Jesus' Secret Strategy

For a minute, I want you to imagine that you are Jesus’ chief kingdom strategist, kind of a Karl Rove for Christ. 

In Matthew 4, Jesus has come into the world announcing the presence and availability of the long awaited Kingdom of heaven.  You have sat back and listened as Jesus has told absolutely anyone who would respond to the message--no matter how spiritually bankrupt, how insignificant, how much they doubted their own righteousness--that they were invited to live their lives under the reign and rule of God (Matthew 5:1-13)

Even more, Jesus said, he would use all who follow him in living out the Kingdom of heaven here and now to be salt for the earth, light for the world.  Those who become kingdom disciples of Jesus will be the more essential people on the planet, preserving what is good, saving the world, the ones who reveal the light of God’s presence to all of creation.  (Matthew 5:14-17)

While we are invited to follow Jesus just as we are, he is not going to leave us as we are.  All who respond to the Kingdom message will be transformed into people of genuine righteousness, taking on the very character of Jesus.  (Matthew 5:18ff)

Now, it’s your turn:  If you were strategizing with Jesus to call and send out the most essential people in the world, part of his saving work, revealing God’s presence in the world, what would you have them do first?

If you were going to prepare people to be part of God’s reign and rule, literally training them to reign in their particularly spheres of the world as a representative of God what is the first thing you’d have them do?

Recruit?  Evangelize?  Share their faith?  Maybe come together in love and unity?

But what does Jesus do?  He tells the people who are going to make the greatest PUBLIC difference in the world to focus on secret piety. 

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

Jesus goes on to use three examples of spiritual activities that need to become more private in order to develop our public witness.  First acts of charity, then praying, then spiritual disciplines (specifically, fasting), teaching his disciples to give in secret, pray in secret and fast (or other disciplines) in secret, for God’s approval only.

Jesus point: We will make the biggest impact for the Kingdom on the world by learning to keep our focus on the Father.

Jesus method for world transformation is to begin with heart transformation.  To wean his disciples off of the approval and affirmation of the world so that they are freed to seek only God’s approval. 

Jesus helps us recognize that our desire for praise and recognition from people can in the long run keep us from actually making a difference in our world.  What happens when our doing good ISN’T praised by people?  What if we need to love our enemies, when the people around us want them punished?  What if righteousness demands forgiving someone that the world deems unforgiveable?  What if we need to live out our faith in a cause that is unpopular, unrewarded, even costly to career or resume? 

Jesus has told us that as his Kingdom followers, our responsibility is not to be well-liked or praised, well-regarded or affirmed, but to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world—even if that means that our very acts of goodness and piety are like shining a light in eyes that have been accustomed to the darkness.   

Do you want to become truly salt and light in the world?  Do you want to be part of God’s work to preserve and save the world?  Do you want your life to reveal God’s presence in the world?  Then you and I must refocus our lives away from ourselves and more and more toward God.  And we do that through a committed, cultivated secret spirituality that seeks only God’s praise, God’s reward. 

Comments

[brad]

When I was a Graduate student in Anthropology as some school in the bay area, they used to call this a layered cake. A layered cake approach contends that one aspect of a system is more foundational than another. The big example is Marx, who says economics drives worldview, which drives the whole rest of the super structure. The big point was layer cake thinking is bad and reductionistic. Let me show you a better way...

Instead, I think it is best to say the different aspects of our story, our secret history, our mentoring relationships, and our church community life, are interdependent to a far greater degree than we realize. So it is best to explain these aspects of our life as immediately interdependent as opposed to layered or linear. This approach also avoids the problem of someone saying, "But Tod, I thought you said last week that community was the big ticket item". Just my 2c.

God Bless,

[No King But Jesus]

Tod wrote:

While we are invited to follow Jesus just as we are, he is not going to leave us as we are.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The premise above is not exactly true. I know what you mean, but it is not helpful to state it as you do. For the opening line of Christ's Kingdom announcement is not "Come as you are;" it is "Repent."

The Kingdom is upside down from the view of everyone on the outside. No one on the outside can make sense of it. It's Way is too radical. So no one, absolutely no one, comes to Christ as He is. He must come repenting. If he comes as he is then he has no idea what he is coming for.

To enter the Kingdom one must repent of his worldview, of his worldly ambition, of living for country and family. The values of the Kingdom of Christ are not family values and they have nothing to do with the interests of one's host country.

If one does not repent of his Constantinian values and worldview, he has no idea what the Kingdom of Christ is about. That's why Evangelical Christianity is false and spurious Christianity. It is an attempt to be a Christian on the terms of this world. That cannot be done.

The Kingdom of Christ has peculiar and radical values and ideals. Christ calls his people to adopt and practice those values and ideals. And because those values and ideals are so contrary to normal American life no one can come to Jesus, in sincerity and truth, without repenting of his worldly ambitions, values and ideals.

You can't come into the Kingdom as you are. That would make you an alien in the King's realm. There must be repentance. There must be a forsaking of the life as one has lived it. There must be a taking up of the cross and a commitment to discipleship. Without all of this you get Evangelical Christianity...worthy of the trash dump.

It's nice to tell folk they can come as they are. Very nice. And easy. But it is not true. You can go to Evangelical Christianity just as you are, but you cannot enter the King's realm. Genuine repentance is required before you can get in There.

[WonderBunny]

NKBJ wrote:

That's why Evangelical Christianity is false and spurious Christianity.
==============================
I agree with most of your response. In fact, it reminds me of the sense I get from reading Eugene Peterson's "The Message" translation of the New Testament.

However, I am curious about your definition of "Evangelical Christianity." Before reading your post, I would have defined it as the philosophy held by bible-believing, born-again Christians. But you seem to be reacting to some sense of "Christianity as therapy" viewpoint. I suppose that there have been some pragmatic branches of Evangelical Christianity that have leaned that way, but your statements seem rather harsh and encompassing of the entire evangelical community. I would welcome your explicit definition of "Evangelical Christianity," in order to clarify why you think it is false, spurious and worthy of the trash dump.

Finally, I am not sure you interpreted Tod's comment as he meant it.
===========================
While we are invited to follow Jesus just as we are, he is not going to leave us as we are.
===========================
You seem to take it as "follow just as we are," but that is inconsistent with the second half of the statement. Rather, I interpret it as "invited just as we are, to follow Jesus." In the end, it seems that your and Tod's conclusion is the same...that we cannot follow Jesus and be left as we were at the time we were invited.

[JCE]

I too would be very interested in reading "no King but Jesus" explicit definition of Evangelical Christianity. WonderBunny,
I am in complete agreement with your discernment that both of their conclusions were the same.
I would like to point out for a small contribution of clarity that if we embrace believing that we could not come to Jesus as we are at the time, then we cannot say after our new birth experience, that our salvation was entirely by Grace. Certainly once we have been given faith by hearing and His Spirit grants us the Grace of repentance, we have entered into the process of transformation and will never again be as we were. But I am persuaded He brings about that change, not my decision and effort.

Just for question sake, I'd like to ask Tod, why you suggest that Matthew 6:1 is the FIRST THING Jesus had those He would send forth to do?

I am 100% in agreement with you as to the vital importance and priority of these developed qualities in our life to authenticate our witness. However, it seems to me that these teachings which followed directly from His sermon on the mount, were more of a revelatory nature of what it was going to take by way of their character development for them to follow after Him. He knew, and I'm sure they knew as well, that they did not possess within themselves the ability to live up to these qualities. For that very reason...the fact that they would require supernatural power of transformation as well as gifting...it seems to me that what Jesus really "had them do first", was to stay in Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them the power to be His witnesses.

I would suggest that any pure hearted and well meaning attempt to walk out the "Do it first" as you have described it, without the real first thing He told them to do, while being worthy of much honor and certain to carry at least his blessing, will still, fall far short of being the authentic and powerful ministry desired.

[No King But Jesus]

For WonderBunny and JCE--

The following is a response I made to one of Tod's previous posts in this Kingdom series. Maybe I'll have more time to make some additional comments later.

kevin

I was right with you until you defined righteousness as right-relatedness. In some contexts it may mean that, I suppose, but not in the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus is giving moral directives. He is saying, "Live this way not that way. Do it this way, not like the Pharisees do it." When Jesus says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven, He is not speaking of right-relatedness per se, still less of a righteousness through faith. He is saying the very thing which is anathema to modern evangelicals. Jesus is saying that unless you are better people than the Pharisees, unless you possess a greater actual righteousness (as opposed to forensic righteousness), highter virtue, if you will, unless you possess greater genuine holiness than the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Dare I translate it this way, "Unless your performance is more true to my Kingdom Way than that the Pharisees, you will not enter My Kingdom in the end."

Yes, salvation is all of Grace. And yes, faith alone is the initial ground of justification. But if the one does not come to possess Kingdom virtue, says Jesus, that one will be shut out of the Kingdom of God in the end.

Grace, faith, obedience.

Deny any one of them and you've lost authentic Christianity. Mess their order up and you've lost it, too.

Evangelicalism denies the necessity of #3 for salvation and therefore is false Christianity.

Just ask Jesus.

MT 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

[No King But Jesus]

JCE wrote:

Certainly once we have been given faith by hearing and His Spirit grants us the Grace of repentance, we have entered into the process of transformation and will never again be as we were. But I am persuaded He brings about that change, not my decision and effort.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I want to say, respectfully, that your last statement is one of the great lies of Evangelical Christianity. It does not comport at all with the teachings of the New Testament. And it is actually what I was initially responding against in Tod's post. The idea that "you can come as you are" to Jesus, without repentance, without a decision to lose your life for His sake, without picking up the cross and choosing the Way of self-denial, is just flat out bogus. Such a "coming to Jesus" is a coming to a Jesus who does not exist. It is the Jesus whom the Evangelicals have created, a graven image if you will, a false god crafted to suit their American way of life. Because that is what they _really_ want, that is the main and fundamental interest of the Evangelical--he wants a nice, comfortable, prosperous American life. He wants a savior who will allow him to be part of the American system, part of the Matrix, if you will, and he has created a savior who will allow him to have both the world and salvation. But that savior is a fiction, a human construct, an empty image no less vile than an Asherod pole. The Evangelical Jesus is the product of Christians who desire the world and live for what the world offers, yet they still want the assurance of the forgiveness of sins. Presto! They've forged a god who gives them just what they want.

Look, Jesus puts conditions on coming to Him:

LK 9:23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

LK 9:24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

He does not have the Evangelical paranoia with regard to effort and spiritual exertion:

LK 13:23 Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them,

LK 13:24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Neither did the apostle Paul:

1CO 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

1CO 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

1CO 9:26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

1CO 9:27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Neither did the apostle Peter:

2PE 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

2PE 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;

2PE 1:6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

2PE 1:7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

Evangelicals think they are doing God a favor by fencing the priority of Grace, but in their doctrinal method they denature Christianity, they separate the heart from the life and leave the professed believer outside of the Kingdom of God. You cannot separate faith from Kingdom discipleship and call that Christianity. And you cannot preach that no effort is required in discipleship and be true to God's Word. Therefore, to say that "you may come to Jesus as you are" is a damnable lie. Sure, you can go "talk" to Jesus as you are, you can study Jesus as you are, you can take a long, careful look at Jesus just as you are. But if you are going to belong to Jesus, if you want to follow Jesus then you must first repent of the values, ideals and commitments that you presently hold which do not comport with the values, ideals and commitments of Christ's Kingdom and Kingdom discipleship.

Tod and I differ at the point of means. We both believe the adoption of Kingdom lifestyle is mandatory for Christians, although he probably would not like the term mandatory. He appears to believe, along with CJE, that Jesus does all the work of disciplemaking. You come as you are to Jesus, put yourself in His hands and He makes you a disciple.
Nothing is required of you in terms of repentance, effort, striving and earnest intention. While I insist, based upon God's Word, that those very elements are essential to Kingdom discipleship and that genuine Christianity is simply not possible without them.

Evangelical Christianity has severed itself from Jesus by its insistence that the very idea of effort, striving and working at discipleship equates with a Roman Catholic type works-righteousness. In reality that is a complete non sequitur. But it is nevertheless the ground and foundation of the Evangelical faith, which makes Evangelicalism a spurious sect of genuine Kingdom Christianity.

If you believe in Jesus, great. But you must nevertheless follow Jesus to be a Christian. Even the demons believe. And you must follow Him according His call. His call is to the Kingdom Way. And the Kingdom Way necessitates that the King and His Kingdom become your priority in life and all of your decisions must be made contingent upon the interests of that Kingdom.

That, of course, means a great many things, but I've run on too long now. I'll just conclude by stating that if one lives with ordinary American values, love of country, priority of family, seeking the nice home in the suburbs and future financial security then that one has no idea what it means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus. He may profess to be a believer, but he has never seen the Kingdom of Christ.

[JCE]

NKBJ,

You have projected a great deal of meaning into what I have said that is far from my intent or even my words. First of all do not assume I am an "Evangelical Christian", for you have no knowledge of that being the case. I can assure you that I am not according to the way you have defined them, any such thing.

Now, when I say that the transformation of my life from that of one who can only sin, to that of one who is the righteosness of Christ, is a work in me that He does as opposed to one that I do, I am not suggesting that I have no accountability to turn from sin, my old life, the ways of the world, etc. in order to follow after Him. Yes, I believe (and I'm sure any born from above follower of Jesus believes)that I must be willing to forsake everything, must repent, and must submit to complete obedience if I am to rightly call Him my Lord.
But if you believe that you had the ability in yourself to do that, if you believe that you had within your will, mind, soul, heart, strength or any other part of your being, the ability to repent, turn from sin, AND WALK IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, without Him first imparting that ability to you, then you would be right to say we do not believe the same.

I now want to apologize to the author of the blog this began with for allowing myself to chase this rabbit!

[Tod]

Wow. Quite a conversation all on one phrase. The idea that we come to Jesus "just as we are" is the heart NOT of evangelicalism, but of the protestant reformation. The whole doctrine of imputed righteousness means that Jesus does IN FACT accept us before we do anything to merit his acceptance.

Our "repentance" is nothing more or nothing less than responding to Jesus invitation to come "just as we are."

The new birth and power of the Spirit will not leave us the way we were, but we at the moment of salvation we are made righteous "de jure". De Fact righteousness is what sanctification is all about.

[No King But Jesus]

Tod wrote:

Our "repentance" is nothing more or nothing less than responding to Jesus invitation to come "just as we are."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Not at all, Tod. You cannot define repentance apart from the reality of the Kingdom. Your definition is abstract, ahistorical, the kind of repentance that leads only to attempts at moral reformation, the very thing you have disavowed in previous posts. It's the very reason you have "good" people in your church but not Kingdom disciples, which you've also bemoaned to some extent recently.

Repentance in the New Testament context is a turning from one's life in this world to follow the King in the Way of the Cross, in the Way of the Sermon on the Mount. It requires the renunciation of one's present priorities and the adoption of Kingdom priorities.

That's why Jesus opened His Kingdom announcement with a call to repentance. He was NOT saying "Come as you are," but "Give up your present life and commitments, turn from it all"...for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus is not interested in bringing a little moral reformation to nice suburban folk. He is interested in followers, in disciples, in those who will pick up the cross and go with Him. Water down the repentance part, dilute the call to repentance and all you get is the former, a church full of people just trying to be good parents and saving up for the next vacation.

BTW, I'm just repeating Wright here essentially. Check out his piece on repentance in JVG.

[JCE]

NKBJ,

I'm not sure what you are really attacking. Is it a gospel that is void of an undiluted call to repentance? If so, then we have no argument at all. In fact, that reality is (or should be)so obvious to anyone who comes to Father through His Son Jesus, that it ought not even be open for debate. But if, as I suspect, you are living out an agenda rooted in anger toward the Church in this western civilization for its failure to BE who He has called it to be, I would like to suggest their are much better ways to provoke repentance than entering into partnership with the accuser of the brethren.

How has anything that has been written by others here put them in a class of being "nice suburban folk" who are "just trying to be good parents and saving up for the next vacation"?

I actually agree with everything you are saying about the absolute requirement for repentance in the life of one who would enter the Kingdom. To attempt such entrance without repentance, even if we were trying to do so through Jesus, would, in fact, be paramount to trying to scale the wall or sneak in through some means other than the only way available.

Even so, this requirement does not say anything at all about not being able to come to Him as we are! How we are, is how we are, and when we come to Him, we are how we are. To try to come to Him in any other state of being is to not be real, not be honest, and would ultimately void the possibility of any true repentance worthy of His mercy and grace.

You seem to be painting a picture in your writing of us cleaning up our own life to the degree that we attain to rigtheousness BEFORE we come to Him, or in order to come to Him. That dear friend is nothing short of absolute legalism and the very bondage that Jesus came to set His people free from. He came unto His own and they did not receive Him...why? Because He refused to come as a King like you are describing who would not allow entrance into His Kingdom to anyone who did not earn their righteousness through obedience to the Law! No, instead, He proved His love for us in that while we were STILL SINNERS, He died for us. They did not receive Him...but to as many who did receive Him...He did what? He gave...gave what? He gave the power to become the sons of God!

So, the BECOMING a son of God part, certainly will include, the old passing away as you say it must. The BECOMING a son of God, will certainly include the "adoption of Kingdom priorities" by a literally new creature. The BECOMING a son of God is a total and complete TRANSFORMATION!

Such a change...even a change as you have described it so intently...requires POWER for its accomplishment.

For all who come to Him, recognizing their state of sinful depravity, recognizing their own inability to do anything other than SIN, recognizing their helpless and powerless condition...AND...believing that through His life, stripes, shedding of blood, death, burial and resurrection, He has made a way...the only way...for them to be made righteous and enter the Kingdom of God...they then turn (repent) from their life of sinful depravity and RECEIVE HIM...exactly AS THEY ARE AT THAT MOMENT...full of Faith, hope and love for what He is offering them,...yes...abandoning the old...but STILL...STILL in that state of SINFUL DEPRAVITY...Still void of any righteousness less filthy than dirty menstrual rags...STILL A SINNER...they receive Him coming as they are...He then imparts His gift of imputed righteousness, renews them by His Spirit and gives them the POWER they need to live a life with fruit that is worthy of repentance.

Sorry for preaching here brethren and I realize I've hit my limit on posting here so I'll back out now but I could not keep silent while the Gospel of the Kingdom as my Lord Jesus proclaimed and provided was being pulled out from under the throne of Grace and drug back into bondage of the Law!!!

[No King But Jesus]

CJE wrote:

How has anything that has been written by others here put them in a class of being "nice suburban folk" who are "just trying to be good parents and saving up for the next vacation"?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You are much too sensitive, my friend. Nothing I have written has been directed to anyone particular here, save for a few comments related to Tod's situation last evening.

My comments have been directed at Evangelicalism, period. If you choose to identify with that mess then the shoe fits for you. If you don't then there is no reason for you to get your hair up. I have not put you in any box whatsoever. None of my comments have been directed to you personally, even though you steadily ACCUSE me of it. I am writing against Evangelicalism. If you want to take it personally then there is nothing I can do about that. But I reiterate...nothing I have written has been aimed at your personal situation. So relax a little.

As to the substance of the exchange, you have taken the discussion away from where it began. You have redirected the thread to the subject of POWER and ABILITY, whereas the issue I raised had to do with PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY in salvation and discipleship. Whether you are an Evangelical or not is your call, but that kind of redirection is common among Evangelicals when the subject of PERSONAL OBLIGATION is brought before them. It is also quite characteristic of Evangelicals to scream "Works-righeousness!" when pressed with the necessity of fulfilling the commands of Christ.

MT 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Do you dare to accuse Jesus of dragging the Gospel of Grace back into the bondage of the Law?

Evangelicals have a neat, little, tightly packaged theology, but it doesn't make room for the Word of God. You, whether an Evangelical or not, are doing Christ no favor by nullifying His call to obedience, effort, striving and the necessity of doing His will. Grace and the necessity of obedience for salvation go together just fine in the economy of His Kingdom. Evangelicals, however, have determined to sacrifice the latter on the altar of the former and have thereby cut themselves loose from authentic Christianity.

I'll say this in closing. You have the wrong paradigm, my friend. When Paul writes that justification is apart from the works of the Law, he is NOT separating faith from obedience in general. He is separating faith from obedience to the MOSAIC LAW in particular. Evangelical theology does not grasp the importance of REDEMPTIVE HISTORY and therefore cannot understand Romans and Galatians. It's also why Luther kicked the apostle James out of the Canon.

Enough for now.

Peace to you.

[No King But Jesus]

Here is the contradiction of Evangelical Christianity in two quotes from Tod:

1. As a pastor the thing that so troubles me more than anything else that I see in our community is how our striving for the perfect life can actually keep us from living right.
We work hard to have perfect families, to provide a perfect home, we have our kids in so many activities so they’ll have the perfect experience, we drive them to have perfect grades.
We dedicate ourselves morning and night to being as perfect as possible, perfectly hitting all the notes and yet we are missing the music. But, we aren’t listening to the song of the universe, the story of the Kingdom that Jesus has brought into our world and is specifically bringing into our lives. We are so caught up in living perfectly, that we are not living righteously.

2. The new birth and power of the Spirit will not leave us the way we were...

On the one hand the power of the Spirit will not leave us the way we were.

On the other hand the people in his church do not live as Kingdom disciples.

What's wrong with this picture? If it is all on the Holy Spirit to change us then the fault of cheap and shallow Christianity, of worldly, American Christianity, lies at the door of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has failed. That is the inescapable conclusion of consistent Evangelical theology. Since it is all up to God to change us, then God has failed. That is where the perspective of CJE inevitably takes us.

I have a different perspective. The church is saltless and lightless because Christians have never repented. They have never given themselves to the King and His Kingdom agenda. They go to Him for fire insurance and inspiration, but not for Kingdom discipleship. They have never left the world and entered the Kingdom. They very much do NOT want to do that. They do not want to lose their lives for His sake and the sake of the Kingdom. If they could perceive that such is exactly what Jesus was calling for then Evangelicals would reject Jesus outright. In fact, they would crucify Him, just like the Jews. But instead they hire preachers who will sell to them an American Jesus and Him they will accept, because He will forgive their sins, require nothing from them and bless their pursuit of the American dream. For, the preachers spin it, if He did require something of them, Grace would no longer be Grace. Oh, the devil is shrewd.

One cannot come to Jesus on his own terms. The Kingdom of Christ was set up in this world in the first century AD. To come to Christ necessarily means coming to live under the government and rule of His Kingdom (oh, i know evangelicals shriek at the world 'rule'). Now, that Kingdom is so contrary to way of this world that one cannot enter it without forsaking his life in this world. That is exactly what Jesus said.
New Testament repentance is not simply acknowledging the need for some moral reformation. Repentance is confessing that one is living in an entirely wrong way, with the wrong worldview, aims, ambitions, values and ideals. It is exchanging one's own ambitions, values and ideals for those of the Kingdom. Becoming a Christian is like becoming a Marxist IN THIS WAY--it is exchanging an American set of ideals for an entirely new and radically different set of ideals and values, the ideals and values of King Jesus. Yes, one must be born again, but if this exchange of commitments is not made then you have not a follower and disciple of Jesus, but an Evangelical christian, one who gets his fire insurance and proceeds on with his own agenda for family, business and country.

No, cheap grace Evangelicalism is not the fault of the Spirit. It is the fault of worldly Christians and cowardly pastors, who are not heralds of the Kingdom but professionals hired to soothe a people who want to keep their own lives and yet be told that God loves them and forgives them.

But that's not the kind of Christianity Jesus deposited in this world in the first century AD.

[JCE]

NKJB,

I am sorry you perceived my responses as accusation or attack. I am also sorry that you felt I was somehow taking your writings as a personal offense or affront.

I cannot emphasize any stronger than to say I totally accept what you have shared and agree with it completely as you shared this way..."One cannot come to Jesus on his own terms. The Kingdom of Christ was set up in this world in the first century AD. To come to Christ necessarily means coming to live under the government and rule of His Kingdom (oh, i know evangelicals shriek at the world 'rule'). Now, that Kingdom is so contrary to way of this world that one cannot enter it without forsaking his life in this world. That is exactly what Jesus said.
New Testament repentance is not simply acknowledging the need for some moral reformation. Repentance is confessing that one is living in an entirely wrong way, with the wrong worldview, aims, ambitions, values and ideals. It is exchanging one's own ambitions, values and ideals for those of the Kingdom."

That is totally right on and I find no fault in it and is at the core of any Gospel I have ever or ever will preach.

All I have tried to share is that I believe the very thing you are saying is 100% truth, I just believe that it is not possible for fallen man to self generate this obedience and that he must receive the ability to walk it out from the Lord.

Of course I must submit, denounce, repent and obey, and to not do that and suggest that I can still be a Christian and a Kingdom Disciple is to be guilty of everything you suggest evangelical christianity is guilty of! I do not believe that the Holy Spirit is 100% RESPONSIBLE for making this happen and I don't think I said that. Without question I believe that I stand alone as the accountable and responsible one for making this transformation happen. But I still believe that it is His power that actually does the changing in me. I am not able to embrace the thought that I somehow muster the ability to make my own self righteous. I cmae to Jesus as a desperate man. I was a liar, a cheat, a manipulator, full of greed and immorality without constraint. By hearing the Word of God and the Gospel of the Kingdom I embraced His judgment, became convicted to my core of my sinful condition, was moved to true and full repentance, turned my back on the evil of my own heart and my life as I knew it and threw myself at the feet of Jesus, having received by hearing, the faith to believe He would do as He promised and forgive my sin, cleanse me from all unrighteousness, place His Spirit within me and transform me into an entirely new creature who is no longer dominated and controlled by a sin nature but rather bent on surrender and obedience to my King.

This is the testimony of my own experience. This He was faithful to do in His love for me. And I have been faithful to walking it out in obedience as He continues to complete the work in me of conforming me to His image.

If you possess now and did before you came to Jesus the inner strength to completely change yourself from a depraved sinner into a 100% obedient Holy and Righteous man...then NKBJ...you are a far greater man than I and it truly amazes me that you are even still in the earth, for it would appear that you do not really have any functional or experiential need in your life for the blood of Jesus or the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. I am not being sarcastic here either...I truly mean that!

FYI...my initials are JCE not CJE.

[No King But Jesus]

JCE (pardon, please, the previous error) wrote:

All I have tried to share is that I believe the very thing you are saying is 100% truth, I just believe that it is not possible for fallen man to self generate this obedience and that he must receive the ability to walk it out from the Lord.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nowhere have I asserted that fallen man must self-generate obedience. And since I didn't state anything of the sort and you now claim to agree with everything I actually did write, I am only left to wonder why you chose to enter this argument in the first place and insinuate, if not outrightly charge, that I am bringing the message of Jesus back under bondage to the Law. On the one hand you claim 100 percent agreement with what I wrote. On the other hand you accuse me of subverting the Gospel of Grace :-)

I'm at a loss for what to say at this point because I don't know which of you I am exchanging with.

Let's shake hands at the 100 percent agreement level and call it a wrap.

Cheerio.

[Brian Russell]

Tod,
I enjoyed your post. I think that you have observed the close relationship between mission and holiness. Too often these core values are torn assunder. Your essay reminds me that to live a missional lifestyle implies nurturning a profound relationship with God in order to reflect God's character. Yet, our vital relationship with God then becomes the means by which we reach others.