A Bigger Gospel
One of the many things I like about the sermons at our church's Sunday morning service is that they are deliberate efforts to see Biblical truths unfiltered by our Western, post-modern worldviews. One particularly insidious way in which we can process spiritual matters is to consider everything from a personal and isolated perspective. In other words, as one of our pastors noted yesterday, if you poll the average American Christian about the meaning of the gospel, they'd tell you something related to their individual salvation transaction.
Ah, but the gospel is far bigger and God has far grander notions. Off the top of my head, there are at least four, greater aspects to what God's up to in history:
1) The church. God isn't just saving individuals, He's saving a group of individuals.
2) Relationships. God isn't just healing the rend between us and God, but between us and us.
3) Systems. God isn't just saving human souls, He's redeeming human systems.
4) Creation. God isn't just transforming humans, but also all of creation.
We have gained so much in the way of knowledge over the last 2000 years, for which I'm neither ungrateful nor dismissive. But see how much we miss out on the size and sizzle of God's work because of the blinders all this knowledge has given us. Well do we pray when we constantly seek for God's help to receive His truths and to process them appropriately.
Ah, but the gospel is far bigger and God has far grander notions. Off the top of my head, there are at least four, greater aspects to what God's up to in history:
1) The church. God isn't just saving individuals, He's saving a group of individuals.
2) Relationships. God isn't just healing the rend between us and God, but between us and us.
3) Systems. God isn't just saving human souls, He's redeeming human systems.
4) Creation. God isn't just transforming humans, but also all of creation.
We have gained so much in the way of knowledge over the last 2000 years, for which I'm neither ungrateful nor dismissive. But see how much we miss out on the size and sizzle of God's work because of the blinders all this knowledge has given us. Well do we pray when we constantly seek for God's help to receive His truths and to process them appropriately.
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