Is the Good News Performance Based?

The Catholic pastor pounded the pulpit: “It’s not a cake walk you know. Some of you think that all you have to do is accept Jesus, attend church when you feel like it, and give a few dollars in the offering basket. But you need to do more than that. Do you think Jesus died on the cross just so you can be a couch potato Christian?”
He paused, and surveyed the flock, before continuing, “And I hear that some of you are thinking of leaving our church to go to the big mega-church out in the suburbs. You think that going to church in casual clothing, listening to rock music, and hearing a short message spiced up with footage from Holly-weird movies is better than coming to our church where you receive the sacraments and are guided in well-established doctrines of the faith. You go right ahead and attend that church with its Las Vegas style productions, but let me warn you – that’s nothing more than easy-believism. It isn’t real Christianity. Christianity involves more than just entertainment.”
The pastor is frustrated – he has lost many families to the mega-church, and he feels he has to protect his dwindling flock. The pastor isn’t alone. A number of other churches in town are feeling the pinch as members are being gobbled up by the big mega-church with its smiling personable, tanned, joke-telling, casually dressed young pastor. The Catholic pastor and several of the other pastors are convinced that easy-believism is to blame.
In part, it is. Some permissive churches entice us with ideas that we can do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it, and in the American competitive religious market this means giving the people what they want. Authentic Christianity most certainly is not a case of a pastor determining what his people want and then getting out in front of them to lead them to their subjectively determined Promised Land.
There is no doubt that permissiveness is a major problem in the North American religious landscape. It is a heresy, a ditch into which many fall, an attractive alternative to real Christianity. It is the ditch of permissiveness and compromise. Permissiveness misuses the grace of God. No question.
But there is an equal and opposite ditch, and legalism is its name. And legalism, in actuality, often condemns God’s amazing grace as well. Grace is so often characterized as permissiveness. There are pastors, priests and ministers who object to easy-believism on legalistic grounds – fearing that their big stick of hierarchy will be taken away from them, and they will no longer be able to control their congregations. We do have much to fear from permissiveness. We also have much to fear from legalistic, hierarchy religion. We have nothing to fear from God’s grace.
You might hear the question, “Okay. All I hear about is grace. So explain this. Since Christ’s work on the cross is sufficient for my salvation, and since God loves me unconditionally, why should I even bother trying to obey Him?”
It’s a good question. Why try? Why obey? If it’s all done for you, why be good? Is God’s grace a license to sin? If God saves us by His grace, unmerited favor, then what is for us to do?
What is difficult for us to accept is that Christianity is based on a relationship, not on rules. When human beings try to improve on Christianity and make it into a set of rules and regulations, legalism contaminates the authentic and pure gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let’s clarify. By definition, Christians want to obey God. We want to make Him happy. We want to do the things with which He will be pleased. The Bible makes it clear that the children of God want to obey Him, but that God’s grace is the reason they want to obey Him. Christians obey because they have been saved.
But why do we, and should we, strive to obey God if He has already saved us by grace? Jesus Christ did what He did without any guarantee that we would respond favorably. He loved us first, and we therefore love, honor, and desire to obey Him.
Anyone who believes that any part of their salvation is due to the things they do or don’t do in their own strength will inevitably wind up boasting. We will strut and swagger. We will get puffed up if we believe our truth, our doctrines, our dogmas, our ceremonies, and our rituals are better than someone else’s. We will brag that our sacraments, our hymns, and our times or seasons in which we worship God are the best, if not the only way to worship God.
If our brand of religion is threatened by the implications of freedom in Christ, we will often attack. Legalism and institutionalism protects itself at all costs. The first priority is to protect the institution and organization, not to feed and nurture and protect the sheep of God’s pasture.
So, in conclusion, what am I saying? How is a Christian to choose their church? We don’t want the legalistic – “earn your way to heaven” – church. And we don’t want the permissive – “I’ll do what’s right in my own eyes” – church.
The church we should look for is the “saved by unmerited grace” church. Total GRACE!
God’s salvation is a three part deal. And it’s all GRACE!
When we see out sin for what it is, see our need of a Savior, and commit our life to Christ, we are born again with a new divine nature. No human works involved. This is called justification. All GRACE.
Then we have a lifetime of growing in awareness of who we are in Christ, and day by day turning what we do over to Him. Again, no human works involved. This is called sanctification. All GRACE.
Then at our death, we receive a total spirit body in the presence of God. Again, we are not judged on our human works, we are rewarded by what Christ did through us. This is called glorification. All GRACE.
Look for a GRACE CHURCH!

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