the father rebukes him… “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ” (Luke 15:31-32)

The older brother thinks he deserves more because he has served more.  He doesn’t want his father to accept his brother back into the family.  He feels entitled to his father’s love because he has been faithful.  But the love of his father is unconditional.  He loves both sons even though one has wronged him.  Because the younger brother was impulsive and gave in to worldly pleasures, the older son judged him.  His reality was distorted.  He cared more about being good than he truly cared for his father.  He was legalistic. 

This story shows us that our bad is not bad enough to disqualify us from the grace of God.  The path to the father’s house was always available; the father is waiting for us to come home. 

These brothers are great examples of two wrong ways to live.  The younger son is lavish, selfish, impatient, and indulgent.  The older son, although he is obedient, strong, and well versed in scriptures does not love and enjoy what the father loves and enjoys.  He does not love the father. 

Now, grace does not mean that we can be disobedient and continually receive his grace, rather that we should feel so compelled by his unchanging grace that we believe what the bible says about it and want to be obedient because of it. 

For some, it is hard to be secure in the gospel, because we are insecure in our relationship with God.   Ask yourself… Do you feel safe with God?  Do you feel accepted as his own?  Do you feel significant or important to him? Do you feel unique?  Do you understand that you have nothing to prove before him?  Do you know that he will never change or leave you?   Do you understand that he will not condemn you?   Often times our earthly relationships directly correlate to trust issues with God. 

In the words of Timothy Keller,  “In religion, we try to obey the divine standards out of fear.  We believe that if we don’t obey we are going to lose God’s blessing in this world and the next.  In the gospel, the motivation is one of gratitude for the blessing we have already received because of Christ.  While the moralist is forced into obedience, motivated by fear of rejection, a Christian rushes into obedience,

motivated by a desire to please and resemble the one who gave his life for us. “

So, what’s the difference?  Are we living our lives as Christians for religion or the gospel? How are we going to let this affect us?  Our ‘religion’ of Christianity is truthfully all about motives.  Yes, be a good person.  Yes, do good things.  But, make sure that you have the right heart behind it.