The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

WWJD or WHJD?

What would Jesus do or what has Jesus done? You really can’t understand what Jesus would do unless you read His Word, and His Word is all about what He has done.

Unfortunately few people seem interested in hearing about what was accomplished on the cross and why. God may be used, but He is not worshipped. Church is about making moral people better. Relevance trumps orthodoxy. The precious combination of worshipping God in spirit and in truth has tilted to the spirit side so heavily that truth has become almost irrelevant. The Christian life supersedes becoming a Christian. Programs have replaced Gospel evangelism (i.e. not "walking an aisle" but recognizing the sin in your life and throwing yourself on the mercy of God through the sacrifice of His Son). Assuming that the audience, that he person you are speaking or preaching to is already a Christian, is a dangerous thing but that is what happens too often by those who seek fellowship and political gain over the saving of souls.

What Jesus would do in a given situation is an important question, but it pales in comparison to proclaiming what Jesus has done. His work, finished, complete and perfect on the cross and demonstrated in the empty tomb is the pinnacle, the focus of Christianity. Christ did not come to make good people better, He came to redeem His people, to gather His sheep, and His people are a motley group of depraved sinners, dead in their trespasses and naturally enemies of God. His work is a work of reconciliation, not morality. The Gospel is not an instruction manual to address specific situations, although it does do that. The Gospel is a stark contrast between the holiness of God and the sin of man, that through one man, all men fell and that by one Man, Christ Jesus, those who believe may be reconciled and saved.

The boys on The White Horse Inn have started a new theme for 2008, the theme of a Christ-less Christianity. It is a theme with an almost endless supply of examples, examples of churches that reject the Gospel, dumb down the Word or more likely kill their witness through indifference. The bold yet humble proclamation of the Gospel has become an object of disdain, it is bad form and rude to tell people that they are sinners. Far easier to rail against abortion, gay marriage, Harry Potter or any other of a myriad of superficial issues. But to look a man or woman in the eye, and tell them that they are a sinner bound inexorably for hell unless they place their faith in Christ is uncomfortable for all involved, especially when you recognize that as a Christian you are not inherently worthy of heaven but are saved from eternal hell by, and only by, the sovereign election and grace of Jesus Christ. Telling sweet Mabel, the 90 year old church stalwart and prayer warrior, that she is saved from hell in spite of her own righteousness rather than because of her righteousness is a hard thing to do. But it is necessary to be honest about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is most disturbing is that not many churches openly and intentionally set Christ aside. I would daresay that most churches think they are being faithful followers of Christ, but somehow have managed to not proclaim the Word. They call themselves conservative, Bible believing, evangelical, all the buzz words. But being ultra-conservative does not mean one is proclaiming the Gospel.

If you are not a Christian, the end of time or the end of your life, one or the other, will come some day and you will stand before a holy God and all of your sins exposed. There will be no cross-examination, no legal trickery, no procedural claims. Your life will stand as a testimony, and your condemnation will be sure and will be just. Eternity will await, and that eternity will be spent in hell.

If you are a Christian, never forget. NEVER forget that Jesus Christ died on a cross for you. His hands and feet were nailed to a cross, His side was pierced by a spear, He was raised up on that hill and mocked by sinners for not saving Himself.