chaoticSoul

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading "Death By Love" by Mark Driscoll (http://theresurgence.com/md_blog). In this book Mark has brought together several stories of times when he has met with and counseled various people with different backgrounds. I've decided to do a review of what I have read and encountered in this powerful and provocative book. I know that provocative is a strange word to use when describing a book written by a Christian pastor but that is just what this book is and is meant for. We'll get into that here in a minute. What happens is there are people that Mark has encountered and talked to and these are his letters to them describing their wickedness and boldly calling them out in their sin and then presenting the cross of Jesus as the way for forgiveness and repentance. I've grown up inside the baptist church and in the baptist way of thinking about Scripture and Jesus and all things "religion". Thankfully in my experiences with church work and ministering I have seen God do amazing and wonderful things. Through the saving power of our Savior I been ransomed from religion and now serve the true King who is Jesus Christ. One of the men that Pastor Mark speaks to is a man who goes to church when the doors are open, is married and has two children, serves in his church. Here is what Mark writes about David,

"David is, by the standard of most people, a "good" Christian guy. He shows up on time to his job every day and does what his employer asks of him. He comes home every night to eat dinner with his wife and children. He pays his bills on time every month. He cuts his grass every week and maintains his home like a good neighbor should. He eats healthy food, avoids tobacco and alcohol, and exercises daily. He goes to church every Sunday without fail and even serves in his church faithfully. He gives 10 percent of his income to God. He votes Republican, pays his taxes, and thinks abortion and gay marriage are both sinful acts. By his own admission, he grew up in a Christian home, made a personal decision to be a Christian while in elementary school, and has been a moral, God-fearing, self-disciplined person his entire life.
... Yet his wife and children live miserable lives under his leadership. He is a controlling, insecure man who governs his family at a distance with rules instead of relationships. Subsequently he is a distant and passionless Christian, husband, and father. To make matters worse, he is also incredibly self-righteous because he does not truly see himself as a sinner; rather, he sees himself as a mature Christian who avoids certain sins. He conveniently overlooks the fact that he does few things that flow out of love for God. He rarely reads his Bible, prays, serves anyone, or repents of any personal sin... His religious life has no need for God, but only need for God's rules.
One thing is for sure - he has no functional understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, subsequently, no idea how someone can be seen as righteous before a holy and righteous God."

Mark continues from there to write David a letter hopefully getting across not only that God calls sinners to repent of their unrighteousness, but religious people like him to repent of their righteousness.
We tend to lose sight of the true Gospel and replace it with a gospel of righteousness and feel-good tactics aimed at getting more people through our doors. But did Christ die for our preferences or our righteous piety? I dare to say LOUDLY.. NO! We have established a law of righteousness that is the exact opposite of the true Gospel. The righteousness of the law is basically idolatry. We idolize our "Sunday Best", our programs and schedules, our time spent in the church (because please forbid it that we spend more than an hour singing and listening to the Word of God), our seat that we have sat in for the past 6 years and now someone else is sitting there, our songs that we sing that make us feel good about worshiping, our feel-good sermons because we don't want to feel bad about ourselves. Maybe you noticed the trend in that last rant... "our"

Paul writes this in Philippians 3,
"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

When will God be tired of hearing our heartless songs and our mediocre worship for the hour we gather together every week? When will He judge each of us for what is in our hearts and not by what we just say? When will we finally understand that church and Christianity is not about us?! It is about our loving and just Father who sent His only son as a substitute for all our wickedness and evil so that we might spend eternity with him. He bore his body to tremendous pain and suffered a horrifying death upon a cross. The pain was soo much that a word had to be created just to describe it.. excruciating. And then days later in all of His glory Christ defeated death and sin forever as He came back to life. It is this that defeats righteousness gained by the law and it is belief in the death and Resurrection that rescues us from our preferences and religion. You must see that religion leaves no room for relationships. Religion is what spurs idolatry because once religion takes you over then you desire to be bound by the rules and regulations and are consumed with obeying them because that is what you think will save you from eternal damnation in Hell. But it is religion that says that God will not love you until you obey His rules enough to earn His love. Driscoll says that is like him telling his five children that if they obey his rules for the next year then he'll be their daddy. Religion says that it is about what you do and not about what Jesus has done. Religion is about what you are getting from God and not about getting God Himself. Religion is about punishment through hardships and not about purifying discipline.
It's now time that you let go of your religion and grasp ahold of the only way to enter the Kingdom of God - faith in the one true King Jesus Christ who through His death demonstrated true love.