July/ 99
If we were to make a general prognosis of the church in North America, we would have to say that the cancer of society has overtaken it- to the point that it is terminal. How can we correct and reverse the downward spiral? Once while visiting my in-laws, I admired the quality of fruit in the bowl on a table; however my wife informed me that it was wax. It looked like a fruit; it smelled like a fruit. Since however, it was not alive, it could not sustain life- it just coats the tongue. This reminded me of Christian fruit, today some fake fruit looks better then the real thing.
People will be lovers of themselves, … lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2Ti.3:2-5)
We can get people to come to church and feel the warmth and love; we can teach them to pray, to tithe, to stop some of their bad habits; and to talk like a Christian- but they won't be a Christian. At one time, the World Council of Churches sought to change the world by injecting Christian principles into countries, to the point where they would be considered Christian. In the seventies Canada and the United States were considered Christian because they kept a predetermined number of principles or laws of a Christian nature. Laws do not make a nation or one person a Christian:
You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Ga.5:4-5)
Christians need to be taught that living by Christian principles might make them a better person, but not a Christian. The theme of Galatians is that one does not become a Christian by what one does, but by identification of who we are in Christ. Today the church is seeking to alter one's behavior when really one's behavior is altered by who we have sought and found:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Ga 5:16; Ro.8:9)
It is the Spirit that displaces the sinful nature. Christianity is not merely a matter of making different choices, Christ asks us to make a choice that will make a difference. For a Christian is not someone who does this or does not do that; Christ asks us to die to self:
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? (Lk.9:23-25; Jn.12:24-25; Lk.14:26,27,33)
We are not called to live a crucified life of trying to give up this or that, rather we are crucified and Christ now lives in us. We do not overcome sin through our determination and trying, but by believing that he lives in us and relying on him and his strength:
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1Jn.5:18; 1Jn.3:9; 1Co.10:13; Ro.14:4; 1Th.5:23-24; Ti.2:11-14)
Our Christian fruit must be produced because we are connected to the root (Jn.15:4-5); for any fruit produced by ourselves- all our righteousness- is as filthy rages. For our righteousness (1Pe.2:24) is because of him living in us:
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority. (Co.2:9-10)
Therefore the only way that the downward spiral of the church is to stop, is for every Christian to come to the understanding that Christ- the fulness of God- lives in them as Lord.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.(Ga.2:20)