I am evangelical because I believe utterly in the inspiration of scripture. I also own the title Born Again because I am. And I am committed to local church as the body of Christ and His chosen instrument to bring in His Kingdom. I’m in international youth ministry because I want to see young people across the whole world come to a real, lasting and fruitful faith which delights my Father in heaven. But I have to face up to the ever increasing failure of the evangelical gospel in Europe.
Some are saying, that in our eagerness to package the gospel in ways people will understand and find attractive, we’ve turned dynamic relationship into four spiritual laws. Ultimately they claim, with some justification, we’ve just replaced one law with another. Do we need a new reformation for a new age?
Well yes, it is possible to reduce the Father’s amazing grace to a formula. It is also possible for people to manipulate that formula to their own ends. Just as law doesn’t create or define relationship or community, so a doctrinal statement can’t truly define the Kingdom of God or a church community.
On the other hand though, law isn’t bad in itself. It tends to provide the context for much more. The law of England allows me to live a full peaceful life. The law of God was the context for the gospel, and the four spiritual laws can be the way into fullness of relationship with the Father. The problem is not the law itself, but how we use it.
Ultimately the gospel isn’t a straightjacket. We aren’t packaging people up to be stored in churches, while awaiting transportation to heaven. Rather we are releasing them from their bondage to live life in all its fullness through a dynamic relationship with the Father.
The problem is that releasing people is a scary thing. I don’t trust people, because largely I don’t really trust myself. It is safer to tell people what to think than to get them thinking for themselves. What if they come up with wacky ideas? The conservative in me wants to minimise that risk by reducing the gospel to a series of definitions. But then perhaps we’ve sterilised faith to such an extent it’s lost its life, soul and purpose. Perhaps that’s why in Europe as a church we’re largely stuffed.
Ultimately I can’t abandon the definition of the gospel Paul gives us, but nor can I disregard the fact that Jesus talked more about the Kingdom than the process of salvation. And here’s the big big challenge I face. I know I need to live the sort of life which shouts out FREEDOM, so that all who meet me want to know how I got it. Then I can tell them the way, the truth and the life. This will include all the necessary disciplines and for want of a better word: laws, through which I’ve found that amazing intimacy with the Father by the Spirit.
I’m not sure we need that big a reformation or rethink of what we believe for this new age. We just need to start believing it and living it.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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