Against The Current

Economics is the study of how human beings utilize a scarcity of resources. In this world, if my piece of the pie gets bigger, yours naturally gets smaller. That’s why human beings since our inception have been clamoring over stuff.

In God’s economy, the opposite is true. Because God’s Kingdom resources are unlimited, when my piece gets bigger, it doesn’t in any way take away from yours. In fact, it can actually pave the way for yours to get bigger – like drafting in auto racing. I can capitalize on your forward momentum and access more of GOD because of your progress.

Today, let’s not focus on the limitations we see with our naked eyes, but the unlimited resources of our Father God and the full access we have to him through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Watching the Super Bowl yesterday reminded me of an illustration that the Lord once gave me regarding faith. People today often use the word faith unaided, without any qualifiers whatsoever. Yet faith by itself does not mean anything, apart from the object of that faith. I can have all the faith in the world in something that does not exist, and in the end, it won’t do me any good.

Imagine for a moment that you bought a ticket to the Super Bowl from a scalper outside of the stadium on game day. You take your ticket to the gate and find to your horror that it is a counterfeit. Up to this point, you were convinced that this ticket was the real deal. It looked real, it felt real – it even smelled real. But all along, it was a fake. Although you believed with all of your heart that it would get you into the game, ultimately you were turned away.

There are many people in this world who promote many different paths to God, even inside of the Christian faith. The Bible on the other hand is very explicit that there is only one ticket into Heaven. If we show up at the pearly gates trusting in Jesus Christ as our savior, the doors will open before us. But if we attempt to enter by any other way, no matter how genuine it may seem, the doors will remain closed, and we will be unable to enter God’s paradise. Jesus is and will always be the object of the Christian faith – he alone is the rock of salvation.

In our world today, we have mistaken politeness for love. We think that in order to love someone, we must always say nice things and speak with a soft voice. This is politeness, not love. Picture this. Your best friend in the whole world is on a train. This train is barreling full speed ahead toward a cliff. In one minute’s time, the train will fall off the cliff, killing everyone on board. You are standing by the tracks. As the train approaches, you wave to my friend and call out politely, “Have a nice train ride!”

Love looks a little more like this. You am standing by the tracks. As the train approaches, you begin running alongside the train and yelling at the top of your lungs, “GET OFF THE TRAIN! THERE’S A CLIFF AHEAD, AND YOU’RE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR IT! IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL JUMP NOW!!!” That’s love.

Because we are so afraid of offending people, we make the mistake of engaging in politeness over love. Rather than calling it as it is, we tip-toe around the truth in order to be politically correct. So rather than proclaiming the real message of Christianity, we water it down because we are afraid to offend anyone. Jesus himself said that he is the only way to the Father God, not me. I am simply the messenger.

The truth is that all roads do not lead to the same end. In fact, none of them claim to. If you were to tell a devout Buddhist that the eightfold path will take you to Christian heaven, he would refute your claim. Not only are the roads totally different, the destinations of Nirvana and heaven are polar opposites. This concept that everyone can be right at the same time makes no sense. The majority of world religions are mutually exclusive, just as communism is to capitalism or Hegelianism is to Marxism.

Jesus himself claimed to be the only road to heaven. We must either take him at his word or leave him altogether. We do ourselves and others a great disservice when we water down his message. The Christian faith is built on the belief that the only way to be reconciled to God is through perfect righteousness and that the only way to attain perfect righteous is through Jesus Christ. No other religion in the world can bring us to this same end. And again, nor do any of them claim to.
The gospel of eternal salvation through grace is a distinctly Christian concept. Christians believe that God made the world good; man sinned and opened the door for death; Jesus paid the penalty for man’s sin; and he offers to give us his perfect righteousness. In order to access this gift of grace, we must give up on trying to save ourselves through our own merit and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We must surrender our lives to his plans and purposes, which is a small price to pay for an eternity with the God who is the author of all things.

This is the good news message, that salvation comes by no other name under heaven than Jesus Christ. Either take it or leave it – but do not try to mix and match. Jesus said that he came to bring the sword and not peace. He brings us to a point of decision, and we must choose one way or the other. I urge you to choose life in Christ. Come to the foot of the cross and find your eternal salvation.

In writing an apologetic for the Christian faith, I feel it only appropriate to begin with an apology. I apologize for all of the ways that I don’t live up to my calling in Christ. I apologize for my failings and shortcomings that misrepresent the one person I have set my heart on representing. I am sorry for the times that my actions have turned people away from Christ because they are inconsistent with his life.

I apologize for the Christians who have perpetrated such great acts of corporate violence as the Holocaust, the Salem Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Crusades. These events were very real and unbelievably horrific. They are a severe misrepresentation of the one who taught us to turn the other cheek and to bless our enemies.

I apologize for the giant Cathedrals in New York and Rome. I do not apologize that great resources were expended to create something beautiful for the glory of GOD, because in GOD’s economy, there is always enough. I apologize for the way that they were built. I apologize for the abuse and neglect of the poor during and after their construction.

I apologize for the Christians who have come before me who are guilty of the same offense. I apologize for those involved in the big corporate debacles that to this day hinder people from coming to GOD, not the church, but to GOD because of their misrepresentation of Jesus Christ. I apologize for Catholic grade school. I’ve never been, but a lot of people seem to have hardened hearts as a result. Fear is a motivation that man uses to persuade people to follow GOD, or far less nobly, themselves. This is a selfish perversion of the Gospel. I apologize that so many young children were scarred by this tactic and have been driven away from GOD because they believe him to be cruel and unjust, which is so far from the case.

I apologize for the lifeless Christianity that so many in my generation have grown up with. I apologize that we have sat Sunday after Sunday in church hearing about the wonders that GOD did in ages past without ever seeing so much as a trace of them firsthand…

Lord, may your Kingdom come on this earth as it is in heaven.