Jesus + Nothing = Everything

As a long time fan of the Apostle Paul and student of Colossians at several critical points in my life, I was thrilled that Tullian Tchividjian helped me see the message of Colossians with even more clarity.  Paul was clearly obsessed with the gospel as he wrote the inspired letter.

If I had to wrap up the point in one sentence it would be this: "Grace is the root of the gospel, and peace is the fruit of the gospel."

For those that know the teachings of Bob Warren, I like to relate these two important aspects of the gospel to illustrations that can go a little deeper:

• Grace is about identity in Christ and life defined by Christ and work done by Christ which is rigidly communicated with the "Law of the Buttons" and the many illustrations within the Romans study.
• Peace is a result of living in the grace of God in Christ and understanding that there is nothing that can be added to Grace. The "Law of the Circles" communicates this very well.

Here is another great line of thought from the book that hits the reader hard.

• We Christians have a remarkable tendency to focus almost exclusively on the "fruit" of the problem.
• We do this as parents with our children, pastors with our parishioners, husbands with our wives and wives with our husbands.
• The gospel, on the other hand, always addresses the "root" of the problem. And the root of the problem is not bad behavior.
• Bad behavior is the "fruit", death chosen in the garden of Eden is the "root"
• To address behavior without addressing death is to perpetuate death. The Pharisees were masters of this, and Jesus called them "white washed tombs"
• I am often guilty of making this same mistake.
• The fact is, Jesus came first to effect a mortal resurrection, not a moral reformation.

As Christians, it is embarrassing to focus on the short term fruit if the root of the problem has not been dealt with.  When digging down deeper into any problem, if you keep on digging you will get to the original sin resulting in death.  The answer is always God's love resulting in life.

not a fan

Sometimes I think I am too pragmatic and focused on work and discipline. There is a danger of depressing the people that you work closely with when you place great focus on agile disciples that know the Truth and how to handle it.

I have found in business, family and life that Jesus was wise to not mislead anyone by painting rose colored pictures. Kyle Idleman describes that leadership style of Jesus in "not a fan" very well.

Most of us focus on the "Come to Jesus" experience where we realize that we need a savior. That is very important, but when Jesus choose and made disciples he spent a lot of time on the "Come after Jesus" experience.

When His fans chose to crucify him on a cross, His followers chose to use the cross as a symbol for all that He taught them about being a follower.

• a symbol of humiliation
• a symbol of suffering
• a symbol of death

After deciding to follow Jesus, the stuff that is left behind does not matter.

In the recruiting and interviewing stages, Jesus directly and explicitly informed candidates that they can not be His disciple if they were worried about the stuff you leave behind. To follow Jesus, we need our full attention on Jesus.

It is true that future glory can not be compared to present sufferings and it is also true that after shedding all the stuff, Christ bears the load for our yoke. However, if your motivation is not a commitment to follow Christ, those things may seem elusive and distant like a carrot on a stick. In fact, future glory and easy loads are just another example of stuff that can get in the way of our commitment to Him.

Radical

My nephew recommended this book to me. I appreciated the perspective of a megachurch leader that follows a minichurch leader. I'm thankful that David writes this stuff down...

Here is a thought from the book that helps to convey what American Culture has done to the gospel:

We have taken the infinitely glorious Son of God, who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of God and who now reigns as the infinitely worthy Lord of all, and we have reduced him to a poor, puny Savior who is just begging for us to accept him.

Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance?

The cross is not about what we did to Christ or how painful his death was, but what God did to Christ and what Christ accepted for us.

If you don't know the gospel, or have someone with you that does, the challenges at the end of the book could prove dangerous in that it may compel you to perform before you understand your identity...   but then a good kick in the seat of the pants is sometimes what helps us understand.

Dangerous Wonder

Mike Yaconelli does an excellent job of teaching that God wants life for His children rather than for us to be right. He uses the universally observable faith of a child to illustrate that point. As we, especially the educated, responsible and successful pursuers of our cultural dreams, develop an "adult" mind that distinguishes our own definition of right from our own definition of wrong, we are so tempted to serve our own mind instead of God.

Quotes that compelled me:

• Most of us spend our lives "impersonating ourselves" --- Eugene Peterson
• Culture is putting out the light in men and women's souls. --- A.W. Tozer