Gospel Renewal and Roadblocks (#4-6)

This is the final installment on this subject.  Last time, we looked at the first three roadblocks to gospel renewal.  Now we will consider three others--bearing in mind that the list is not at all exhaustive.

4.     Religion [AKA Moralism AKA Legalism]

Religion, moralism, legalism—they all are referring to the idea that “we must obey the truth to be saved” and/or “we must obey the truth to maintain God’s favor”.  This is probably the biggest roadblock to gospel renewal faced by believers in our age.

Moralism (legalism, religion) is an absence of God’s grace—instead, it is a dependence on one’s ability to obey.  It also includes man made, extra-Biblical rules and regulations (think: Pharisees), resulting in condemnation by the moralist of those who do not “measure up”—the idea is just like the Pharisee who prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector”.  [Luke 18] 

The Apostle Paul, prior to his conversion, is a perfect example of one who was “religious”, one who performed out of guilt, one who was a legalist when it came to his religious life.  In Galatians 1 and Philippians 3, Paul talked about his life before Christ, how he put his confidence in the flesh—his own performance and accomplishments—about his Jewish pedigree, and how zealous he was for the traditions of his fathers.

Church historian Richard Lovelace wrote that many believers “below the surface of their lives are guilt ridden and insecure…[and] draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”[1]

Obedience and good works are important to our lives as believers, but they do not earn us one doggone thing!  Obedience and good works do not earn eternal life, they do not earn God’s approval, and they do not maintain God’s approval!  That is such an important concept to “get”! 

THE GOSPEL AND SOME ROADBLOCKS TO GOSPEL RENEWAL

¹¹In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹²so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  (Ephesians 1:11-14, ESV)

         

       Gospel renewal is a work of the Spirit of God in the lives of his people.  It is all about the Holy Spirit continually renewing the spiritual remembrance of our salvation.

The temptation from the outset would be for those who have theological training, and/or have been believers for a long time, to zone out.  Understand, we are not merely looking at “the basics” here. The gospel is way more than “Jesus loves me” and “Jesus paid the penalty for my sin so I can go to heaven”.  Refuse to be satisfied with that!  There is so much more!

So, what IS the gospel?

A number of different people have coined great phrases to help us remember, including:

“The heart of the Christian faith is Good News (gospel), not good advice,

good technique, or good behavior.” Tullian Tchividjian

Religion: I obey therefore I am accepted.

Gospel: I'm accepted therefore I obey.

The gospel is that when we believe in Christ, there is now“no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).

“…the good news that God has accomplished our salvation for us through Christ in order to bring us into a right relationship with him and

eventually to destroy all the results of sin in the world.”[1]

The Fall

Because of what happened in Genesis 3—The Fall—Adam and Eve deciding they wanted to be like God, man was separated from God, man was placed at odds with God.  Try as he might, man could not regain God’s favor in and of himself. 

THAT I MAY KNOW HIM… PHILIPPIANS 3:8-11

Introduction

In this passage of Scripture we see the apostle Paul explaining to the Philippian church the essential nature of really coming to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way, what is involved in that, and the why behind it all.  Paul addresses the humility involved in knowing Christ, and the absolute dependence on God that is necessary to know him.   And Paul does this without laying down one requirement for the believer.  We will see that it is something that God does in us.

We went camping about a month ago, taking our travel trailer out for the first time.  I was sufficiently nervous dragging something that big behind me on the highway, but eventually settled into it.  However, when it was time to hitch up and come home, I found that the anti-sway bar had broken on the trip up the mountain.  No, I had not noticed it when we originally arrived.  I did fine getting down to the highway, but once I got up to 55 mph, the trailer began to sway, and I don’t mean just a little.  I’m gripping the steering wheel for all I’m worth, thinking to myself, “I can do this”, “just don’t drive 55”, “I can get by without the anti-sway bar”, and “this thing isn’t going to get the best of me!”  Right.  I white knuckled it for about 30 miles before I finally pulled over, got on the Internet and found an RV dealer who had an anti-sway bar to sell me.

White knuckling—holding on so tightly to the steering wheel that our knuckles turn white—is how I initially learned what it was to live “the Christian life”.  It is how I learned what it was to get to know the Savior.  I used to think, “I can do this”, and, as I was taught, I rigorously engaged in having a quiet time, reading and memorizing Scripture, maintaining a prayer journal, evangelizing, worshipping, serving at church, fasting, giving, and being at church every time the doors were open. 

I was way too young in my walk with Christ when I was ordained as a deacon, and in the church culture of the denomination we were in, the deacons functioned as the sounding board for the pastor.  We were given any number of assignments, and mine included attending the deacon meetings, being assigned to at least two different committees, teaching adult Sunday School, and anything else that came up.  Oh, and it was clearly implied that saying “no” was not an option—the culture didn’t allow for that.  So that was how I thought—I have to be involved to be a “good Christian”, in addition to all of the spiritual disciplines I mentioned.  And to make it worse, time with my very young family was sorely missing, as well as true intimacy with Jesus Christ.  All of my “activity” took the place of real time with the Lord.

Now don’t get me wrong—there is absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these activities.  Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is very beneficial for us as believers.  The Holy Spirit has gifted all believers and those gifts are to be used for God’s glory.  But apart from the gospel—the completed work of Jesus Christ—they are all ritualistic exercises in futility.  Why?  Because of the motivation behind them, thinking we will gain favor with God by engaging in them!  Nothing we do can gain favor with God!   Too often, those of us who engage in the meticulous, ritualistic observance of the disciplines will even feel the need to double up the next day should a quiet time or prayer time be missed.  If we do this, what we are doing is we are legalistically white knuckling the spiritual steering wheel all the way.   Our deeds are as filthy rags. 

The fact of the matter is that the gospel—what Jesus did on our behalf, that is, the “work” to please God that has been already completed—must be taken into account by each of us daily.  I’ll address that in a minute.

Philippians 3:8-11  

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.