don't water it down

In Why We Love The Church, Kevin DeYoung addresses the well-meaning postmodern innovator who would claim that they don’t want “a hijacked Jesus who is an openhearted, never-offending, good moral teacher.” To be sure, and DeYoung acknowledges this, not all liberals set off to water down or sell out the Gospel. At the same time DeYoung points out that this is in fact the untended consequence of many statements employed to reach the nonChristian.

An example he offers of this is to describe Jesus as a “transcendent yet personal God who loves and accepts you perfectly, who wants to shape you and give your life deep meaning and purpose. This is the Jesus I want to describe, even if the actions and attitudes of Christ followers have not always represented this to you.”

What’s wrong with that? DeYoung rightly points out that this idea of God has “shaved off the sharp edges of the Gospel. No one will be offended” by this presentation. And not that we want to offend for the purpose of offending, but this is not the Jesus the apostles preached. While it is true that Jesus is transcendent and personal, it is also true that “He warned of judgment and demanded repentance. He spoke freely of sin, salvation, and the necessity of new birth. The apostles preached Christ dead, buried, and raised for our justification. They preached Christ and Him alone. They told of all that God had accomplished in Christ for miserable sinners. That was there message and the world hated them for it.”

My friends, the liberal message, under any umbrella, emerg*, postmodern, etc… is off track with the message of the Gospel. They have reinvented God and love and what it means to represent Him and live is His Kingdom in their own image. This we must not accept. This is not a message of salvation but one of damnation. We must present the true Gospel and the living Christ.

DeYoung continues with this warning and encoragement:

It would be wrong to wear unpopularity as a sure marker of our faithfulness. But by the same token, we should not assume we failed just because outsiders dislike us.

He then adds this from Andy Crouch:

I’m not eager for us to manage perceptions of Christians, Christianity, or Christ. Jesus, thankfully, doesn’t need our spin control.

Jesus asks us to represent Him in truth. To live by the Spirit, bearing fruit of the Spirit. And thereby being His ambassadors to those who need Him and the life that comes only through Him.

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