The Riddle of our Experience

It is commonly the loose and latitudinarian (adjective

allowing latitude, esp. in religion; showing no preference among varying creeds and forms of worship.)  Christians who pay quite indefensible compliments to Christianity.  They talk as if there had never been any piety until Christianity came, a point on which any medieval would have been eager to correct them.  The represent that the remarkable thing about Christianity was that it was the first to preach simplicity or self-restraint, or inwardness and sincerity.  They will think me very narrow (whatever that means) if I say that the remarkable thing about Christianity was that it was the first to preach Christianity.  Its peculiarity was that it was peculiar, and simplicity and sincerity are not peculiar, but obvious ideals for all mankind.  Christianity was the answer to a riddle, not the last truism uttered after a long walk.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith, 75.

I grew up in a mainline Protestant denomination.  I finished my education in a very secular institution where I studied various expressions of faith.  In both of these places, Christianity is reduced to morality.  In fact, I think in both places Christianity is reduced to left-leaning political morality.

Chesterton is completely correct that such a reduction of Christianity is not promoting its "highest" virtues.  In fact, to do so makes Christianity no longer Christianity.  Such reduction makes it common.  It obliterates the prophetic notion of Christianity.

I say all of this because "the gospel" is not an expression of our need to go love our neighbor.  Nor is it an expression of our need to promote "justice".  In fact, without the core of Christianity, Protestant liberalism in all its forms lacks any real power to transform us so we can love our neighbor.  Such expressions of religion,

"have the appearance of godliness, but deny it power." 2 Tim. 3:5

As Paul states, we should avoid such people!  Yet, so many are attracted to this reduction of the gospel.  It appeals to the side of our fallen nature that seeks to justify itself apart from Christ through religious self-effort.  It feels right and it sounds reasonable.  Yet, in the end it leads to death.

Christianity is the answer to the riddle.  What riddle?  We know we were created for goodness, love, acceptance, joy and love.  We know we were created for perfection.  The problem is that somehow everything got messed up!  We have our own issues, but human society has our issues multiplied by 1000.  

What can be done about this problem?

Religious self-effort says, work it out.  Love each other.  Pass laws to make us love each other.  Pass laws that ban evil.  We can do it!

History and our own experience tells us that these answers do not work.  Yet, we keep trying.  We do everything we can to work this angle.  We try new strategies.  We enact new means of control.  We learn new methods of self and societal control.  Still, the problem remains.

Here is where "the gospel" or good news comes in!  Into this problem, God sent an answer.  Thankfully it is not an answer that depends upon us.  In fact, the more "us" we add to God's answer, the further we get away from the power that can really change lives and our culture!

The answer is the complete, total, and finished work of Christ.  Jesus has done it all.  He has secured the only means for restoration with God!  All we need to do is repent of our self-effort and believe in the finished work of Christ as our means of restoration.  The miracle is that even our faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Even as I wrote the last paragraph, I am convinced that many will say, "Those notions are outdated!  We need a more relevant message."

Really?  There is no other message that answers the riddle of our experience.  There is no other answer but Christ.