In one of his books (co-authored with Tim Lane), How People Change, he identifies seven counterfeit gospels—-”religious” ways we try and “justify” or “save” ourselves apart from the gospel of grace. I found these unbelievably helpful. Which one (or two, or three) of these do you tend to gravitate towards?

Formalism. “I participate in the regular meetings and ministries of the church, so I feel like my life is under control. I’m always in church, but it really has little impact on my heart or on how I live. I may become judgmental and impatient with those who do not have the same commitment as I do.”

Legalism. “I live by the rules—rules I create for myself and rules I create for others. I feel good if I can keep my own rules, and I become arrogant and full of contempt when others don’t meet the standards I set for them. There is no joy in my life because there is no grace to be celebrated.”

Mysticism. “I am engaged in the incessant pursuit of an emotional experience with God. I live for the moments when I feel close to him, and I often struggle with discouragement when I don’t feel that way. I may change churches often, too, looking for one that will give me what I’m looking for.”

Activism. “I recognize the missional nature of Christianity and am passionately involved in fixing this broken world. But at the end of the day, my life is more of a defense of what’s right than a joyful pursuit of Christ.”

Biblicism. “I know my Bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. I have reduced the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology, so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge.”

Therapism. “I talk a lot about the hurting people in our congregation, and how Christ is the only answer for their hurt. Yet even without realizing it, I have made Christ more Therapist than Savior. I view hurt as a greater problem than sin—and I subtly shift my greatest need from my moral failure to my unmet needs.”

Social-ism. “The deep fellowship and friendships I find at church have become their own idol. The body of Christ has replaced Christ himself, and the gospel is reduced to a network of fulfilling Christian relationships.”

As I said two weeks ago in my sermon, there are outside-the-church idols and there are inside-the-church idols. It’s the idols inside the church that ought to concern Christians most. It’s easier for Christians to identify worldly idols such as money, power, selfish ambition, sex, and so on. It’s the idols inside the church that we have a harder time identifying.

For instance, we know it’s wrong to bow to the god of power—but it’s also wrong to bow to the god of preferences. We know it’s wrong to worship immorality—but it’s also wrong to worship morality. We know it’s wrong to seek freedom by breaking the rules—but it’s also wrong to seek freedom by keeping them. We know God hates unrighteousness—but he also hates self-righteousness. We know crime is a sin—but so is control. If people outside the church try to save themselves by being bad; people inside the church try to save themselves by being good.

The good news of the gospel is that both inside and outside the church, there is only One Savior and Lord, namely Jesus. And he came, not to angrily strip away our freedom, but to affectionately strip away our slavery to lesser things so that we might become truly free!

Dear Lord Jesus, one of the many things I cherish about the Bible is its unfiltered, no-hype, non-spin honesty. Who but God would write a book documenting the foibles and failures of his beloved sons and daughters? Who but God would chronicle the ways hischosen leaders limp along, and prove themselves to be in constant need of mercy and grace? This gives me great encouragement and hope. It also gives me freedom to acknowledge that I need the gospel today just as much as the first day I believed it.

This will be just as true tomorrow, and the next day and the next. Please keep me convinced of this, Lord Jesus… because I’m so much like Peter. It’s one thing for me to stress, stew and stamp about the ways this generation is decrying and denying the theology of your cross. But it’s quite another to see the subtle and not-so-subtle ways I try to keep you from the cross. As you dealt with Peter, so deal with me. Give me all the life-giving rebukes I need to keep me living in gospel-sanity.

In his volume, St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography, Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, lays out a compelling portrait of Patrick, the theologian-evangelist. In accomplishing this, Freeman attempts to reconstruct Patrick’s cultural milieu—that of a world that had “ended” with the fall of Rome in 410 A.D. This collapse of Roman power had unleashed savagery in the British Isles, as thieves and slave-traders were unhinged from the restraining power of Caesar’s sword. Patrick’s ministry was shaped by this new world, not least of which by Patrick’s capture and escape from slavery.

Freeman helpfully retells Patrick’s conversion story, one of a mocking young hedonist to a repentant evangelist. The story sounds remarkably similar to that of Augustine—and, in the most significant of ways, both mirror the first-century conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Freeman helpfully reconstructs the context of local religion as a “business relationship” in which sacrifice to pagan gods was seen as a transaction for the material prosperity of the worshippers. Against this, Patrick’s conversion to Christianity was noticed quickly, when his prayers of devotion—then almost always articulated out loud—were overheard by his neighbors.

The rest of the narrative demonstrates the ways in which Patrick carried the Christian mission into the frontiers of the British Isles—confronting a hostile culture and institutionalized heresy along the way. With this the case, the life of Patrick is a testimony to Great Commission fervor, not to the Irish nationalism most often associated with the saint. As a matter of fact, Freeman points out that Patrick’s love for the Irish was an act of obedience to Jesus’ command to love enemies and to pray for persecutors.

This biography gives contemporary evangelicals more than a pious evangelist to emulate. It also reconstructs a Christian engagement with a pagan culture, in ways that are strikingly contemporary to evangelicals seeking to engage a post-Christian America.

Patrick’s context was a Celtic culture deeply entrenched in paganism, led by the native earth religion of the Druid priests. This is especially relevant in an era when pseudo-Celtic paganism is increasingly en vogue in American and European pagan movements. Freeman sweeps away the revisionist historical claims of the Druid revivalists: there was no “golden age” of equality among the sexes within the Druid cult, for example. Instead, Freeman shows that Patrick’s Christianity actually brought harmony among the genders with his teaching that women were joint-heirs with Christ.

Any evangelical seeking to kindle a love for missions among the people of God will benefit from this volume’s demonstration that the Great Commission did not lie dormant between the apostle Paul and William Carey. Patrick’s love and zeal for the Irish may also inspire American evangelicals to repent of our hopelessness for the conversion of, say, the radical Islamic world—which is, after all, no more “hopeless” than the Irish barbarians of Patrick’s era.

In addition to being an author, blogger, and pastor (see Scotty’s bio here), Scotty is a Council member with The Gospel Coalition.

Welcome Scotty Smith! We thank the Lord for your ministry and look forward to looking heavenward with you!

1. Put your heart’s deepest trust in God and his grace. Every day remind yourself of his unconditioned, covenantal love for you. Do not instead put your hopes in idols or in your own performance.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart (Prov 3:3-5a)

2. Submit your whole mind to the Scripture. Don’t think you know better than God’s word. Bring it to bear on every area of life. Become a person under authority.

Lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Prov 3:5b-6)

3. Be humble and teachable toward others. Be forgiving and understanding when you want to be critical of them; be ready to learn from others when they come to be critical of you.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. (Prov 3:7-8)

4. Be generous with all your possessions, and passionate about justice. Share your time, talent, and treasure with those who have less.

Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. (Prov 3:9-10)

5. Accept and learn from difficulties and suffering. Through the gospel, recognize them as not punishment, but a way of refining you.

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Prov 3:11-12)

As I meditated on these five elements–rooted in his grace, obeying and delighting in his Word, humble before other people, sacrificially generous toward our neighbor, and steadfast in trials–I thought of Jesus. The New Testament tells us that the personified ‘divine wisdom’ of the Old Testament is actually Jesus (Mt 11:19.) And I realized that a) he showed the ultimate trust and faithfulness to God and to us by going to the cross, b) he was saturated with and shaped by Scripture, c) he was meek and lowly in heart (Mt. 11:28-30), d) he, though rich, became poor for us, e) and he bore his suffering, for us, without complaint. We can only grow in these five areas if you know you are saved by costly grace. That keeps you from idols, from self-sufficiency and pride, from selfishness with your things, and from crumbling under troubles. Jesus is wisdom personified, and believing his gospel brings these character qualities into your life.

For a number of weeks I have been spending time praying for these five things for my family and my church leaders. There’s no better way to instill these great things in your own heart, than to pray intensely for them in the lives of those you love.

***

Editor’s Note: This post originally ran at Redeemer City to City.

• “Repairing the Garden” (on the Center for Faith & Work)
• “Block by Block” (on the Entrepreneurial Initiative)

These articles were published at Leadership Education’s new website, Faith & Leadership. This website provides an interesting look into leadership and ministry from a variety of denominational and theological perspectives. Here are a couple of interviews from the website that may be of interest:

• Andy Crouch: Christians, Culture and Power
• Os Guinness: Civility in the Public Square

Books

• Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism (IVP Academic, 2008)
• Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Zondervan, 2004)
• Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, 3rd Edition (Baker Academic, 2010)

Audio

• Sermon: “Hell Isn’t Worth It” (Mark Dever)
• Sermon: “The Echo and Insufficiency of Hell” (John Piper)
• Sermon: “The Final Judgement” (Ligon Duncan)
• Lecture: “What Happens to Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel?” (Mark Rogers)
• Q&A: “If Hell is real, how can God be loving?” (John Piper)

Video

• Q&A: “What is the importance of believing in Hell?” (Sandy Willson)
• Q&A: “How should pastors preach about Hell?” (John Piper)

Articles/Q&As

• “Is Universalism Biblical?” (Ron Rhodes)
• “Are those who have never heard of Christ going to Hell?” (R.C. Sproul)

Conference

• 1990 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors: “Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment” (Sinclair Ferguson, John Piper, Greg Livingstone, Tom Steller)

TGC Confessional Statement

• Section 13: The Restoration of All Things We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with his holy angels, when he will exercise his role as final Judge, and his kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished. God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace.

If you are involved in leading or organizing short-term mission trips, you should take a look at Effective Engagement in Short-Term Missions: Doing It Right! (Pasadena: William Carey, 2008). It is edited by Robert J. Priest, a professor of mission at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is filled with 22 helpful chapters on nearly every aspect of short-term missions. There are chapters dealing with cultural issues, the relationship of short-term and long-term missions, forging healthy and humble partnerships between churches, specialized trips such as medical and business trips, legal and liability concerns, and ways to improve the impact of short-term missions on participants.

From the Introduction, by Robert Priest:

Seminarians preparing for youth ministry will someday be expected to plan, organize and lead short-term mission (STM) trips for their youth. But nothing in their seminary education (in most seminaries until now) will provide preparation for this part of their future job description. Across America there are today thousands of mission pastors in local congregations. They will be expected to plan, lead, and coordinate STM trips, to set-up congregational partnerships, to choose, screen and train STM team leaders, but while their seminary education may well have included missiology courses, it is unlikely that such courses taught them about best practices in STM.

This book represents the single most ambitious effort to date to understand and improve upon patterns of ministry in short-term missions.

And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” -Luke 23:35-39

Three distinct movements. Three different sets of people. Three different mocking accusations. One angry command. One gracious response.

He was who they said he was

The rulers “scoffed.”
The soldiers “mocked.”
The criminal “railed.”

The venom poured out in every word that was spoken. They hissed as they accused him, challenging all that was said about him and all that he had done. They threw the titles out there, wholeheartedly believing that he was not who they said he was.

“If he is the Christ of God, His Chosen One…”
“If you are the King of the Jews…”
“Are you not the Christ?”

Come on, Jesus, if you are who we say you are, then prove it!

“He saved others
let him save himself.
Save yourself!
save yourself
and us.”

They knew he wouldn’t do it. They knew he couldn’t do it. They thought they knew why. They thought it was because he wasn’t who they said he was. But their “why” was wrong. He was exactly who they said he was. And more.

We try to save ourselves, but can’t

How much are we like the rulers, the soldiers, the criminals? Probably a lot more than we are willing to admit. How often do we hurl up thoughts and prayers that are based on our notion of who Jesus is, a notion that is mixed with both truth and lie. We might get the phrases right, some of the theological foundation may be correct, but as we shout our words to God, they come off as accusations. We cry out “prove yourself to me!” I have had countless conversations with non-believers about this very thing. It boils down to God not doing what they want him to do. They then conclude that he does not exist. The doubting, unbelieving heart wants Jesus to come down off the Cross. And if he did, however miraculous an event it would have been, he would not have been who they said he was. The Christ had to suffer and die (Lk 24:26, 46; Acts 3:8; 17:3).

In our doubts and unbelief we do not want Jesus to be God. We want to be gods. We want to be like him. We want the power to save ourselves. We want to prove that we are worthy of the greatest titles of the world — even if it’s our own little world.

“Best dad ever.”
“World’s greatest preacher.”
“Entertainer of the century.”
“Most humble person on the face of the earth.”
“Savior of the world.”

We desperately try to save ourselves, but can’t.

He could have saved himself, but didn’t try

He was exactly who they said he was. He had the power to save others and he did. He had the power to save himself and he didn’t. I am blown away by this. The thought is not profound, but Jesus’ action, or rather inaction, is. By his unwillingness to save himself, I am saved. To put it positively, by his willingness to die, I am alive. The criminal’s words echo through my head: “Save yourself and us.” Little did he know that if Jesus had, all would be destroyed. Jesus proved himself to be exactly who they said he was not by succumbing to their spiteful commands, but by remaining silent, fulfilling the will of His Father.

He could have saved himself, but didn’t try. Now, by his grace, I don’t have to either.

By His Grace.