Reflections on a Checkered Christian Past

“When churches lose their influence, when the Christian message ceases to arrest the indifferent and the unbelieving, when moral decline is obvious in places which once owned biblical standards – when such symptoms as these are evident, then the first need is not to regroup such professing Christianity as remains.  It is rather to ask whether the spiritual decline is not due to a fundamental failure to understand and practice what Christianity really is.”

                                   Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided, p. 151

Murray suggests above that if a culture once dominated by Christianity’s influence and morals ceases to adhere to those standards, perhaps Christianity never truly had the influence it thought it did, but was only being practiced in a lesser form.  Put another way, perhaps the Christianity once so influential was a lesser Christianity than the Biblical one. 

This of course begs the question, Is Christianity prone to misunderstanding?  The answer is yes, for a couple of basic reasons.  First, Jesus said Himself that many will think they understand what following Him means, only to find out in the end that they were utterly mistaken (Matt. 7:22-23, Luke 13:26-27).  Second, everyone knows what it’s like to not only be misunderstood but to in fact misunderstand another person, group, or whatever; we are prone to misunderstand and be misunderstood.  Finally, the very message of Christianity teaches that because man is fallen, his mind is now functioning at a lower grade than when it was originally created.  “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:21).  “The world did not know God through wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:23).  “Have those who work evil no knowledge?” (Ps. 53:4).  “They are darkened in their understanding” (Eph. 4:18).

So what is the real message of Christianity, and was it ever truly internalized in the American and Western consciousness?  To answer the second question, I believe there have been few times where true Christianity was widely embraced, and several shorter instances where, due to revivals, true Christianity was embraced.  And at all times, there is a remnant of people (the “little flock” of Luke 12:34) who are real Christians, including today.

To answer the first question – What is the real message of Christianity? – let me turn to Jesus’ summary of the Gospel message and call in Matthew 16: “The Son of man must suffer and be killed, and on the third day rise; and if anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross too” (16:21, 24, paraphrased).  It is tempting today - and indeed fashionable - to keep the last part while throwing out the first part; that is, to rightly emphasize our need to take up our own cross daily, and live the dying life, while wrongly neglecting to pay respect to Jesus’ taking up of His cross unto death, and what it means for us.  The responsibility of every professing Christian is to examine themselves to find if they are crucified with Christ, and alive to God in Him.

To follow Jesus is to live in light of His costly death in the our place that we may have an alien righteousness before a holy God, and to, in response, die daily and follow Him, entrusting our whole life and eternity into the risen Lord’s hands.  It is that you live in moment-by-moment obedience, pressing inward to Christ’s chest, and pressing forward to take hold of Him, Who has taken hold of you, counting all things as loss, for the sake of simply gaining Christ (Phil. 3:8).  Though the believer doesn’t see Christ, they love Him, and are full of praise, thanksgiving, and joy in Him (1 Pet. 1:7-8).  You see that this means that the risen Christ must be the proverbial light of one’s life which, like the sun, lights the way and, as Lewis famously said, is the light by which one sees all things.  Can you say that Jesus lights your life like this?  Do you have a sense of His immediate presence, and live by feasting on every word that comes from his mouth?  Is it your testimony that the only hope you have for this world and the next that a sinless Savior died to reverse the curse and make all things new?

While there have been small scale and larger scale revivals of this religion, the quest for Christianity throughout history sadly appears to have been one of power.  Instead of the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel as given in the Bible, it has been about power for Christians, whether it was in ancient Rome, 17^th century Britain, or 20^th century America.  But don’t “amen” that statement too quickly, without some self-reflection.  Many millennial Christians today are making that same argument without realizing that they’re doing the exact same thing.  They say they’re tired of their whole generation being turned off to the church for the wrong reasons, and it’s Christians’ quest for power which is to blame, so Christians need to stop wanting power and start repenting (which is true).  But one needs to make sure their motivation in making this accusation isn’t so that their friends will more easily accept a compromised form of Christianity, so that we as Christians can then regain our footing in a society moving ahead “without us.”  I just think many making the accusation are actually guilty themselves, in accusing of doing the same thing.  And it is the opposite of cross-bearing.  If it was bearing the cross as Jesus says, there would be prayerful consideration that Christians are sinners too, and the reason the world rejects Jesus, before it’s because of anything a Christian does, is that the world is at enmity with God and can’t submit to his will because of man's enslavement to man's own independence.  Also remember that Jesus said it would be Christians’ love for one another – not love for the world – that would evangelize the world.  Why are so many Christians in my generation backwards on this?  I grieve it, and pray for a change of heart, which only God can bring. 

Jesus was very clear that following Him would not be popular in the world.  And it isn’t only because it threatens power structures in the world, but because it confronts the idols of society and individuals.  What I mean is this: whether one is in the 99% or the 1%, they all need Jesus, and the essence of the message of the Gospel will be immediately offensive to them if they hear it clearly.  The message that you’re highly valued by God, which is why it’s so tragic that you’re as fallen and enslaved to sin as you are, and Jesus came to save you, but you only get it if you come with your bloody hands, is utterly offensive to the multitudes because everyone feels like a victim but no one wants to hear they’re actually a rebel.  It's an offensive message.  But to those who are called, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24).   May we have the real message, from a real fellowship with Christ, which will result in real change.  But we only get it if the living Christ is our treasure, and nothing else compares. 

In short, Christians living for something other than Christ as the treasure need to examine themselves to find if they are alive in Him, or are still merely alive in the world.  And those "leading the charge" today for revival need to make sure they're not guilty of the same things they're fighting against.  That's real Christianity, not because it makes a person perfect.  But because it takes their gaze off of their own and others infirmities, and fixes their gaze on the One who has none, and lives today to love His glory and rightness into a new creation.

“You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.”