I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the underlying messages in our communication. For example, I can say something to my wife that sounds totally supportive, right and loving, but the message is “You need to change A and B for me to accept you” – which is neither loving nor supportive.
The same principle applies in communicating the Gospel, especially in preaching. Christians give a lot of lip service to “God loves you just like you are” and “you are saved by grace alone, not by trying hard and doing good.” If that’s true, why is the underlying message so often about “you’re not measuring up” or “you need to do A, B, and C to be a good Christian” or “we’re better than those other churches”? Even then, the things we lay on people are often totally bizarre – like how do we end up distilling everything down to “go to this Sunday School class, read your Bible more, come to the men’s pancake fundraiser, etc.”?
The truth is that the Gospel is MUCH more radical: you were more guilty than you can ever imagine, but Jesus paid that debt more completely than you can ever image. God is more in control than you can ever imagine. Every step in the Christian life is an undeserved act of grace. You start out with God’s favor and He delights in your immature love more than you can ever imagine. That’s good news and that should be the primary message – explicit and implicit – of EVERYTHING we do.
I think there’s another truth here, though. If you start with and really believe the Gospel, there is a MUCH more radical response. People who are changed by the Gospel will give everything for it. I think most Christians are actually longing to be called to something radical and costly. I think most of us are bored, honestly. BUT, we’ll never risk everything for a God that’s mostly dissappointed with us and is just itching to torch us if we fail. But if He really loves us and death is really an upgrade and He’s really more precious than any amount of money…
