Recently I heard a pastor make the comment that what we need is “less a better definition of the Gospel but a better living out of the Gospel.” When I heard that I wanted to affirm the heart of the message, but I could not agree with that statement. After all, is the answer to a more a Biblically faithful Christianity really “just do it?” I think the church has often talked about either defining the Gospel better or living out the Gospel better, but we are creating a false dichotomy. Why not both? Why can we not define the Gospel better and live it out better? In fact, I think that there is some evidence from Scripture that suggests that purposefulness in keeping the Gospel central has a direct connection to more good works. I must stress that I make this point in hope that good works will increase. A passage that I’ve found helpful in thinking through this is Titus 3.
In Titus 3:8, Paul says, “I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” Right away you can notice that the insisting on “these things” is directly related to the devoting “themselves to good works.” So the question becomes what things should we be insisting on? The answer lies in verses 3 through 7.
“ 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
After reading this, I had to stop, because I was really blown away by what Paul was saying so clearly. Here Paul lays out the Gospel, and in the next verse, he says insisting on these things leads to good works. I do not intend to do an exegesis of this passage, but I thought that I would mention a couple of things I found of particular importance.
The first thing I noticed was that before Christ, we were trapped in a lifestyle that was destructive to not only ourselves but others around us. The way we were freed was “not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy...poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ.” I have heard some people say that we need to focus less on getting people saved and more on just encouraging them to obey God’s commands. I think that misunderstands our inherent sinfulness and how trapped we were in our old selves. It is only God that can save us in order that we might do good works (as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10). The salvation is all of God and not of works, but the saved person does good works as a sign of them being saved. The good works do not in any way justify us. I think that this is a crucial distinction to maintain otherwise we can easily descend into works righteousness. The evidence for salvation from God and not from works can be seen in how there is no emphasis on what we do in the passage. Instead it is God who loves, God who appeared, God who saved, God who washed us through the Holy Spirit, God who poured out His mercy, God who justified us, God who adopted us, and God who gave us an eternal hope. The action in these verbs is all God, and there is a clear work of God to bring us from one lifestyle to another. Just insisting on good works does not change people. Every person must be washed by the blood of the Lamb. Insisting on God’s work in us, Paul argues, leads to us responding in good works.
Another thing I noticed was that we have “become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” I think that this hope is an important element to remember. I see it operating in two ways. The first is that it stops us from placing our hopes in the social changes of this world. We are not naive optimists, because we know that ultimately we will not change the world and bring perfect peace. But, we do have the hope that it will come one day. We know that God will create a new heaven and a new earth, but it will be God and not us. So we are not cynical pessimists either, because we know that change indeed will come. It encourages us when we see the immensity of the problem, and it stops us from making social justice our religion. We avoid either extreme, because we have a hope of what truly will be. That is worth clinging to, and it helps motivate us to do good works now.
I hope that you have seen in part the functional centrality of the Gospel as a means to both avoid the extremes of pessimism and optimism and also the mentality of works righteousness. The temptation often in Christianity is to oversimplify or to create false dichotomies. We saw how one extreme failed us so we pick another. Let us remember though the words of Paul that we should insist on the Gospel and remind people of it daily so that they will do good works. Let us not separate a better definition and understanding of the Gospel from a better living out of the Gospel. Let us remember that we are not just called to do good works but also to preach the Gospel in order that God might save others and draw them to do good works.
No comments:
Post a Comment