Tozed and Confused

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28: 16-20

A friend of mine forwarded an email they had received containing an article written by A.W. Tozer, entitled The Saint Must Walk Alone. Tozer was trying to make the point that the price of being a saint is to experience loneliness. This is something that I understand on a personal level. The only way I have been able to mature in my faith is by separating myself from the individuals and the lifestyle that caused me to come to Christ in the first place. It is a lonely experience, especially, early on in my Christian walk. When all you know is acting worldly and endulging the flesh, leaving that behind exposes just how dependent you are on that lifestyle. God revealed to me that in order for me to grow as a believer I had to remove myself completely from the wrong influences and tempting environments that caused me to stumble. As time has passed I haven't felt the draw as much to that old lifestyle because I know that it is not consistent with who I am as a child of God. With that said, Tozer's concluding remarks didn't seem to mesh with the totality of the Christian life.

"The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful "adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints."

I don't look at the Christian being "too much at home in the world" as anything to be surprised at. We are human after all. It is natural to be at home in the world. But, part of the failings of Christianity is what comes from the pulpit. Tozer talks about "pilgrim character" as the foundation of what makes us "protest" the world. Well, we aren't, in my opinion, to protest the world. We are ambassadors of Christ from another "world" sent here to gather the lost for the Kingdom. Granted, in the process of doing that we will try and create a culture friendly to our efforts. Thus, we will "protest" in the sense of standing for truth. This normally comes out in the charities we support or the political candidates we give our votes. However, I sometimes believe Christians are too occupied with protesting the world than saving it. We end up trying to fight the symptoms of a lost world rather than addressing the cause of those symptoms. We go after things like homosexuality and abortion with the zeal we should go after sharing the Gospel. And this is a failing of the churches who stress sin so much that we end up feeling that if we just clean it up we are doing God's work. We believe we must clean it up in our own lives and then go and try to clean everybody elses sins up as well.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans 5: 8-10

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to condone or encourage sin on any level. But, if stopping sin was the sole purpose of a Christian being on this earth, we are doing a terrible job at it. The fact that Christians everywhere are preoccupied with sin in their lives is proof that totally ridding ourselves of it is impossible. But, Scripture is clear that our sins are no longer separating us from God. Because of the death of Christ we have been reconciled to God. To reconcile means to "reestablish a close relationship." Therefore, our sins are no longer separating us from God. This is a fact that is lost on the majority of the Body of Christ. Because of Christ's sacrifice we now have a close relationship with God. The life of God we lost when Adam sinned has been restored to all believers because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Knowing this frees up a believer to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to the lost world so they realize they are free to accept the life of God offered to them. It is understandable that before someone accepts the life of God and His forgiveness, they must first acknowledge that they are a sinner. However, recognizing you are a sinner reveals that you are one because you're spiritually dead. Thus, you then turn to Christ for His life and the forgiveness received as an inheritance.

"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4

Christians who don't know the full Gospel normally believe it to be Jesus died for my sins. Thus, their Christian life is focused on sin; avoiding it, stopping it and overcoming it. There are plenty of ministries that believe we need to clean up the world in order for Christ to return. A futile and misguided endeavor in my opinion. That is not what Christians were sent here to do. The Great Commission is a directive to preach the Gospel in order to get people saved. We need to focus on sharing with others that which we have received from the Lord. We have forgiveness of sins and the life of God indwelling us. That is what our character should be grounded in; the full Gospel of sin, death, forgiveness and life. When the world comes alive to Christ, the sins we so desperately want to destroy will begin to fade away. Nobody has ever been saved by stopping sin. But, everybody is saved through the receiving of life offered by Christ. Once you are indwelt by the life of Christ your sins we begin decrease although they will never be totally eliminated. But, those same sins remind us of the forgiveness we have in Christ and that we can then share the love of God with the world in hopes to save them.