Sunday, May 14, 2006
A Tale of Two Adventists and Mark 2:1-22
She had started going to the Adventist church. And she was upset. “My father wants to throw me out” she said. “Why?” I said. “Because I have told him he is sinning when he eats pork.” “Ah,” I said. “What do you think is the basis for salvation – how can someone be saved?” She thought. “By keeping to the ways of the Lord,” she said. “That is where you need to rethink,” I said.
“Are all Adventists this far off?,” I wondered. The young lady who had recently started cleaning for us is an Adventist, and she certainly seemed to have a lively faith in Jesus. So, over lunch the next day, I put the same question to her. “What is the basis for your hope of salvation?” She looked me squarely in the eye. “Jesus,” she said. “Only Jesus – what he did on the cross. All my attempts to obey his law are only gratitude for what he did for me.”
I know that the Seventh Day Adventists are the most sect-like church, or the most Christian of the sects, and are heavily soaked in legalism. But I also know that the above conversations could be repeated with many denominations, here in Brazil. And that, although few would put the question in quite such stark terms, the same issue troubles us in Britain too.
How are we saved? It is all too easy for the world in its first contacts with our churches to get the impression that being good is what saves. And it is all too easy for us to give this impression because we live it. Even if we have begun well, seeing our lostness and throwing ourselves on God’s grace in Jesus, we end up “doing a Galatian” and living by works, trying to hold on to our sagging assurance by keeping the rules of our party.
When Jesus had his first bout of conflict with the Jewish leaders, it was over this point. They believed that God pardons. But they couldn’t believe that’s God pardon could come down to earth. There was no chance of total assurance of pardon. And when pardon becomes hypothetical, you are left with rule-keeping, in-crowd-pleasing, works religion.
And Jesus came, and said to a paralysed man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Just like that. And he showed he wanted to make a Habit of it, calling the Rome-loving tax-collector Levi to follow him, and then eating with Levi’s filthy, sinful crowd. And when the Pharisees objected he showed that his Habit was a Principle, saying that pardon for sinners was the heart of his mission. They didn’t like that: free pardon, without jumping through their hoops just wasn’t on, and they didn’t like the joy that characterised Jesus’ crowd; it seemed so cheap. Perhaps if Jesus had only insisted on a few of their rules; fasting, for instance…
But he made it very clear: his way and theirs were totally incompatible. You just couldn’t mix them. Chalk and cheese. Or worse – new wine in old skins – try to mix them and you lose both. Jesus’ grace and Pharisees’ works did not combine.
They still don’t. And it is still a big issue. The gospel of grace is constantly being swallowed up by our capacity to keep pardon at arms length and turn Christianity into rule keeping. When we do that, we destroy the possibility of conversion, and create sad people like the first young woman mentioned above. Because grace is the only gospel that saves!
(Written by Andrew for the UFM Worldwide Magazine Four Corners - used here by permission.)
She had started going to the Adventist church. And she was upset. “My father wants to throw me out” she said. “Why?” I said. “Because I have told him he is sinning when he eats pork.” “Ah,” I said. “What do you think is the basis for salvation – how can someone be saved?” She thought. “By keeping to the ways of the Lord,” she said. “That is where you need to rethink,” I said.
“Are all Adventists this far off?,” I wondered. The young lady who had recently started cleaning for us is an Adventist, and she certainly seemed to have a lively faith in Jesus. So, over lunch the next day, I put the same question to her. “What is the basis for your hope of salvation?” She looked me squarely in the eye. “Jesus,” she said. “Only Jesus – what he did on the cross. All my attempts to obey his law are only gratitude for what he did for me.”
I know that the Seventh Day Adventists are the most sect-like church, or the most Christian of the sects, and are heavily soaked in legalism. But I also know that the above conversations could be repeated with many denominations, here in Brazil. And that, although few would put the question in quite such stark terms, the same issue troubles us in Britain too.
How are we saved? It is all too easy for the world in its first contacts with our churches to get the impression that being good is what saves. And it is all too easy for us to give this impression because we live it. Even if we have begun well, seeing our lostness and throwing ourselves on God’s grace in Jesus, we end up “doing a Galatian” and living by works, trying to hold on to our sagging assurance by keeping the rules of our party.
When Jesus had his first bout of conflict with the Jewish leaders, it was over this point. They believed that God pardons. But they couldn’t believe that’s God pardon could come down to earth. There was no chance of total assurance of pardon. And when pardon becomes hypothetical, you are left with rule-keeping, in-crowd-pleasing, works religion.
And Jesus came, and said to a paralysed man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Just like that. And he showed he wanted to make a Habit of it, calling the Rome-loving tax-collector Levi to follow him, and then eating with Levi’s filthy, sinful crowd. And when the Pharisees objected he showed that his Habit was a Principle, saying that pardon for sinners was the heart of his mission. They didn’t like that: free pardon, without jumping through their hoops just wasn’t on, and they didn’t like the joy that characterised Jesus’ crowd; it seemed so cheap. Perhaps if Jesus had only insisted on a few of their rules; fasting, for instance…
But he made it very clear: his way and theirs were totally incompatible. You just couldn’t mix them. Chalk and cheese. Or worse – new wine in old skins – try to mix them and you lose both. Jesus’ grace and Pharisees’ works did not combine.
They still don’t. And it is still a big issue. The gospel of grace is constantly being swallowed up by our capacity to keep pardon at arms length and turn Christianity into rule keeping. When we do that, we destroy the possibility of conversion, and create sad people like the first young woman mentioned above. Because grace is the only gospel that saves!
(Written by Andrew for the UFM Worldwide Magazine Four Corners - used here by permission.)
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 1:12:00 pm 
