Christ Matters

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:10 KJ

I just got back from lecture given by a local print journalist in my Business Professional Communication. As I was sitting I was having spiritual warfare. The battlefield was my mind. I never experience such a cynical view of the Body of Christ. I felt a serious disillusionment of the Church. The issues that the Church is facing is staggering. How the Church handles many life-and-death issues is crazy. It's not one thing, it's the other. If it's not the Christian Right, it's the Christian Left. If it's not Pentecostalism, it's Cessationism. If it's not so-called "prosperity pimps", it's Liberation theology. If it's not Suburban nostalgia, it's urban plight. If it's not female subordinationism, it's gender feminism. If it's not perception, it's expression. If it's not anti-gay, it's pro-gay.

Not everyone in the churches of America let alone the world is of the Body of Christ, but that's for the Lord to know. Discerning who is of the brethren is difficult. How can I know who is God's and who is not. The debates concerning biblical interpretation, authority, and all the others is still going strong. Being in the multifarious evangelical tradition, I see this debate not subsiding anytime soon. It's been going on since before my birth for many centuries.

While I was sitting in that chair trying to listen to the lecturer, a million of questions seem to running in my mind. What is the Church? Who makes up the Church? Is the evangelical church the Church? is the black church the Church? Am I of the Church? Have we doing a good job representing Christ? Is Christianity about morals, standard, ethics, traditional family values, rights of the oppressed and marginalized, getting our piece of the pie before "going up yonder to meet the Lord"? Is is about all of these things?

When those questions arose I felt such a "spirit" of abandonment. It was that God was abandoning me, but it was as if I was giving up on the Faith called Christianity. Here's the crazy struggle: I couldn't be an atheist or agnostic because I know the Lord (I really met Him). I couldn't give up so-called evangelical Christianity because I believe the Gospel of Christ. I couldn't give up Pentecostal experience because the "graces" of the Holy Spirit are still real today as they were 2000 years ago at Pentecost and in the early Church. I couldn't be a Leftist Christian because it would be an intellectual and spiritual death sentence. I don't want to be a member of the Religious Right because there's too much moralism, hypocrisy, power hunger, and cultural captivity. The thing is the Right and the Left are both culturally captivated either by traditionalism or Enlightenment-tinged progressivism. I always wondered what progressives are progressing towards. As I perused their websites, I fear it's not towards Christ.

As I was wrestling in my mind, I heard the Spirit say "Trust me. Fix your eyes upon Jesus." I felt like giving up on God because of the excesses that have bewitched the Church in America. Sometimes I know why many non-Christians claim to "Love Jesus, but hate the Church". Though I know that the Christ said that truly if the world hates the Church, it's because they hate Him first. I see that sometimes Christians can hid behind the cliche "we're all sinners". But the redeemed of the Lord have no excuse to live unclean lives for the world. There's too much hypocrisy even within me. Too much vagueness. Where is the authenticity that says "But for the grace of God, there go I." The Gospel of Christ has been traded with many perversions: the gospel of prosperity, the gospel of traditional family values, the gospel of "to each his own", the gospel of "God hates gays", the gospel of "God made me this way", the gospel of inclusion, the gospel of "I want a God who accepts me the way that I am." Where is true holiness? Where is true grace? Where is Christ Jesus?

As one writer I read says that many of the churches in America are filled with pious atheists and agnostics.

I finished reading the small but powerful book Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott, an acclaimed British evangelical preacher and author. He writes, "Christianity is Christ". To make Christianity about morals and ethics is to make Christianity about self. Self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, self-righteousness. Self-centeredness. It's about us. But the really is that Christianity is all about Jesus the Christ. It's about who He is and what he has done for us. He saves us from ourselves. We have to give up ourselves in order to truly find ourselves. So who are we supposed to be? What is our purpose in life as human beings? Through, by, and in Christ, we become new creation. God reconciles us back to Himself through Christ (His Sonship, His work on the Cross, His Resurrection) by faith (our response to the Lord Jesus).

As I am finish writing this it's been cathartic experience. I must cast my cares on Christ's shoulders because I know He cares for me. I'm learning that people are not the enemy but the devil and his cohorts. I'm learning to give grace and be merciful towards people I may disagree with either if they're for the Left or the Right.

I'm also beginning to understand that my allegiance is not to political ideologies or parties but to Christ and His Kingdom. That includes the Church. There is not solitary Christian in existence as theologian Ralph C. Wood says. I'm one of many members that make up the Body of Christ. It is my hope that Christians all over the world understands that a Christian is not a person who just believes in the ethical teachings of a poor carpenter from a small town in ancient Palestine called Nazareth. A Christian is a name giving to persons who believes and confesses that "Jesus is Lord." Belief is inward. Confession is outward. Christ is not a private matter. Christ is our whole Life and the Light of the world. The Way has made the way. Let us live in Him and walk after His Spirit.