Someone shared this on facebook, and it made me think. It says Religion and Gospel, but perhaps it could equall well have said “salvation by works” and “salvation through faith”.
Are all of these statements true, though? Or are they actually a bit one-sided?
If I obey, I’m accepted. / I’m accepted so I obey.
Yes, it is true, though it fails to recognize that you may lose this acceptance if you continue to disobey, though it won’t be because the acceptance is taken away from you; rather, disobedience is your way of throwing away the acceptance you would receive for free. I’m not talking about the coincidental stumbling here, but the persistence of doing evil. But I guess they’re right that one couldn’t possibly live like that and fall in the category of “I’m accepted so I obey”.
If I’m good, God will love me / I’m bad and Jesus loves bad people.
This one is more tricky. The religious sentence seems faithful to that kind of thinking, but the gospel sentence could be misleading. Does Jesus love people for their badness? Does Jesus favor bad people? I would’ve said something along the lines of, “God loves me, though I’m bad.” Perhaps I would’ve added, ‘Because he’s good.’
People: Good and Bad / People: Repentant or Not
I’m not sure I get this one. Sure, religion puts people into boxes and categorize them as “us” and “them”. But is the point here that the gospel does the exact same thing, just calls it something else? And is “repentant” the perfect word for that? Maybe so.
Focus: What I do or don’t do / Focus: What Jesus did
This one is interesting. Religious people indeed look at sin in a fragmented way, only considering it in terms of do’s and don’ts. Gospel believers look at Jesus. But for what purpose? Is it to escape from looking honestly at what I just did? Greg Boyd said that many people ask WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) and says that is the wrong question—the right one is HDJT (How Did Jesus Train?) In Romans, Paul argues that our sinful selves were crucified with Jesus, while we were raised with him to live the spiritual life in him. Our focus is what Jesus did and what it means for what I’m doing.
Produces: Pride and Despair / Produces: Humility and Confidence
Some good antonymes here. There are lots of other things that are produced by these attitudes: Darkness versus Light. Hatred versus Love.
Motivated by fear / Motivated by love
I see what he’s saying, yet I’m concerned that such statements might lead people to regard “healthy fear” negatively. Yes, there is such a thing as “good fear”. The Bible continually reminds us to have “fear of the Lord”. Some people argue that this kind of “fear” is not the scary one. However, Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ That sounds like the scary kind of fear to me. The fear of perishing could get people back on track, and that’s a good thing, but hopefully, that fear is then overshadowed by God’s love. If fear is the main thing that drives us as believers, then yes, something’s definitely not right.
