James MacDonald writes: “The church of Jesus Christ is not like a Target store. It’s not like you go, get what you came for, and then head home again. The church isn’t just about you getting what you need. It’s about you participating in what everyone needs. It is a community of families all working together so that the church can be all God wants it to be.” One of the hapless beliefs the church has operated under for many years is that the Christian life is just a matter of getting “saved” and that is the end of it until we get to heaven. According to some, having our sins forgiven is what the Christian life is all about. One major evangelical theologian recently spoke at a conference on the topic “Did Jesus Preach the Gospel?” He stated that there was only one place in all the Gospels where it indicated that he might have understood the doctrine of being justified by faith. Other than that — not so much. I was mystified that a theologian could be that clueless.
Scott McKnight, another leading theologian, tells of meeting a pastor of a large church in an airport. McKnight was telling the man he was contemplating the meaning of the biblical term “Gospel”. The pastor retorted, “Well, that’s easy. It is justification by faith.” McKnight pressed the point and said, “Did Jesus understand and preach the gospel?” The pastor said, “Of course not. He lived before Paul and did not have access to his writings. He could not have understood the gospel without reading Paul.” I literally gasped when I heard that — Jesus did not understand the gospel. Paul got it, but Jesus did not. Could anything be more absurd. But this is the thinking of those who think the gospel is only about being justified by faith, or having our sins forgiven. It borders on blasphemy to think that Jesus did not understand what it meant to have a right relationship with God. It is such a small idea of what the Christian life is all about.
Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God. He talked about what it meant to know God and be a part of a Kingdom that was not a part of this world. He spoke of a transformation of heart and character that enables us to be a part of what God is doing and wants to do in this world. It is, as James MacDonald said, “working together so that the church can be all God wants it to be.” We cannot earn our salvation through good works, but good works are the natural fruit of salvation. Good works are the evidence that we have been justified by faith and have a relationship with the God who made the world, loves the world and wants to save the world. Martin Luther said, “It is not faith or works, it is a faith that works.” As Jesus said in the Scripture we read today, there are rewards for participating in the life and work of God here on earth. In fact, he uses the word “reward” three times in those few short verses. The Christian life is not just about going to heaven, it is about being God’s faithful people who work to bring about God’s kingdom on earth here and now.
There is a rather sobering scripture, which the apostle Paul wrote, that says, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Paul said that there was a reward for being faithful and having good works that accompany our faith. And even when we have done good works, they may have been done with improper motives — the desire to be noticed, the hope of gaining some personal benefit or profit in some way from our obedience, a desire to appear better than we are. If so, our works will be burned in the fire of the judgment and count for nothing. We may be “saved”, but only as a scorched cinder. On the other hand, the commendable works we have done will be refined and come out like gold. If our desire is pure, and we desire nothing but carrying out the work God has given us to do and advancing his kingdom, there will be a reward. Paul says elsewhere, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
I was reading again what Paul wrote to the Romans, “Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:19-23). There it is. Just as we used to serve a master who led our lives on a path to destruction and ruin, now we are to serve God who gives life. We have been set free from our former life and serve a new Master who rewards us. And the benefits and rewards of that life are not just in heaven, but here and now. We lead lives of holiness. We become agents of God to bring about his kingdom here on earth. We are given eternal life that begins now. Paul asks, “What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” He said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I began to think about the difference between wages and rewards. Wages are what you get from doing something. Wages are what you earn and deserve. Rewards are what you get that you do not deserve. Rewards are a gift. The book of Revelation declares, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). The good news is that we do not get what we deserve, rather we are given a gift, and it is life itself. It is a reward, not wages. It is a gift, not something you have earned — nor could you earn it even if you tried.
The book of Hebrews says, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Hebrews 6:10-12). We have an inheritance that has been promised. And you see, this scripture says that we are to show our love for God by loving people and helping them. This is how we inherit what God has promised.
In his book The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris Seay mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father about how to love people. He writes, “Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we used to get outfield deck seats (aka ‘the cheap seats’) to see the baseball games at the [Houston] Astrodome. Most of the people buying the cheap seats did so to save more money for beer. After the first few innings, they were drunk, and by the time the seventh-inning stretch rolled around, there would be beer mixed with peanut shells on the floor, spilled beer down your back, and a brawl two rows over and back to the left. It was ugly out there. As a kid, I learned from a lot people that we were sitting with the ‘bad people.’ There was one consistent drunk fan named Batty Bob. He was a self-proclaimed Houston Astros mascot. He'd come to all the games wearing a rainbow wig, and he'd lead slurred cheers in the stands. I remember one time my dad went out to sit and talk with Batty Bob. He spent the whole game with Bob, then walked him out to the parking lot to bring him home with us. I was more than confused, because this guy was one of the ‘bad people.’ When we got home, my dad came to me and explained how God loved Batty Bob. I remember thinking, Really? Batty Bob? And he stayed with us for a few days to get back on his feet. This is when I started to realize that God did not despise these people; he dearly loved them.”
Too often Christians divide people into good and bad, us and them. Some Christians even see them as the enemy, when we should see them as people God loves. We reach out to them rather than seeing them as bad people to be avoided. We care about them because God cares for them. We realize that God wants to bring all people to himself. Brian McLaren writes, “Church is a space in which the Spirit works to form Christlike people, and it is the space in which human beings, formed in Christlike love, cooperate with the Spirit and one another to express that love in word and deed, art and action.”
The message of Christianity is not just that we can be saved, but that we can be transformed. We do not have to be a slave to our desires and weaknesses. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be made new. We are not just forgiven people, we are transformed people who are being made into the image of Christ. We are not perfect people, but we are growing in our ability to understand the kind of life he wants us to live and the ability to live it. And we can not only be transformed, we can be used by God for his purposes — and that’s exciting.
We usually tell a person who is wanting to have a relationship with God to pray a prayer something like this: “God I thank you that you sent Jesus to die on the cross or my sins so I can be forgiven and go to heaven. I ask you to forgive my sins and become a part of my life.” But Christ did not come to be a “part” of your life anymore than he came just to forgive your sins. He demands your whole life, and you must give up your personal kingdom, your rights and privileges, and the ownership of your life. You can no longer do anything you want. As the Bible says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). C. S. Lewis wrote: “They [Adam & Eve] wanted to call their souls their own, but that is to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner of the universe of which they could say to God ‘This is our business, not yours.’ But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives.”
The more I understand what Jesus came to do, I think we should teach people who want to come into contact with God instead to pray something like this: “God, I thank you for creating all that exists. I thank you that you love the world and the people you have created to live in it. I thank you for loving me before I was born — before I ever thought about loving you. I thank you that you sent Jesus as the Messiah to fulfill all that was talked about in the Old Testament. I believe that Jesus has the answer to life. I give you my whole self. You now own me. I want to be a part of the kingdom Jesus spoke of, and work for it. I take up my cross, die to myself and follow him on the path of life. And I am grateful that his death, resurrection, ascension, and his sending of the Holy Spirit make it possible for me to know you and become a faithful follower of your Son.”
Reverent devotion to the Creator and Redeemer of the world brings about human flourishing. The Old Testament talked of God’s Shalom. The Theological Word Book of the Old Testament defines Shalom as, “Completion and fulfillment — entering into a state of wholeness and unity — a restored relationship.” This is the reward that we have from God. It is peace, even when we face adversity, because it is a life not only connected to God, but woven into his life. It is the gift of purpose and meaning in our lives that brings joy. It is the gift of having a relationship with God, our Creator, Savior and Sustainer. Columba of Iona said, “Joy is the echo of God’s life in us.”
Joni Eareckson Tada, who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, knows something of sadness, suffering and difficulty. But in her book, When God Weeps: Why our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, she writes these wonderful words: “God is actually happy. Scan the Bible’s big picture and you’ll find that He is rapturously happy. He doesn’t just get by –– he flourishes... Nothing can satisfy an infinite being but an infinite being. The eternal Threesome revels together in a swirling dance of mutual love. The Trinity enjoys pleasure beyond comprehension... God, we might say, is in a good mood. He is not depressed. He’s not misery seeking company. God is joy spilling over... The full tank of love He enjoys is splashing out over heaven’s walls. He swims in elation and is driven to share it with us. Why? Simply, as he put it, ‘So that my joy may be in you.’” (John 15:11).
This is the story of God, and it can be our story as well when we enter into a life with him.
