Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 29, 2011

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! ...Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775

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Christians have often been at war.

Past and present there has been much talk of battle. There have been military crusades, religious wars, and even assaults of persecution - in the name of Christ - by Christians upon Christians.

Spiritual warfare has been a common theme, framed variously as being in battle with Satan and his principalities and powers, in battle with the unbelieving world, in battle against lies and error, etc.

Tragically, there has also been no shortage of warring among believers. Conflict between and within churches is nearly normative.

Here is the thing, though: Christians speak frequently and forcefully about this or that battle at hand; but it appears to me that we rarely are suiting up for the things most worthy of a fight.

Truly, we have spiritual enemies that war against our souls; but in that conflict we fight a defeated foe, who has already been crushed by Christ, and our Lord has also equipped us with Gospel-armor so that we need not fear or dread the enemy's fiery darts.

Yes, when Harold Camping declares, against clear Biblical warning and after previous false-prophecies, that Christ will definitely return on May 21, 2011 we should defend the truth and shoot down error. And again, when Rob Bell (essentially) denies the reality of eternal hell and makes the Gospel of Christ optional for eternal life and joy - we should battle for the truth and against error.

There are, in other words, a number of realities in the lives of God's people and His Church where it is fitting to speak of and engage battle, but I still believe that we often choose the wrong battles and fight these with the wrong mindset and strategy.

You see, the battle for the Gospel and our expectant, extraordinary life in the Gospel, isn't particularly the fight with our defeated enemy. It is even less a war with unoriginal, run-of-the-mill, fairly self-evident false teachers like Rob Bell or Harold Camping. And we are not at war with the people of the world. We battle against the lies that bind their souls, but we are called to engage our world-wide neighbors with compassion and kindness - offering to them the very grace to which we ourselves so happily cling.

Rarely and selectively do we read "fighting words" from Jesus or the Apostles.

They fire few if any arrows at the evil rulers of their day, they are far from preoccupied with the utterly defeated principalities and powers, they straightforwardly dismiss or dismantle the useless philosophies and religions that surrounded them, they never approach the surrounding sinners and lost souls with anything but compassion and caring offers of forgiveness and hope.

They unleash tongue-lashings and choose to square up for a fight when they are confronting those called and commissioned to proclaim God's mercy and message - when these folks - instead - rob God's children of grace, freedom, and joy.

If you want to invoke curses, judgment, mockery, and language of rottenness, doom, death, and emasculation from mouth of the Savior or Paul or John - add works or requirements to the gift of grace, constrict a Christian's freedom or liberty of conscience, call the Lord's people to pay more attention to sin than victory, to debt than reward, to guilt than glory, or to sacrifice than joy.

If we want to draw holy fire, we must only use the position or the pulpit of spiritual leadership to manipulate, control, or condescend to those in our care. We simply need to use guilt trips, selective affirmation, or spiritual authority to make folks do what we want, serve our ends, or fill our offering plates.

If the model of Christ and His representatives is our guide, there are few ways to make the godly go to war with you. It won't work to be Nero or Nietzsche or an unrepentant neighbor. You will need to take the path of narrowing grace or limiting the freedom or joy of God's people by being a Pharisee, a Galatian Judaizer, or the Apostle Peter in Galatians 2.

If you would go to battle, go to battle for the radically free grace of God, for the relentless promise of joy, and for (in the words of Steve Brown) the scandalous freedom that our Savior fully purchased and purposed for His people.

I make a habit of calling folks primarily to faith and hope and joy and an insatiable appetite for the treasure that God is and gives. Generally, I believe that we are called far more often to think and laugh and feast and sing and announce the extravagant gift of saving grace - than we are called to arms.

But here I plead for us to battle with tenacity and relentlessness:

Fight for a big, bold, unaltered Gospel and for the freedom and joy of God's people. Resist legalism in all its forms. Oppose authoritarian, controlling, or manipulative leadership. Let no one rob you or others of a free conscience, nor let them compel your service or collect your cash by guilt-trips or misuse of Scripture.

In the fight for grace and freedom it is pointless to cry, "Peace, Peace!" because the battle is already begun and Christians in many places are losing it for lack passionate voices standing and fighting on their behalf.

On the face of things, there have been in recent years a number of encouraging theological and spiritual trends in the Church. But I cannot ignore the reality that the heartening rise of grace theology, "Gospel-centeredness," and Biblical eldership structures in influential Christian circles is far too often being accompanied by rising authoritarianism, legalism (both overt and subtle), theological dogmatism, sin-preoccupation, and a kind of spiritual-correctness that regulates God's people according to artificial and human definitions of the current Christian subculture.

Increasingly, in dynamic and influential ministries, there is tightly enforced theological-correctness, educational-correctness, family-methodology-correctness, political-correctness, and much more. These forcefully (even if unofficially) hang over the heads of those who long to be fully received and respected in these Christian communities

Somehow a thoughtful recovery of much of the truth of God and His Gospel of grace has been linked and used to build and promote corporate, administrative, formulaic redefinitions of "the local Church."

In a similar way, hip, cookie-cutter church plants have widely replaced serving and growing the Lord's kingdom by recognizing, mentoring, and raising up deep souled, family-delighted, truth-hungry, impassioned teachers and preachers of God's great Word and grace.

These patterns seem intimidating and nearly invincible, with many confident, popular voices continually and inflexibly advocating for the new "right" way to do church and grow churches. It is also unsettling and unnerving to our thinking and resolve when so many methods, formulas, programs, and Christian practices or positions are grouped under "Gospel-centered"-type headings that seem to suggest a disregard for the Gospel and grace itself if you question the many attachments and add-ons of the prevailing "Gospel-centered" model and worldview

Warm, engaging, organic communities of Christian fellowship, family, and witness seem to be faltering under the pressure of strident, self-assured ministry models that are successfully gathering Christians into clone-like church plants or giant ministries with worldwide reputations. If this concerns you, please do not simply comply or assume the futility of resistance and don't be content that things have (on a certain level) gotten better than they were in quite recent decades.

Be thankful for all that the Lord has done and is doing through so many folks. Appreciate and affirm what is good, but don't let anyone hijack and reshape our rich heritage of faith in a way that leaves us standing outside, appearing to oppose the very things we value most.

As much as possible live at peace and enjoy the life of grace. Focus more on what is good than what is wrong. Live with warmth, unity, and respect among fellow-believers, even with our many different perspectives and convictions.

Do all this and then, when the grace of God or the freedom of God's people are diminished - join Paul, who without a blink or a pause saw Peter's legalistic attitude and leadership and announces, "I withstood him to his face."