Christ is all and if somehow you find yourself hearing it is Christ plus then Christ is less than all.
In an interview with a long-time friend, U2’s Bono, responded to the sometimes-stained reputation of the church throughout history:
“Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship”. (Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)
Our enemy is performance. Performance will never lead to true discipleship. The church has rules. Christians have rules. Things we have learnt over the years that if we do them prove we are good.
We step into performance the moment we behave as if Christianity brings man to God. Even that sentence may cause some of us to have to read it again as it appears correct! But central to Christianity is the truth that it is the story of God coming to man, every other religion has it the other way round. Sadly the church sometimes follows suit. For we all like a good performance.
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5 v 2-4)
The teaching that there needs to be circumcision or whatever else in order to be truly saved is actually a teaching that is saying His coming, His death, He himself, Christ, is of no value at all. To fall from grace is not that we become unsaved after being saved because it works the same way in that our actions/works not only cannot gain but they cannot lose salvation. To fall means the person never experienced grace in the first place.
Grace is only experienced when we let go of trying to accomplish our salvation. If Christianity is based on us and how we live then no one will be saved.
Grace exposes the dark side of our lives, it is for Judas and Peter to say “yes I did that” but one of them could not accept that they had done such a thing and made things worse; the other accepted it and found their identity in grace. To live by grace means you are not denying or trying to forget the dark side of your life, but by allowing grace to expose it you find who you really are.
Grace opposes self-pity. Not that we end up depressed and whipping ourselves in a frenzy of guilt and shame over our sinful lives. Self-pity will never motivate you. Self-pity will not move you to grace any more than the victories, visions, successes and miracles will. Self-pity will keep you locked in failure, away from your home. Grace calls you to keep coming back to Jesus, let Jesus bind up the wounds, don’t let your self do it.
Grace is honesty. An honesty that says we keep breaking the rules. An honesty that says “I am cautious to say God told me … Because I could be wrong.” An honesty that displays character and silences the tongue. An honesty that says I may never be the person I want or should be but God loves me now as I am.
Missions Paul 