Christianity the same today as it was yesterday

When Jesus promised His disciples they’d be persecuted for His sake, He wasn’t saying Judeo-Christian morals would not be accepted in an increasingly socially liberal world, or that religious views would make the one who holds them an outsider.  He was saying that those who love Him and want to fan His glory into their world will automatically be out of sync with their world, regardless of it’s cultural moment.  This is because He is out of sync with the world, regardless of it’s cultural moment, and this will never change until He returns.

Jesus’ being out of sync with the world is why the Apostle Paul called the message of the cross of Christ “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  Most people today, believer or skeptic, would have a hard time referring to the Christian message of salvation as “foolish.”  It certainly seems like too offensive a word to use!  But Paul, by most estimations the champion of the cross message, referred to the cross as “folly” and “the foolishness of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 25).  Paul was admitting that, by any majority’s cultural standards, the idea that the only hope the world has is a bleeding Savior being executed and then risen again is complete absurdity.  People want political, social, economic power; but God's way to save the world is through His Son giving Himself up to death on a Roman execution stake.  And Biblical Christianity teaches that this enterprise of death and resurrection reversed the curse that everyone in the world invariably feels in themselves and their world.

To be a Christian is not necessarily to hold certain ethical or moral principles, to vote a certain way, or to feel certain sympathies or sensibilities toward a people group.  It is to believe that the only hope for the world is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That His bloody death happened to save undeserving people from the just judgment of a holy God, and that in dying to rise He was, in love, defeating the world’s agenda of victory through intimidation and coercion. 

If America is still moving in a more socially liberal direction (which I believe it still is and will), Jesus will remain out of sync with it.  If it were today, post-2016-election, moving in a more socially conservative direction, Jesus would still be out of sync with it as well.  Jesus is a friend of sinners, but that only matters to the one who wants to talk about sin.  He’s a friend of presidents, politicians, and rulers too.  But similarly, that fact only matters to one who is willing to accept that those positions come from God (Jn. 19:11; Dan. 2:21), and ultimately exist for Jesus, to point the way to Him and His authority (Col. 1:16).  One can be a friend of Jesus’, but only if they’ll in fact accept Him for who He is: King of kings and Lord of lords.

This morning Ray Ortlund, a pastor whom I’ve never met but have enormous respect for and learn a lot from, tweeted something to the effect that the only thing that changed for Christians overnight was the political identity and power block to which we will speak with a Gospel voice.  That will always be the case, because Jesus, with His Word of truth, is always out of sync with the world, regardess of who is in power.  And our responsibility is to fan His glory and goodness into our world.

When the power is more liberal-minded, Jesus stands as a prophet telling people to take sin seriously and to repent into His costly grace with the assurance that they’ll be welcomed and changed into His likeness by His great mercy.  When the power is more conservative, He bends down as a servant of mankind, challenging the powers that be with the truth that He has come to be a servant to the poor, downcast, and downtrodden, and that He stops at nothing to love His reality into people, instead of beating it into their heads by force.

I’m not worried.  I’m optimistic.  I believe that Jesus is alive today and He comes with good news to those who look around and feel that there is none.  And I believe that many, regardless of their voting status yesterday, feel dirty enough after this election cycle to perhaps listen to One who promises to, as Tolkien reminds us, make everything bad come untrue.  But you’ll only hear Him if you’ll listen to a Word that is and will remain foolish.  Somehow it’s foolishness, especially in our times, makes it all the more attractive.