Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Evangelicals have made the Gospel too easy: Taking up the Cross is a Gospel Demand

From Alan Kurschner @ http://www.calvinistgadfly.com

The Gospel is not a free offer to anyone. It costs. It costs your life.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.’” (Mark 8:34-35)

Those who preach a gospel absent of this demand, preaches no gospel.

Question: Who did Jesus say the following words to? “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Answer: “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said” (Luke 14:25)

This is the “pre-evangelism” of Jesus, if someone wants to use that term. Can you imagine the seeker and emergent leaders using this as pre-evangelism? Rather, what we see is contemporary leaders speak in front of “large crowds,” appealing to creaturely-centeredness. This language of Jesus of cost and self-denial is conveniently left out.

Jesus functioned on the truth that we heard this past week, “What you win them with is what you win them to.” I.e. If you win them with the demands of self-denial of the gospel, you will win them to commitment and authenticity. If you win them with a phantom gospel with nothing more than self-improvement and a God who is subjected to their terms, you win them to self-deception and unregenerateness.

Will God’s sheep be offended by the Shepherd’s own words of self-denial? No. They will willingly submit to them.

Our Western/American Evangelical myopia of a creature-centered gospel embarrasses me. Embarrass does not describe it all; I am afraid. Just Stop and Think. One sweep of persecution in America would immediately wash away the Evangelical pablum-speak. I don’t wish that persecution but it should cause us to take a step back and view our western accretions of the gospel vis-à-vis the non-western understanding of the gospel.

The following words of Paul must be on the lips of these two precious disciples of Christ below, who have taken up the cross.

“Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” (Phil 1:12-14)

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