From Good News to False Religion

I am convinced that much of the church has, functionally speaking, become a false religion. How's that for a light-hearted hypothesis? Well, it may sound like some kind of knee jerk, "I'm sick of these people" reaction, but I swear it's not. Let me explain.

From what I see in my admittedly limited scope of contacts and resources, genuine understanding of the gospel, and reliance upon it, are rare commodities these days. I don't know at what point in history this turned, but the predominant belief system I see in the church today is one that has resulted in the church becoming eerily similar to most other religions by defining acceptance and/or maturity in terms of deeds done. And yes, the vast majority of the evangelical church would say that this is not their belief.

The climate of the church today is one in which people do not cling to the gospel as their only hope for life. Instead, people cling to rules, self-worth, knowledge, behavior, status, power, etc. to define their position with God. And, to be clear, this does not primarily consist of people who simply fail to constantly remind themselves of the gospel, rather it's people who have a fundamental failure to fully grasp what is meant by "salvation by grace".

One Master - The True Gospel
The gospel is not about the good we must do for God, it's about the good that God has done for us. It's not a doorway through which we pass, then maturing on to our own life of good deeds. We always have, and always will, need Jesus in every moment of every day.

"Gospel" means "Good News."
It's the good news that God has made a way.
The good news that Jesus, God's perfect son, died to make right what we had made wrong and, if you hate your sins and turn to follow Him, that He is now, and forever will be for you....your advocate.
The good news that, in Him, we have complete freedom.
The good news that we get to be adopted into His family.
The good news that our joy in Him begins now and is a foretaste of the world to come.
The good news that when He returns there will be a world without pain, death, or suffering, and that we get to enjoy it with Him.
The good news that He is our reward, and is the only thing that ever fulfills its promise to satisfy.
The good news that we have permanent acceptance based on nothing but Jesus.
The good news that we have nothing to prove and nobody to impress.
The good news is that He has done it all.

God has carried out every detail of His plan and our only task is to love Him for it....and how can we not?

How Did We Get Here?
I think, aside from the "minor" issues of poor preaching, leadership, and writing, we have other problems. The first problem is that we are a very logical people, and our logic is based on our sensibilities. After all, the gospel is foolishness to the world is it not? I Corinthians 1:21-25 says:

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

Deep down we know we are broken, and inadequate, but the gospel seems foolish and weak. And because of that, we seek to get right with God by means that we see as worthy. Our culture promotes the idea that you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and that nothing is beyond your reach if you simply believe and work hard. The problem is that God says that's hogwash. He says we can never be good enough... NEVER.

Human wisdom aside, the other way we got here, and by far the most popular way, is by being idolaters. Idolatry is, for many of us, an old-school word which conjures up images of bowing down before hand-carved statues. But, that's not what idolatry really means. Idolatry is anything which we put in place of God for our hope and happiness. In the case of our salvation, that can be a variety of things but it often comes down to being good enough. Practically, this means that we believe that in order for us to be right with God, for Him to be pleased, we need to be strong, good, successful, mature, humble, kind, etc. The problem with this is that the gospel says the very opposite is true. The gospel is about God's strength in our weakness and foolishness, thus showing Him to be supremely good.

Incidentally, I believe this is why the majority of us are so uncomfortable with rebuke & admonishment. Proverbs 9:8 says that if you “reprove a wise man” “he will love you” and proverbs 15:31 says that those that “listen to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.” These verses indicate that the wise like rebuke!  I know... that sounds wrong. But why? And why is it so foreign to us? I don't know about you but I don't look forward to, or delight in, being rebuked. Well, I think the answer is directly tied to what I just described in those of us who try to be good enough. A rebuke is someone telling you that you aren't good enough. Telling you that you've sinned. So, if your system is all about being good enough, a rebuke threatens to topple the entire belief system, and even your very salvation. Understandably, when this is the case, instead of reproof working to our benefit, we run from it out of fear. Praise God that's not the gospel and that is why the wise embrace rebuke. They know that only by admitting their weakness, and casting themselves at the foot of the cross, will they actually grow in their relationship with Christ.

But a life of moralism doesn't just do harm to our relationship with God. When we attempt to look good enough, or to be good enough, we unwittingly attempt to disprove the gospel. How so? Well, if we are successful in being good enough then the gospel is proven to be a lie. We're not too weak. The gospel is suddenly unnecessary, and God is a liar, and the whole system collapses. I think that's vital to understand. Any attempt to prove yourself good enough is an attempt to prove God a liar. God says we are weak and incapable of saving ourselves and we best believe Him rather than believing in ourselves.

While being "good" is one major aspect, idolatry also rears its head in the church via people who are there for "other" reasons. What I mean is that there are a huge number of people in the church who have never been truly impacted by the gospel, but are there instead for other reasons. Some have traded in their "sins" for "righteousness." Someone who seeks power over others via the sin of sexual abuse can trade that in for seeking power over others by being a very devout, religious person. The Bible, knowledge, spiritual "maturity", leadership, monetary giving can be used to exert your "spiritual authority" over others.

Most forms of idolatry involve serving God in order to get something from Him, or through Him, rather than serving God to get more of Him. God is the treasure and if we state it any other way, then it's no longer Christianity.

I realize these "false gospels" aren't what very many of us would profess to believing, but it is what many of us functionally believe. Think about it. Does any of this sound like you or people you love?

It's dead religion and it leads only to despair and exhaustion. Chasing idols (Respect, prosperity, sex, power, human acceptance, etc.) will always leave you disappointed and exhausted because they cannot bear your weight! All it can do is create workaholics who can never quite do enough to be feel justified, parents whose children never live up to their expectations, and lovers who cannot find satisfaction.

Trusting in ourselves, and in our deeds, to satisfy God will only drive us to see Him as a cruel task master who can never be satisfied.

The gospel flips this all on its head by assuring us that God has accepted us, and that there's nothing we can do to make Him love us more, and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. Good deeds naturally flow out of the experience of this kind of love. When we seek God as the reward, and we have nothing to prove, and no bar to reach, then Christianity is exciting, freeing, and joyful.