A diatribe on works and revival preaching
One of the great errors of the Christian church is to seek heretics over any and all doctrinal errors, as though our intellects were perfectible (a Gnostic point of view).
Indeed, we can all be just as legalistic about doctrine as the Pharisees were about law keeping. Hence, some exaggerate Paul’s works/faith theology to the point that they feel it’s necessary to insist that we do nothing at all to contribute to our own salvation when preaching to new converts.
We take “not a work” and turn it into “we don’t do anything at all,” which is not really Paul’s point. Some even balk at my teaching that “faith” includes faithfulness, because having a heart turned toward God sounds like “doing something,” but then, so does “believe.”
So we need to stop with the marketing language and use biblical language. Works do not justify. “Justify” means “declare righteous.” Moreover, we cannot do enough works to earn salvation. It’s a “free gift.” But “free gift” means that no works are required — and “works” refers to the Law of Moses, including morality. These things cannot earn salvation. You cannot be good enough to earn salvation.
But salvation costs us everything.
(Luk 14:26-33 ESV) 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
This is how Jesus preached a revival sermon — and the difference between this and “Invite Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior” or “Come forward to confess and be baptized, washing away your sins, together as we stand and sing”) are obvious. Jesus demands a radical level of commitment and sacrifice. We promise a free salvation at no cost.
Our revival-inspired evangelistic sales pitches minimize the cost of following Jesus. We sound far more like the used car dealers — “Bankruptcy? No problem! Bad credit? No problem! No down payment? No problem!” — hiding the very high cost of the transaction in order to make a sale.
Paul said what Paul said. Obviously. But he was not telling us to tell potential converts that salvation costs nothing.
(Rom 6:22-23 ESV) 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice Paul’s irony — eternal life is a “free gift” but only once you’ve sold yourself into slavery. (So far removed from political correctness that we’d struggle to preach this today, and yet spoken by Paul in a world where most converts were slaves.) Now, in chapters 7 and 8, Paul transforms this “slavery” into new life through the Spirit — a new kind of God-empowered obedience.
(Rom 8:15 ESV) 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
When we allow ourselves to die with Jesus, submitting to God as his slave — giving him (not Rome) power over our lives, God adopts us, turning slavery into sonship. But to get from dead to reborn son, we have to pass through a level of submission like that of a slave (just as the prodigal son was admitted into the father’s household as a son — but only after he was so humbled that he begged to be a servant.)
And it’s just not preached. Or if it’s preached, it’s a legalistic demand for an immersion rather than a call to a new way of being. Indeed, it’s ignored because it’s a hard sale, and we are just so desperate to convert people to baptism that we forget to convert them to a Lord who is King of the universe — and who redeems us by buying us from a Satanic slave master and making us his own slaves — so that he can then adopt us as his sons. Except its better than adoption because we’re re-conceived to be like our new Father.
Implicit in all this is a complete surrender of self. Being buried with Jesus in the waters of baptism assumes that we’ve been crucified with him.
(Gal 2:20 NET) 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
“I have been crucified with Christ” is not about undergoing a ritual — a prayer or an immersion. It’s a commitment to follow Jesus on his cross. Baptism shows us buried, assuming that we’ll understand that only those who’ve died to self ought to be buried.
Baptism is not so much about original sin or our inability to justify ourselves as surrender: “Your will be done.” (We’d just so prefer for this to be a ritual or doctrinal thing rather than a radical commitment to Jesus.)
Now, the Spirit empowers us to make our commitment real, but our commitment opens our hearts to the Spirit.
So is it free? In a sense, absolutely yes, because Jesus paid the price. So what does it cost? Everything. And we have to learn to live in the tension — to not go to either extreme and rather live where both are true and not contradictory.
The church just has to give up its marketing approach to salvation and follow Jesus. It would change everything.
It is also easy to measure baptisms and who was responsible. It is harder to quantify changed lives.
This post brought to mind something I picked up from C.S Lewis. He was converted as a result of trying the teachings of Christ in his life and being surprised when they felt more freeing than constraining. He described it like a fish being set free in water for the first time. Being that we are created to be like God it is unfortunate that it’s not more apart of our approach to unbelievers.
Just like committing to a marriage with another(the engagement) is made in advance of the actual wedding ceremony itself(that is, minds are made up), the ceremony itself is crucial and expresses the commitment previously made. However, it would be hard to say that someone had a real commitment if they back out prior to the ceremony(or after for that matter). A couple isn’t married unless they go through the marriage ceremony. The wedding ceremony isn’t just a bunch of fluff, neither is the act of baptism. Paul said in it “we died to self(sin), we are crucified “with Christ, “raised to walk in newness of life.” While certainly, like marriage, that decision to do so could be made in advance(commitment to Jesus) or it could happen in an instant, like the Phillipian jailor and his family along with other Biblical examples. Sometimes counting the cost comes after our coming to Christ through additional teaching. Most of us understand it better by and by.
I think marriage has been occurring longer than there has been a written wedding ceremony. If ministers were as happy to conduct weddings as they are to conduct baptisms maybe more people would have church weddings. That being said, I know quite a few baptisms that have been conducted without ministers either.
It’s good that Mark notices that neither baptisms nor marriages require a professional set-apart leader of a church in order to happen. Apostolic writings make no mention of the “professional preacher” such as every church now must have. Teaching was the duty of the elders. Evangelism was the duty of the members. Baptizing was done by anyone. Winning the lost was done by everyone. Nowadays we think it’s only done by someone being paid to do it. Do we mean it when we say we want to restore apostolic Christianity?
Monty says, “A couple isn’t married unless they go through the marriage ceremony.” Did the apostles teach that a license and a ceremony were required in order for a couple to become man and wife? Speaking legally, a license and a ceremony may be necessary, but a couple might become man and wife in God’s sight without the license and the public ceremony. Wedding have become so expensive nowadays that young couples might be wise to skip the dress-up part and opt for what they can afford instead.
No comments have been posted since mine at 1:20 p.m. and I noticed right away that I had failed to put an “s” after “wedding” in the final sentence. It should read “WEDDINGS have become so expensive nowadays that young couples might be wise to skip the dress-up part and opt instead for what they can afford.” And how important it is for us to realize that following Jesus is done every day, not just on Sundays. He’s with us at our work. He’s with us at our homes. He’s with us at our play and at our study. Jesus is WITH US if we have chosen to make Him our Lord. And He wants us to tell others about Him.
Jay, You quoted the scripture, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Notice that the Christians were first “set free from sin” and then they became “slaves of God”. I am not sure it is the other way around. Ephesians 2 makes it clear in vs 1-5:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, … But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Dead people can’t be slaves of God. We have to be made alive first before we can be his slaves.
Ray and Monty,
In Alabama, the common law (the law of England going back to Henry II and, before him, to Noah and his antecedents) is that a marriage is made between the couple by agreeing to be presently married (as opposed to agreeing to marry in the future, which is an engagement) and announcing that decision in some way or other — without regard to formality. And you’re just as married at common law as if you have a license, blood test, and 50 bishops presiding at the ceremony.
This worked throughout Europe until the church arrogated to itself the exclusive power to marry sometime in the Middle Ages, and then in the Reformation, the states took it over — so much that in some places the power is perceived as being in the state and then delegated to the church or even the couple. Hence, when preachers say “by the power vested in me by the state of Alabama” they are acquiescing in this subtle transfer of control over our lives to our government — even though in Alabama and many (not all) states, the real power remains in the couple and the preacher is only empowered to “solemnize” — to make solemn — the marriage.
Jay wrote:
This is getting to the truth of the gospel! Scott McKnight makes a distinction between what he calls a salvation culture for the church and a kingdom culture. The later focuses on disciples; the former, on decisions for Christ. In Evangelical Protestantism, the decision is expressed in the “sinner’s prayer.” In the Church of Christ the decision is expressed in baptism. In neither is discipleship at the forefront of the process. There is a faint hope that the “convert” will someday become a disciple.
If we get back to the kind of preaching this post calls for, the number of “decisions” may decrease, but the number of disciples will increase. And the church will be better for it.
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Being a disciple means Jesus is Lord. If Jesus isn’t our Lord, how can we be saved? In Acts 2:36 Peter said, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” We like “Christ” and we avoid “Lord”. Many want to join the church and get baptized but far fewer want Jesus to actually be Lord of their life. Strangely they expect that they are saved without Lordship ever occurring. I put the blame squarely at the feet of our misled leaders. If the church returns to preaching and teaching that Jesus must be Lord then a whole new church growth era will emerge.
Skip,
I agree with your sentiments. I’ve always asked that question( do you agree to let Jesus be Lord of your life) when I baptize people and they always say, “I do.” Just like when a couple is asked to vow their faithfulness to one another in a wedding. Do you promise to always…..do such and such.? They always say ..”.I do.” It’s in the everyday living we may falter from time to time. Stressing something is easy, living it out everyday is hard. Somewhere in there is room for growing into our vow. We rarely do as good or better than we vow. I am thankful God is so patient with me. He waited patiently for me a number of years before I finally agreed to allow him to be my Lord, and he is still so patient with me. We must be patient with our brethren. People were baptized in the scriptures within minutes of hearing about Jesus for the first time. They made a commitment, but they grew into that commitment, maturing as they went.
Skip wrote ” If the church returns to preaching and teaching that Jesus must be Lord then a whole new church growth era will emerge.”
That would require putting St. Paul aside and going back to the first principles and using Isaiah, Jeremiah and John to (re)prove that Jesus is the messiah and Lord. I am not sure that some churches could withstand that without the roof collapsing.
Mark, We don’t even need to refer back to Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc… Jesus himself, in the gospels, made it abundantly clear that he must be “Lord of all or he cannot be Lord at all.” But that won’t keep the roof from collapsing. A church built solely on doctrinal purity and theology probably couldn’t accept the practical implication of Lordship.
The brethren you all must be patient with are of course people who don’t attend the CofC denomination who disagree with your theology. Such silly people who are living and showing the world Jesus. While here we have grown ups putting more posts on a blog to have more debates about baptism and that the CofC denomination’s interpretation of Acts 2:38 is the end all verse of people being saved throughout the entire Bible, such feel good moments to the ego. Perhaps God will put the all of the CofC denomination in a room with a baptismal to baptize Abraham, David, the thief on the cross and all the other people who weren’t baptized. More great moments to relive the days you had to help God save those lost souls who had faith in Jesus to save them. Even better if the Gentiles during the Hebrew Scripture days are there too who didn’t turn to God who was shown to them through Israel, the people who Jay has said in other posts are saved by their good works.
I don’t consider a blog looking to have debates that mature. Mature are the Christians living a Christian life, loving God and other people so that others will want to know our Lord and Savior.
Monty said, “People were baptized in the scriptures within minutes of hearing about Jesus for the first time. They made a commitment, but they grew into that commitment, maturing as they went.”
Yes they were baptized within minutes but during those minutes in Acts 2:36 Peter made it clear that Jesus was Lord. In addition, everyone in the early days understood the three years of messages from Jesus, His insistence on Lordship (Luke 9 and Luke 14), and how Jesus himself was crucified. The early disciples knew the consequences of taking up their crosses daily and following him.
Grace, Your take on the purpose and accomplishments of this blog is jaded. Most here do not argue Acts 2:38 endlessly and have moved on to much deeper and relevant discussions. Of course you know that this is a “Church of Christ” website and that most on here will not launch into Baptist favorite debates. The Baptists have their own tangents that need correction too.
I didn’t say anything about the Baptist churches, they are among other churches who do not agree with the baptismal theology of the CofC denomination. You are certainly right down Jay’s alley to single out the Baptist churches, oh the maturity… sigh).
Skip, Jesus may have made it clear about his Lordship but he had to convince plenty of people. However, when you are talking about conversions and baptism you have to remember that the preacher who stands up and says that Jesus said he was Lord may not always be believed. There are doubters sitting in the pews on Sundays who have been baptized but may still have doubts.
With all the experts differences in teaching what God wants of us and how we should see Jesus it causes doubts among us little people as whether we are believing or doing it just right or not.
Don’t know which writer or preacher to believe. Even worse down here where churches are all up and down the road that each says they are right and all the others are wrong and hell bound.
God surely has a sense of humor about all this, or, has tears running down His face. Can’t decide which.
Saddest of all is we still can’t figure why numbers are down.
Grace, I only said Baptists because you have staunchly defended them in the past. This website is not obsessed with baptism. There are much bigger fish to fry.
Grace wrote,
“Israel, the people who Jay has said in other posts are saved by their good works”
Please specify the post or comment where I say this, quoting the exact text.
Mark, if there are “doubters” in the church who don’t believe Jesus is Lord then I say they aren’t saved. How can a person be saved who hasn’t surrendered everything to Jesus.
I apologize, Jay, I’m sometimes typing from my phone and that doesn’t always do so great. What I meant to write was, the people who Jay has said in other posts are not saved by their good works. As some here on other posts seem to be saying the Gentlies who were apart from God in the Hebrew Scriptures were saved by good works they had done. There is and always has been a Way of salvation, by grace through faith, not of works. Any good thing we do does not earn us salvation, it is through faith in Christ’s work He did on the cross we receive salvation.
There is a difference in a doubter and an unbeliever. Please don’t condemn those with some doubt. Jesus did not do that with Thomas.
“While here we have grown ups putting more posts on a blog to have more debates about baptism and that the CofC denomination’s interpretation of Acts 2:38 is the end all verse of people being saved throughout the entire Bible, such feel good moments to the ego. Perhaps God will put the all of the CofC denomination in a room with a baptismal to baptize Abraham, David, the thief on the cross and all the other people who weren’t baptized. More great moments to relive the days you had to help God save those lost souls who had faith in Jesus to save them.”
“I don’t consider a blog looking to have debates that mature. Mature are the Christians living a Christian life, loving God and other people so that others will want to know our Lord and Savior.”
Not-so-surprisingly, the Scriptures don’t reveal condescension as either a fruit of the Spirit or a mark of maturity.
Nick,
Why would you attempt to bind the new Covenant baptism on men who lived in the Old Testament? Baptism was never a requirement in OT just as circumcision was never applied in NT. Haven’t we been informed that the OT laws cannot be applied in NT without accepting the bondage of the complete Old Law? Using the exact terminology baptism cannot be applied backwards.