The gospel and the church
Following up on yesterday's link about preaching the gospel to Christians, here are a few choice words from Glen Scrivener
Well?Here’s my ill-considered overstatement of the issue: Our problem is not that we aren’t telling the gospel to our pagan friends. It’s that we don’t tell the gospel to our Christian friends!
When’s the last time you looked another Christian in the eye and said ‘Mate you’re a sinner. I know you have struggles, I know you’re tired but, deep down you’re wicked! That’s your real problem. But Mate - you’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ, carried on His heart before the Father, rejoiced over in the presence of the angels.’
posted by Milton Stanley at 10:50 AM
2 Comments:
Question: am I...deep down..."wicked"? Am I just "clothed" in the righteousness of Christ or am I UNITED with him and changed so profoundly that my heart is in fact, "good" and my inner man is totally redeemed? There is a difference between struggling with the "flesh" and being "deep down wicked". Just a thought.
Very good question. Part of the difficulty in answering these kinds of questions, I think, comes from trying to carry biblical metaphors in directions Paul and other biblical writers didn't intend. When Paul is talking about clothing ourselves in Christ, his emphasis seems to be on our doing our part in living the life of discipleship.
You're on target, I believe, in the distinction that deep down Christians are made new in Christ and that our struggle with sin is in the flesh. The clothing metaphor doesn't mix very well with that concept, but it does well illustrate the idea of taking steps to live out our salvation.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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