In his message at the Gathering at Trent this week, our guest speaker made a point that stuck with me. He said that when God the Father sent His Son Jesus to earth for us, He was putting love over His own Holiness. He could have stood in His Holiness and said to us..."Ok, you chose to disobey me, now we're separated because of it. I'm Holy and you've now become sinners. You'll have to pay the price and spend eternity in hell, a place that I've prepared for Satan and his demons.
Thankfully, God the Father loved us enough to send Jesus His Son to pay that price in our place. What a great example of how we the "Church" are supposed to be acting toward the world around us. I believe one of the greatest downfalls of the church in the past generation has been to be stuck in our own "holiness" and we've come across to the world around us as self righteous and condemning hypocrites. Pushing people away from Christ instead of drawing them to Him. I know of people who thought they couldn't go to church because they didn't have good enough clothes to wear, or just weren't good enough to go.
John the Baptist wore a cloak of camel's hair and ate wild locusts. He probably looked like a wild man and most likely wouldn't be very welcome in a lot of churches today.
Yet, Jesus said of John, "I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Jesus said in Matthew 11: 28-29 " Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." No mention of a three piece suit anywhere or the need to attain a certain status before coming.
The only hope any of us has of attaining holiness is in Christ. We may be able to live very moral lives on the outside, but our holiness is in Him. So as God the Father presented Christ to us in Love, we must also present Christ to the world around us in love. Maybe then, the world wouldn't smell the hypocrisy a mile away when they come near us. And, maybe then we'll see the results of what God can do through us.
The Gathering at Trent gets it. We don't stand on religious tradition. We stand on Christ and on His finished work on the Cross: His death, His burial and His resurrection ... If we as the "church" will meet people where they are with the Love of Christ it will make a difference; they will accept Christ. It will produce Kingdom citizens, the least of which will be greater than John the Baptist! 5 people will be baptised from our hub group this Sunday. God is at work! There is a new generation rising!
May we never be a church that does this ..."These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain." (Matthew 15:8-9)
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Interesting read Cliff, are you open for a little debate?
ReplyDeleteDebate is good... Debate away :)
ReplyDeleteWell here I go. I submit for your consideration of course.... that God never puts any part of himself over any other part. That would make Him changable, and He doesn't change. He's the same yesterday , today and forever. When He loves, it's with holy love. If it wasn't holy love, there wouldn't be a need for a Saviour as it's our unholiness in light of God's holiness that we need saving from. So if God set his holiness aside to love us, we'd be all headed to heaven and the Father would never have sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin.There would be nothing to be saved from. I submit for your consideration that we as the "church" have a very skewed interpretation of what holiness is. It not self righteousness, or a pious attitude or the always present legalism. Those are the things that push people away from the Lord..... His holiness draws us to Him. So if we the church live holy lives before those around us we would be truly giving them Jesus, and they'd be running to Him. I guess we kind of end up at the same spot..... I'm just debating how we get there! blessings
ReplyDeleteYes, I think we agree Penny. I'm sure Carlo wasn't suggesting that God set His Holiness aside. Poor wording on my part saying he put his Love over his Holiness.
ReplyDeleteI think the rest is just semantics... I believe were in agreement :)