Jesus Ruined My LIfe is a great little post about the meaning of being a Christian.
Everyone is all for the pop-cultured American (small ‘c’) christianity. Instead of lifting Jesus up as our glorious Savior, he’s a used rung on the ladder of success to step on so those who step on him can be seen from a farther distance.
Albert Camus nails it when he wrote in his novel, “People naturally tried to get some help from his death. After all, it was a stroke of genius to tell us: ‘You’re not a very pretty sight, that’s certain! Well, we won’t go into the details! We’ll just liquidate it all at once, on the cross!’ But too many people now climb onto the cross merely to be seen from a greater distance, even if they have to trample somewhat on the one who has been there so long. Too many people decided to do without generosity in order to practice charity.” ~The Fall, p.114. “We long to be immortal. We are too much in love with ourselves not to want the precious object of our love never to disappear.”
Do we want a relationship with God or simply the assets He provides? We often oscillate between being both prodigal sons (Luke 15:11-32). They both want the Father’s assets at the expense of a relationship with the Father. The tale of the Prodigal Sons describes American christianity.
Michael Horton wrote, “I would argue that the reason so many unbelievers can sit comfortably in our churches and even call themselves born-again Christians is that we give them very little to deny. The offensive message of the cross has been replaced with “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” with the cross tucked somewhere underneath it.”
This American christianity is a lie of the Devil. We must be watchful. Satan comes in like an angel of light and departs with a fiendish cackle over carcasses strewn in the wilderness – 1 Corinthians 10:5.
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“As a poor wicked sinner, I cannot but indulge the hope that God will save me from eternal death, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~John Cruver –1862.
God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself.
Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. ~T. F. Torrance, “The Mediation of Christ”, 94
That is the truth about Christianity.
1 reply on “The Truth About Christianity”
thanks Dave. As you say, we oscillate between both prodigals – asking for blessing without relationship and therefore missing out on both.