Radical good news vs. half-good news
Lately I've been going through a hectic study of trying to understand EXACTLY what 'faith' means. In this study that i'm busy going through, some interesting things have come up that I originally posted on my personal blog but thought i'd like to post here for more of the world to comment on (and tell me I'm probably crazy or something... he he.)
For most of my life, something often seems 'missing' from the radical message of the Kingdom - the Radical message of Good News (known as the Christian Gospel in some parts.) It feels as if it's... missing something. Other than the very real aspects of the Kingdom which I feel a great deal of Christianity and Theology has not studied into... or understood... something also seems wrong when we talk about faith and sanctification and living the Christian life personally. Not that I think that God's Good news is REALLY missing something, only that we're missing the entire picture (or have been taught only half-good news.)
I'm wondering, what is the battle we're called to fight? And I'm thinking : We're NOT called to fight the battle of the sinful nature within us. We're called to fight a battle of persecution, yes. Or a battle of standing up for justice and love, yes. But perhaps, not called to fight the battle of sin in our lives. This battle sidetracks us our entire lives, indeed it has sidetracked the church so badly, that we've become very ineffective. We're too busy trying to get holier every day, than going out and preaching the gospel (feeling guilty that we may not be practising what we preach. Although, that is good, perhaps we ought to just leave this battle to God!) If this is true, the good news of Christ is in fact RADICALLY Good News.
Bear with me a moment. Romans 8 talks plainly that it is only when we walk IN THE SPIRIT, or THROUGH the HOLY SPIRIT that the sinful nature within us is rendered powerless/dead/mortified. But, the problem is, that I don't think Romans 8 (or the Bible) means we ought to APPLY the Spirit to the sins and temptations in our lives. I think it means we are to LET THE SPIRIT FIGHT those battles. We get to be free - free from fighting those battles - free to do the things of the Kingdom and love our God and brothers and sisters. As far as the sin in our lives that need to be removed, that's actually Christ's 'problem.' Christ is in me, and this life of mine BELONGS WHOLLY to Him. So, actually, it is Him that needs to fight against the sin now, not me. And I believe that He desperately wants to, in fact he takes joy in mortifying sin in the believers. He takes joy in fighting this battle for us. But we don't want to let Him.
This is liberating, because it means that I don't have to tolerate sin, or fight against it. I don't have to do neither, actually. I just put my simple trust (faith) in Christ to do it. And if I'm lacking faith - no problem. I have Christ in Me, which means that THE FAITH OF CHRIST is in me. I don't even need to conjure up all these feelings about believing it, saying to myself'I can do it,' 'Yes, I believe it' and repeating motivational scriptures ten times till i'm convinced or whatever. No, I just relax, sit back into the arms of my Father and enjoy while he fights that battle for me.
Radical Good News. And offensive Good News too, isn't it? Perhaps this is why the Jews of the old days - and the Pagan religious leaders - found the good news of the Apostles radically offensive. When the original apostles preached that salvation and righteousness (and righteous living, perhaps?) was available to all WITHOUT works, REALLY without works - not just in principle but REALLY - and purely by grace through faith, it makes one offended. Surely I, me, should be fighting sin in my life? But why the heck do you really want to? Unless, you look deep in your heart and find that there's still a little- just a little- bit of religious arrogance and pride there that wants to earn his way into the heart of God. No problem, Christ in You will take care of that pride issue too. He hi-lights it, we repent of it, and then ask him to get rid of it too. We don't try to get rid of it ourselves anymore, we actually make it His problem and ask Him to deal with it. THAT is humility, and it is the humble heart that God will always welcome!!
This is a wonderful truth, and I suspect it may REALLY be the truth.
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Ok...but we need to account for some things...
Dear stray - suprisingly (shock of shocks and horror of horrors - for those who read here regularly!), I have quite a fair amount of symphathy for the view you're investigating here. I am convinced that the great news is that Christ mortifies sin in us by the Spirit because he has mortified it once and for all at the cross. But I do need to account for something, which I'm trying to figure out for myself: What do we do with all the exhortations of the New Testament to be holy and live godly lives? Why make those exhortations if all we had to do was sit back and relax? What does Paul mean when he says 'work out your salvation' (Phil 2:12)? Or when Peter calls on us to be holy (1Peter 1:15)?
It seems to me that Paul is stating an objective reality in Romans 8 - we are controlled by the Spirit, therefore we should live accordingly. I don't think it's a 50/50 thing where God helps half way and we help ourselves the rest of the way, rather I think its a 100/100 thing: God makes us holy, we strive for holiness because God has already made us holy in Christ. I'm not sure that's exactly a call to sit back and relax. In one sense we relax in that truth, but that truth drives us on to mortify sin ourselves - why? Well because it is already mortified - that seems to me to be Paul's logic in Romans 8.
Check out David Peterson's book 'Possessed by God' it's written by someone who comes from the Reformed Evangelical Anglican camp, but he doesn't tow the line with the traditional Reformed view of sanctification - he's quite revolutionary actually and he gives great exegetical attention to the New Testament understanding of sanctification.
I think, according to Paul's logic, we fight sin because it is defeated already. And remember NOT striving for social justice and looking out for the poor and the oppressed and not preaching the gospel is sin too - something certain evangelicals have forgotten.
Interesting!
Hey, thanks for those comments. Very interesting! Glad to hear someone else is trying to wrestle with this thing too :) Will check out that book, thanks for the heads up!
oops!
Oops, i accidentally commented twice!
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