I'm reading Will Metzger's Tell the Truth. I'm only on the first chapter, and I'm already impressed. He hits the nail on the head when he describes some of the problems with the way we've been presenting Christ. I liked this passage in particular, from a section entitled "Whole Gospel/Shrunken Gospel":
"How dangerous a half-truth can be when presented as the whole truth! For instance, the truth that God is love is a wonderful part of the gospel. However, if the whole presentation of the gospel is built primarily on this truth, distortion develops. Sinners can relax with the thought of God's love for them and find an excuse to delay repentance. This biblical truth is distorted by non-Christians to mean 'Love is God.' Then a human definition of love (nice, tolerant, non-judgmental) is substituted, and sinners find great comfort in this personification and deification of love. The love deity is programmed to only treat us kindly. We have a 'mush' god. A biblical truth thus becomes twisted into an excuse for complacency. Such a view of God contributes to the pervasive idea (even among Christians) that God is obligated to save me. Created humanity is put on par with the Creator and his autonomy and salvation by grace is devilishly undercut.
"But what if the truth that God was love is balanced with the truth that God is light? God is morally pure, holy. He is a just judge. He is angry with sin and will punish those who persist in it. The love of God is now given a backbone. It is seen as a tough love, not as sentimentalism. That he can still love sinners and freely offer himself to all who believe becomes astounding news."
I grew up in the "liberal" church with the understanding that "God is Love" and a loving God could never condemn anyone to hell, especially people who are so nice! To overcome sin, all one had to do was good works towards others. My problem was that I did all kinds of good works, but continued to hate mankind, and somehow I could never see any form of "salvation". This is what I call the Al Capone effect. He was a notorious gangster, but people would say he did all kind of good things for people all over, so it is assumed that the 2 balanced each other out. The "loving God"/good works came to reality to me during the "Peace" marches in the 60's and 70's. I realized that all those "loving" people were filled with hate, just as I. But then I saw how Christ responded to being crucified, unjustly and innocent and compared that to how I would have responded in the same situation (as well as any other human, "peace marchers" included) and realized that only God could have reacted the way Jesus did and give his life up willingly. Unfortunately, most people think that God should conform to our will, and not vice versa. (most sin fits this catagory: abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, etc.) If we have these natural feelings, then that is ok for God.(If this were so, Iprobably would have slugged numerous bosses, robbed many banks and done all kinds of assorted deeds, purely because they were my "natural inclinations".)They really don't understand His Love and that it isn't so much that He condemns us to hell, but that our rejection of Him and His Love, via His Son, Jesus, is how we condemn ourselves to hell (via being seperated from Him and others I'm assuming, for eterninty) It'd be like if you knew Josh loved you and "told you not to jump off a cliff" because he loves you and wants what's best for you, but you decided to jump anyways.
It's late and I'm going on. Looking forward to seeing you!!!!
Go to this link and shake with FEAR!
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/sinners.htm
Posted by: Kip at August 3, 2004 11:56 AM