Christ is Not a Tidbit

            “Christ has been exiled from the lives of most Christians. Of course, we build him a temple, but we live in our own houses. Religion has been exiled to Sunday morning, to a place into which one gladly withdraws for a couple of hours, but only to get back to one’s place of work immediately afterward. One cannot give him only a small compartment in our spiritual life, but must give him everything or nothing. The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one’s bread. On the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing. People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian.”

            These words (cited from Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy) were spoken on December 11, 1928 in Barcelona, Spain, in the second of a series of three lectures to a group of young men (high schoolers) who were part of a discipleship circle started by a very young – 22 year old – theologian and assistant pastor from Germany named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was serving in a church that ministered primarily to the German expatriate community. He found there a people highly focused on themselves, and not on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were church attenders, but nominal Christians at best. He described them as “damned materialistic and have not received any sort of intellectual lift from their stay abroad…”. What he found were nominal Christians who had been baptized in the state church (Lutheran), but had little knowledge of, or use for, the Gospel, for the Word of God, and for a living and abiding faith in Christ. His ministry prospered as he preached Christ and led young people to know Him as disciples in a living, vital relationship.

            The church that loses or misses the Gospel is in serious trouble. It becomes a mere social club or social service organization. While it is good to serve the needs of people, and we are called to do so in Scripture, there must be something to distinguish the Church from Goodwill Industries or Food Pantries or the United Way. Christians can support the efforts of most such organizations, and participate in making a difference, but it is important that we do not confuse these efforts with the Gospel. Religion is a dead, man-made thing. It is not at the heart of Christianity. Only God Himself – the living God, the Creator and Redeemer – is there.

            Bonhoeffer would go on in his lecture to say, “Christ has given scarcely any ethical prescriptions that were not to be found already with the contemporary Jewish rabbis or in pagan literature. Christianity is not about a new and better set of behavioral rules or about moral accomplishment. Religion and moral performance are the very enemies of Christianity and of Christ because they present the false idea that somehow we can reach God through our moral efforts. This leads to hubris and spiritual pride, the sworn enemies of Christianity. Thus, the Christian message is basically amoral and irreligious, paradoxical as that may sound.”

            A church itself – sadly - can become nothing more than a human attempt to advance toward the divine. But we have no claims to God based upon our religiosity or church commitment. The glorious and awesome God who created this universe and who is sovereign over all things will certainly not be impressed by my efforts. They are nothing and can gain me no standing with Him. But will I be impressed by Him?... by Him who initiates a plan to redeem me and make me His child by sending His own Son – the very thing we celebrate at Christmas? Will I glory in my efforts, or will I glory in the infinite God taking on a human body, taking out Satan, taking onto Himself the sin that is deadly to me and to any kind of fellowship with God? Will I believe that I can add something to what God has done in the Incarnation, or will I believe that Christ has done all that is necessary for my salvation? Will I believe that His righteousness in all its magnificence has been applied to me and has placed me into His family? Will I cease trying to get to God and abide in the knowledge that God has gotten to me in Christ and that my joy is in trusting in His work and resting in all that Christ has accomplished?

            May the Lord keep us from exiling Christ by looking to our own righteousness or religious accomplishment. May we look only to Christ and to the grace that makes seeing and knowing Him possible.

Romans 5:8 (NIV)  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Titus 3:4-7 (NIV) ⁴  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵  he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶  whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷  so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

PRAYER:  Father, may I look to Christ only - nothing more, nothing less, nothing else – for my hope in you: knowing you and being your child. And may all of my life come out of what you have done for me in Christ.  In His name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott