Andy again takes a look at Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love. Chan, like many Christians, desires to see Christians living godly lives that demonstrate a radical transformation, lives that should be drastically distinct from those of everyone else’s who is not Christian by demonstration of crazy generosity, crazy humanitarian aid, crazy devotion to the Lord and to all people, crazy abstinence from all forms of sinful desires, short Christians should love crazily, just as God has crazily loved us. But how often and consistently do Christians truly and sincerely exhibit such crazy love?
If such love is the standard of being a Christian, then many of us are not saved, by Chan’s presentation of this crazy love mark of a Christian. Where would David or Solomon fit with this standard? Where would the chief of all sinners, Paul, who did not do the good he desired to do, but instead did the evil he hated, stand before an almighty God? Would they be called friend? Will they receive the praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Will any of us?
Judging our salvation by our adherence to the Law of God is devastating to one’s faith in Christ. It takes our trust off of Jesus Christ crucified. Instead of boasting in Christ, we are turned inwards towards our own deeds. We must point to our works to demonstrate our crazy justifying love. However, Scripture demonstrates that it’s from God’s love for humanity that he sent Christ who demonstrates that love for us by dying for all of our sins. The penalty for all of our sins is paid in full. That’s where our assurance of salvation comes, from an alien righteousness, a righteousness from outside ourselves that is imputed on us. It is not an infused righteousness.
Show Links:
What is Law and Gospel?
Discerning Law and Gospel when Interpreting a Text
Reconnect Episode 27: Law and Gospel
Reconnect Episode 23: Law and Gospel on Facebook
Reconnect Episode 19: How do I Know I am a Christian?
You Shall Recognize Them by Their Fruits – Judging Other Christians
Andy listens to Chapter 4 of Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love.
Chan teaches that a crazy love from God demands a crazy response from us. But... too many people who claim to be Christian are responding in lukewarm ways.
In Chapter 4 of Crazy Love, Chan details the profile of a lukewarm person. The lukewarm person is not the good soil of Jesus' "Parable of the Sower and Soils." The lukewarm person is not a lukewarm Christian, since lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron.
The kicker though is that we all have elements of lukewarmness in our lives, and even Chan admits this, so wouldn't that mean none of us our saved? How would we know if we have too much lukewarmness in our lives to be counted among God's people?
The biggest problem is that Chan is pointing us towards ourselves for assurance of our justification and not to Christ and his saving work. He is saying that a fulfillment of the Law on our part is how we can know if we are really saved or not.
Crazy Love is an immensely popular book and Andy knows someone who doubted his salvation after reading Crazy Love. Whenever we are pointed to look at ourselves and not to Christ, we will inevitably doubt our salvation if we are are not deceiving ourselves concerning our sinfulness.
Adam Ford is the man behind the prolific and often viral producing online comic-strip Adam4D. He’s a Christian, a husband, and father of three young boys. Back in 2014, he quit his job to create comic strips full-time.
Since launching the Contradict – They Can’t All Be True Facebook page to help promote my book by that title, I have regularly found myself sharing Ford’s work. Those posts generally draw many likes and shares. His strips are often times found on many other Christian social media pages, typically groups or individuals who accept that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God. Groups and individuals who are not labeled as liberal Christians or heretics!
When he’s not using presuppositional apologetics to tear down false-worldviews, or picking apart the lies of Darwinian Evolution, Ford is typically highlighting the pitfalls of legalism and self-justification within Christian circles, or the way verses are often times ripped out of their context and twisted to mean something that was never implied within the text.
The Gospel typically had predominance in his doctrinal and homiletical comic strips, so he gains many fans who recognize that we truly are saved solely by the work of God that faith really is a gift and work of the Holy Spirit.
But sometimes, even when we are pointing to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith, the only one who works in our conversion and salvation, we can still twist Scripture. And when Jesus and his saving work is front and center, it’s easier for us conservative mongergists to clap, clap, clap and share, share, share, when we shouldn’t.
I think Adam Ford took a misstep when he was taking a swing at the prosperity Gospel preachers in his strip entitled, “Good News: We Are Not David.” I saw many people share this strip, people I personally know, but I couldn’t hit the like button this time, and I couldn’t hit the share button without posting a critique.
For this episode, I gathered Conni Schramm, back from episodes 7 and 64, Jon Rutherford, back from some recent episodes, and Jonathan Platt, who was sitting on the wall like a fly, but kept hopping on a mic to interject questions.
http://adam4d.com/david/
Andy, Conni, and Jonathan discuss the importance of church choirs from their Biblical support and historical role in the Church. Jonathan Aigner's blog post, "9 Reasons to Keep the Church Choir Alive" serves as a guide for the discussion topic too. As always on Reconnect, the church choir theme is tied to sharing the Gospel.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ponderanew/2014/09/23/9-reasons-to-keep-the-church-choir-alive/