Thursday, March 10, 2011

For love or for Lord?

Recently reading through Revelation and now through 2 Corinthians I am challenged in my view of missions and evangelism. So much current thought is on building relationship in hope that one day we may see that person come to the Lord. I am a big proponent of building relationship and even a bit of patience in the presentation of the gospel. I am challenged though to be certain the gospel is at the forefront of those relationships.

In the book of Revelation when I read without thought of eschatological meaning I see heaven greatly concerned with man. I see plagues poured out on man that man would repent and worship Christ as LORD. This makes me pause. So much of our efforts are concentrated on wooing the targets of our friendship evangelism into “accepting” Jesus. A loving benevolent God who wants to make you feel better for your sin.  How does this add up, I fully believe in a loving Lord who absolves our sin. However I read in 2 Corinthians of a Lord who brings sorrow and regret for our sin that we might be made glad through repentance.

It was clear reading Revelation wars, plagues, drought, death is meant to bring repentance. Whether or not the bowls, seals, trumpets and like are poured out now or in the future they have in intended purpose of bringing man to his knees. Unfortunately in the end it appears it fails with most. Ultimately it takes judgment and hell to bring man to his knees. Perhaps Christian universalism is gaining ground because we have embraced acceptance over repentance, friendship over lordship?

Galatians shows us this isn’t lacking love but in fact is love. Discipline is love. God allowing man to taste a portion of the judgment they deserve in order to bring them to Him versus pouring out the fullness of His wrath, how could this be anything but pure love? What else could hold back the anger of a holy God?

How do I put this into practice. First, it is only God who can pour wrath to bring repentance. This means it is not by any means my job to berate people with their sin and drive them to repentance. My job is to point out the death their sin brings and offer them hope. To recognize conviction is beautiful, it offers the opportunity for redemption.

Second, I can not build relationship in hopes of avoiding confrontation. The Gospel is inherently confrontational. It pits man against God with man being the problem. Therefore your new friend is part of the problem, where hopefully you are now a part of the solution. 2 Corinthians tells us we can not be yoked to unbelievers because we have nothing in common. I am not to go down the street and watch soccer to make new soccer watching buddies. I am to go down and build relationship in hopes that they repent and become disciples. Without relationship who will follow up with them?

Third I must share the same love God has for ALL men before I have attempt to point out their need for repentance. God is love. It is His love that gives all men the opportunity to repent. It is his love that sent Christ to the cross, His love that he went to the cross. If we don’t share that love for the one whom we preach repentance we are just arrogant. In fact, we are only different because the blood covers all our sin. God, without the blood, would see only the ugliness of my heart. My covetousness, my lustfulness, my self centered actions, my anger and so on and so on. I must be fully aware of how far short I fall, realize God’s great love for me and let that turn my heart to love for those around me. I can't attempt to love the whole world, I am not God, but I can love my family, my church, my neighbors.

We need Christ as Lord, He loves us and gives us opportunity for that. In the end we are rewarded with His friendship, love, and even adoption into His family. This is the reward for repentance, for indentured servitude, this is the result of making Him Lord. If we don’t make Him Lord of our lives, and preach His Lordship we miss the thing that cleans us, revives us, gives us eternal life now.

As a new missionary I needed reminded of this. My job is to be a full time ambassador of Christ, His love, His kindness, His compassion on the poor. The only hope for their lives however is His Lordship.

I still fully believe the church need to become more loving, more active, more compassionate, more accepting but it needs to do it without diminishing the lordship of Christ. Also I recognize we are living in culture where the law has been applied the way my kids put butter on bread, messily and too much. The challenge is to preach HIs lordship without piling the burden deeper. Repentance is easy.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so encouraged and bolstered to be witnessing even more by this post. Thanks for sharing such challenging yet true insights!
    Oh! I love the butter illustration by the way!
    Go team Lyons!

    Hugs from Sudan,
    Stephanie

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