The Beauty of Salvation (3)
Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. Matthew 9.10
It seems to me that our mindset about the Gospel is not quite what it ought to be. We want people to hear the Good News, and we are very careful and creative about how we bring it to them.
But we are under the illusion that, somehow, it is the world’s duty to go to church and our duty to attract them by as many means as seem to make sense. We adopt their forms of music and instrumentation. Add a coffee bar. Remove liturgical “hindrances” such as a pulpit. Avoid certain buzzwords and topics. And make our gospel friendly and easy to embrace. We comfort; we do not confront. We run programs featuring sports or entertainment or dinners or even (still) Bingo and door prizes, all topped off with testimonies and a gospel message, and we urge the saved to coax their unsaved friends to come with them—to church.
Get them here. Get them into our environment. Let them see that we are friendly, even fun, and in many ways just like them. Then give them a gospel presentation and let the chips fall where they may.
But the beauty of the Gospel is not that it’s waiting to be visited and heard in familiar and agreeable surroundings. The beauty of the Gospel, as represented in the incarnation of Jesus, is that it goes out to the world, seeks to become a presence in places where there are people who need to hear it, and embodies and diffuses the beauty of the Triune God not only in the message of Christ and His Kingdom but in the humble messengers who bring it as well.
David Bentley Hart explains that “Christian thought, with its trinitarian premise, must follow the path of beauty outward into the world, even into states of privation. Christian thought does not simply ascend to the beautiful, but finds the beautiful in the entire scope of the divine life, even as it proceeds ‘downward’ into utter inanition: God ventures even into the godless, and still his beauty is there, still offered as a gift, delight, and love.”
This is what Jesus did. He is the very definition of beauty and the only means of salvation. So He spent His years of ministry seeking the lost, to save them (Lk. 19.10), wherever He might find them. And then He told His disciples—and us through them—“As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you” (Jn. 20.21).
The beauty of God ventures into every place where there are godless folk who need to hear it. Let’s make sure that how we think about the Gospel lines up with the mind of Christ.
Being disciples and making disciples
How do you picture the life of a disciple? Mike McQueen offers some helpful images and ways of thinking about discipleship in our next conversation on the subject. Click the link or the audio bar at the top of this page to listen in.
Other columns of interest: This week: In our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” we are considering the place of culture in the Kingdom economy. Our Read Moore podcast continues working through The Gospel of the Kingdom, looking for the true Gospel of the Lord. In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we begin a study of Coemgen of Glendalough. And in our Scriptorium column we are unpacking the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 5. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
New in our bookstore is Let God Be True, sharing the Gospel in an age in flight from God. How do we engage lost people in a conversation about the Lord? And how do we help them see their need for Jesus? This book can help, and it is free as a PDF by clicking here. You can also order my new book of poems, Never Too Late, issued by Wipf and Stock’s Resources imprint. Click here.
Coming in November: We will be offering a resource for measuring your church, in a wide variety of facets, against the church in the New Testament and the following couple of centuries. This resource is for anyone who wants to help their church realize its full potential as a sign and outpost of the Kingdom of God. This is part of our ReThinking Church Project. Watch this space for more news about this effort.
From the Celtic Revival
Brigit of Kildare (451-525)
In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we conclude Cogitosus’ Lift of St. Brigit the Virgin:
Once she was sowing among all [the people] the most salutary seed of the Word of the Lord, as was her custom, she saw nine men in the particular guise of a vain and diabolical cult who shouted loudly and were greatly disturbed in mind…The most reverent and kindly Brigit preached to them with many sweet words, urging them to abandon their mortal errors and to expunge their crimes by heartfelt contrition and true repentance. But they stupidly went their own way, determined to fulfill their empty vows…
– Cogitosus, The Life of St. Brigit the Virgin
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed…
– Acts 17.32-34
We don’t expect everyone who hears the Gospel to believe it. But we must persist in helping them hear it. In this story about Brigit and her teaching, several of the rowdy cult members who tried to shout her down were ultimately converted. But many were not. But whether someone receives our message and believes the Good News of Christ and His Kingdom is not in our hands, but God’s.
You can learn more about the Kingdom of God in our book, The Kingdom Turn. Order your copy here in book form or here as a free PDF.
Resources from the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-800 AD)
Our bookstore includes a variety of free resources to help you understand and benefit from these great forgotten saints. Our book, The Celtic Revival: A Brief Introduction, provides an overview of the period, while Living to Rule gives us a look inside the disciplined life of Irish monks and missionaries. Theology of the Celtic Revival: Foundations, will ease your mind about any unorthodox views among the leaders of this movement. And our book, Lives of Irish Saints will introduce you to some of the less well-known men of that period. All these are free at our bookstore, and you can share them with everyone you like.
T. M. Moore
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
