Theoretical Christianity
Mark 10
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
26 “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
We live in a time were it is so easy and very convenient to be an unauthentic christian who will never be challenged. Our daily activities are used to break up the “fruit” of the spirit into easy to do installments. We are obsessed with knowing how well the right and left hands are doing. We love monitoring and gauging our progress. We put labels on everything and we die for labels and values, as they are our everything. We have created a culture that acts as a incubator or petri dish; growing our infectious diseases of appearances. We have created a utopian society of “rich young rulers”; were wealth makes you right and righteous. The poor man has replaced the true God with the god of the rich man because he has steps to follow that will bless us with comfort.
If we could actually see the future, we would plan to not need God. Just like the rich ruler we would seek Jesus just to validate living our life the way we see fit. We go to church to validate our living and make sure that in princple that we are christian. We do it with things we don’t want to part ways with because it stands against Christ, so we try to find out if in principle or theoretically is christian. So we soften God in our living, which produces an unholy soul blind to its sins. God will not leave us in this state because we have been bought by the blood of Christ; we are not our own. Unfortunately, the only way to cure the little rich young rulers that we are is to take our dreams and hopes that are devoid of God. You can hear it in Jesus requests, “take all of your possessions and sell them and follow me”. We can’t properly serve Christ and ourselves, we will hate one and love the other. But we say, I don’t hate Jesus, yet anything less than what he ask of us is as good as hate.
Jesus in the beginning lovingly walked through the second tablet of the ten commandments, all of which dealt with the loving our neighbors. When you take into account the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus exposes the underlying substance of these, we see that no one keeps them. Yet, we still hold to our claims of never breaking them. But Jesus knows the truth, and truth be told sin doesn’t begin until we break commandment one. We have such ingenuity when if comes to breaking the first commandment. We do it in such away that it always seem harmless or even virtuous. We mask it the way the rich ruler does, through wealth and good deeds. But it’s all in the name of self, all to ease the conscience of a selfish sinner who is a theoretical christian. In theory is how we live, day in and day out questioning and seeking to justify ourselves; checking our lists and doing the work. Trying to weaken the word of God, thinking Jesus couldn’t have really meant what he said. We do this but not that and rationalize why by weak reasoning. We boast that in theory we are good and authentic because we keep it real. So many Nebuchadnezzars surveying their deeds from the hanging gardens. We proclaim that we are different because we tolerant other gods just as long as others don’t speak out against our agenda. This is how we come to Jesus, asking for his admiration over our deeds and a “pass” for our continued living of a godless existence.
“To avoid the hard necessity of either obeying or rejecting the plain instructions of our Lord in the New Testament we take refuge in a liberal interpretation of them. We evangelicals also know how to avoid the sharp point of obedience by means of fine and intricate explanations. These are tailor-made for the flesh. They excuse disobedience, comfort carnality and make the words of Christ of none effect. And the essence of it all is that Christ simply could not have meant what He said. His teachings are accepted even theoretically only after they have been weakened by interpretation.”
― A.W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian
Love thy God with thy heart and mind and thou shall not have no other god but me. Even though no one can love God perfectly, we don’t continue in sin but walk in the Spirit. We are changed by His spirit and forever marked by grace as we are saved in spite of us but for the glory of God. Through the Father’s keeping of the promise made to the Son of the kingdom, we are saved and seated in heaven with Christ. We should live heavenly minded, as our heads are truly in the clouds. Part of us are here and the other is with the Lord. We are, already but not yet as Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.
Romans 8:29, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
There is no room for theory or speculations when it comes to God’s determination to create a people, making Christ to sit over them but as a King, Prophet, and Priest; yet he is our brother the firstborn. How can we play it safe when God did not spare his son? How can we keep him at a distance, holding him at bay when Jesus paid the price of the cross to bring us near? We love to discuss and reason amongst other “believers” as we stay in our cliques, sit on our boards, attend our conferences, hold panel discussions, form committees and councils, and start grassroot movements all in the name of “helping believers”. But all of our theories of how God works hide what we truly believe, have faith in, and walk out. We openly talk in the marketplace to mask our reluctance to love our neighbors who disagree with us or who are in need of God’s grace. This doesn’t mean we don’t preach but that we don’t hide or soften God to protect our little kingdoms. In theory we are window shopping as we pontificate the intentions of an inexhaustible God. We are talking pagan heads who are really worshipping our knowledge hiding behind a Christian label. We can’t hear Jesus voice because we love hearing ourselves talk. The labels we stand for we bring to Christ for his endorsement but we shall go away sad as our on words will judge us. Our deeds done without faith, without love of God and neighbors will always be done for thr love of self. And Jesus didn’t say love thyself but find yourself in Him, not in theory but in Spirit and truth. So we pretend that what Jesus says is true but not to the point of it renewing our minds. We carry out the words of Christ on a superficial level, grazing the surface. In our culture it doesn’t take a lot to appear noble or righteous. It’s all very doable because the world still knows us and will never truly kill its own. The world will never take your breathe but will give you the opportunity to “eat the king’s meat”, kiss the ring and avoid the fiery furnace. Your blessed life validates a compromised life, living as a the worst of demons; to know the glory of God and not fear Him.
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