(For clarity let me define what I mean by “Gospel.” The Gospel is: Jesus Christ living the life you cannot (nor could not) live, and dying the death you should be, daily, dying. Romans 3:23-28 and 1 Corinthians 15: 3-8 provided beautiful descriptions.)
This post is the main post. All the others lead up to this one. All the problems proposed in the other posts stem from this one misconception. All the silos, all the faux joy, all the porcelain faces, all the prideful nostalgia, all the fearful leaders, all the tradition come from one factor, lack of Gospel teaching.
The Gospel is central in the teaching of the Church… No, it IS the teaching of the Church. It’s not a sermon saved for Easter or Christmas. It is every sermon. It ought to be present in every group, every meeting, and every prayer.
Because of the Gospel we see deep-seated community; the realization of one’s depravity outside of Christ and one’s righteousness in Christ alone; an overwhelming joy that is quite inexpressible; a desire to lead others farther up and farther in to their understanding and application of the Gospel, even if they’re not the pastor; and the necessity to hold all things (save the Gospel) loosely. Indeed the very nature of the Gospel is transformation not tradition.
But when the Gospel is not taught, when it is not heralded well, we see complacency, a fractured community, silos, pride, and stupid traditions. Congregants are more passionate about getting things their way than they ever have been about seeing the lost redeemed.
I hope by now you are catching my drift that you are beginning to see for yourself the paramount necessity we have, and the massive problem that must be overcome. Tradition is, quite literally, killing. I’ve said it in every post. Let me tell you why.
Belief in the Gospel is necessary for salvation. Whether you think God chooses you or you choose God doesn’t matter a bit. We who were once dead are brought to life by the work of the Spirit breathing life into our dead lungs through the proclamation of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Thus if the Church, the very place where this good news ought to be spoken and seen most clearly, turns from what it must proclaim to something, anything, else it is killing, through it’s resignation to see sinners damned.
As the Church we must, for necessity is laid upon us, preach about, sing about, commune over, steep in, meditate through, and savor the taste of the Gospel. But the verse we love to quote about sinners is our description; “They have exchanged the truth about God for a lie…”
However some will never learn. Some will always be more offended by the title of this post than the lack of Gospel in the pulpit. Some will continue on wanting to be pleased, have their ears tickled, if you will, rather than be broken of sin, and rejoice over the lost redeemed.
But though our cynicism runs deep and though some of us have been burned so badly by the people of God all the aloe in the world would not calm the pain, we must remember one thing the Church is a whore. She, better yet, we will strive to be satisfied by every other thing rather than God.
So when she stabs us in the back and twists the blade, we forgive as we have been forgiven in the Gospel. When she cheats us and gives us what we ‘don’t deserve’ we must remember that in the Gospel we were saved from what we do deserve, namely hell and death. When she tells us we’re not good enough, or don’t make enough, or aren’t pretty enough to be in her halls we must realize that the Gospel makes us good enough, wealthy enough and pretty enough to allow us to stand before God as righteous because of Jesus; as able to come with what we don’t have and buy what’s underserved because of Jesus; and as glorious as Jesus because of Jesus… It is always, only, ever about Jesus, not tradition.
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