I have a friend who is a devout meat eater-a steak and potatoes kind of guy. A few months ago, he decided that he was going to only eat a vegetarian cuisine for forty days. However, vegetarian in 2009 is not what it was in 1987. To my surprise, he was able to pick up vegetarian hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, etc. At any moment I half expected him to extract a T-Bone steak made solely of ground squash and zucchini.
Hope and I were at the store the other night and, for whatever reason, decided to buy Shepherd (our little boy) some vegetarian Chicken nuggets. Thinking they would be healthier and lead him into healthier, herbivore bliss, we gave them a shot.
He would not touch them. We tried everything. We tried cheering for him. We tried acting like the nugget was an airplane coming in for a landing. We tried me eating a nugget to make him jealous. We even tried ketchup. Nothing.
Here is the difference. My friend had conditioned himself to accept the shortcomings of the vegetarian cuisine for his experience. Shepherd, who loves real chicken, wanted nothing to do with our sloppy substitute made of cauliflower.
Too often in the life of a follower of Jesus, we accept substitutes for the gospel. Today, when we can have our Christianity in every size, flavor, and with cream on top, we deal with a multitude of false doctrine. There is the prosperity gospel which states that if we ‘blessed’ by God, then our financial endeavors and our joys in earthly life will be exponential. This theology being made popular by certain television networks and toothy grins.
There is also what is called the Social Gospel, which is consistently being reinvented. The long and short of this theology is that the main focus of the believer is to have an impact on society ONLY in the here and now and make up for the sins of humanity. The kingdom of God is merely an earthly Kingdom. The person of Jesus simply sets the standard for this goodness. His death on the cross was not in the place of our sin, Christians are to be morality driven do-gooders who try to put a band aid on the deep, infected cut that has been left on our world by sin.
The problem with these two ‘gospels’ is the Bible. If the prosperity gospel is true, then the stories of Job, John the Baptist, the disciples, and Stephen as well as numerous missionaries throughout history and around the world (not to mention Jesus) are pointless. To ascribe to a purely social gospel and simply focus on the here and now is to dismiss Paul’s longing for heaven and consistent Biblical theme that only in the presence of God will our view of Him cease to be distorted. Both of these focus on the actions of man outside of the work of Jesus. To paraphrase a pastor in Dallas, any time we put an adjective in front of the ‘gospel (social, prosperity, etc.), then that ceases to be the gospel.
Even personally, we distort the true gospel found in the Bible and orthodox Christianity. When we stand satisfied in our own good deed with no connection to Christ, then that is not the gospel. If, in our weaknesses, we blame God instead of depending Him, that is not the gospel. To act like God exists for us rather us existing for Him is to dilute the overwhelming Biblical message that all things exist in order for God to be made much of (Psalm 24). The problem with misunderstanding does not end with misguided theologians. It is propagated by the fact that the message of the Bible is, at best, considered for only an hour a week.
The gospel is this. We were created to be in perfect harmony with God. As a result of the fall, we no longer have that harmony; rather there is enmity between God and man. God sent Christ as result of His rich love and mercy to reunite us with himself and has therefore given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). If that Gospel has penetrated us, it will overflow and impact those we come in contact with regardless of their lot in life because, in Christ, we are a New Creation through Jesus (Eph. 2:8-10). Christ will shape the way that we view our place at work. He will define our role as we take our kids to practices. He will impact our marriage and give us a Biblical view of parenting. In retirement, the Gospel is the our desperate need for Jesus and satisfaction found in Him will spill out into the way that we live rather than what we define as our ‘beliefs’.
How have you been affected by Jesus? How has Christ shaped the way you treat others? Is your life defined by gospel rooted in the truths of Scripture? Or have we conditioned ourselves to accept the shortcomings of these heretical treatments of Christ and his message?
Are you settling for chicken nuggets made of cauliflower?
