1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-5 – And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE RADICAL NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY. What is the true nature of Christianity? How would we define Biblical Christianity? Now don’t be quick to rattle off the standard “Christianese” like, “Believing in Jesus”, “Following Jesus” or even the words “Loving God”. And don’t just offer a bunch of theological terms like, “regeneration, imputation, justification” that might be known but not fully understood. All these sound good and are right, but they either have a “spiritual fog” of vagueness around them or fill a head with knowledge with little application. Let me give three examples.
How do we love God, the God we have never seen or audibly heard? What does a follower of Jesus look like in the day-to-day trenches of living life in a fallen world? Or how do you apply in your marriage the doctrine of justification by faith? There is a simplicity about Christianity we must grasp or rediscover. Allow me to share a recent encounter with a very young believer to drive home the point of simplicity when it comes to the Christian life.
My wife and I were meeting with someone who is experiencing the wonder of being born again. In the course of our discussion, this individual said, in child-like faith and awe, these words, “Being a Christian is radical.” Ponder that for a moment. And if we have been Christians for a long time, take the pondering and ask, “Am I like that? In awe and wonder of the radicalness of being a Christian?”
Biblical Christianity is radical and simply defined as a life consumed with Jesus Christ. Not on Sundays or at Bible study, but all the time. Yes, all of life. A false and cultural Christianity (much like we see in America) claims to believe in Jesus and profess He is in people’s life, but He is not impacting all of life. The former saves a person. The latter deceives a person. Biblical Christianity is so radical that not a single area in a person’s life goes unaffected by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This means Jesus is not included in our lives. He is the Lord of our lives, and if He isn’t Lord of all in our lives, then He isn’t Lord at all in our lives.
In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul proclaims what a life living Biblical Christianity looks like – And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. What was Paul’s passion? Christ. What was Paul’s driving force in life? Christ. What was Paul’s purpose in life? Christ. What did Paul want more than anything else in the world? Christ. Friends, that is Christianity. It is radical. It must be. The very terms “born again” and “new creations in Christ” demand nothing less.
PRAYER: “Father, create within me an insatiable hunger for Your Son that radically impacts every area of my life.”
QUOTE: “Biblical Christianity is a life consumed with the Lord Jesus. False cultural Christianity is Jesus added to life.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim