Relationship with God talk is pious drivel. [Joel] Osteen reflects the broader assumption among evangelicals that we are saved by making a decision to have a personal relationship with God. The gospel seems to be that you can have a personal relationship with Jesus. Yet given the lack of any serious account of the human predicament before a holy God, it is unclear what this personal relationship might accomplish. Christ nowhere appears in Osteen’s books (thus far at least) as a mediator between God and human beings. One searches in vain to find a substitute for sinners who fulfilled the law in their place and bore their guilt so that his righteousness could be imputed to them. It is not obvious how or why an average American today would even care to have a personal relationship with a Jewish rabbi who lived in the Middle East two thousand years ago. Living in the Bible Belt, I suppose, where “Jesus” is a rallying point for football games and the grand opening of shopping malls, the significance of Jesus can be taken for granted . The result, however , is a vague, sentimental attachment to someone who is more like an invisible friend than the incarnate, dead, raised, ascended, and reigning Savior of the ungodly. In this context, Jesus becomes whatever you want him to be in your life. If one’s greatest problem is loneliness, the good news is that Jesus is a reliable friend. If the big problem is anxiety, Jesus will calm us down. Jesus is the glue that holds our marriages and families together, gives us a purpose to strive toward, and provides wisdom for daily life. There are half-truths in all of these pleas, but they never really bring hearers face-to-face with their real problem: that they stand naked and ashamed before a holy God and can only be acceptably clothed in his presence by being clothed, head to toe, in Christ’s righteousness. This gospel of submission, commitment, decision, and victorious living is not good news about what God has achieved but a demand to save ourselves with God’s help. Besides the fact that Scripture never refers to the gospel as having a personal relationship with Jesus nor defines faith as a decision to ask Jesus to come into our heart, this concept of salvation fails to realize that everyone has a personal relationship with God already: either as a condemned criminal standing before a righteous judge or as a justified coheir with Christ and adopted child of the Father. Horton, Michael (2008-11-01). Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 73-74). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 03:02:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015