Is it really Christian? - Part 2

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that they have anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness... When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. (C S Lewis in Mere Christianity)

One of the problems facing the Church in Britain today is that so few people live with an awareness of their own sinfulness. Consequently, most people never reach the stage in life where they recognise their need of a saviour. A great deception has entered the nation where people believe that they are essentially good and that the mistakes they make, if they ever call them mistakes, are more often than not caused by somebody or something else (like socio-economic factors, government policy or the ‘disease’ of addiction).

The truth, however, is that human beings, without Christ, are fundamentally sinful and without the revelation of this fact Christianity makes very little sense. The Apostle John puts it this way:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:8-10)

It is of course the Church’s duty to articulate this uncomfortable truth and to reveal to people the God who is not just a God of comfort but also, in the words of C S Lewis, ‘the supreme terror’.

Lewis describes Christianity this way:

Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay.               

Earlier in his letter John says of God that he ‘is light’ and that ‘in him there is no darkness at all.’ (1:5) Now the nature of light is that it illuminates that which was previously hidden and in this case it reveals to us the awfulness of our human condition. Yet John also says that:

...if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1:7)

The Church is called to articulate both the problem, which is our inner darkness, and the solution, which is the blood of Jesus, God’s Son.

The message of sin and forgiveness is without doubt explicitly eschatological since it is essential to know that not only are you guilty but that one day you will be held to account. As the Apostle Paul says:

For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (1 Corinthians 5:10)  

Unfortunately, however, the Church in this country, perhaps also in the West more generally, has forgotten that Christianity is inherently eschatological (see my previous blog Is it really Christian? http://www.christianspectrum.org.uk/main/news/post/217-is-it-really-christian-). After all, what need is there to think about the next life when we are all so comfortable in this one? Great damage is done, however, when Christians forget to live their lives and articulate the gospel in the light of eternity. The Apostle Peter repeatedly urges us to take the future into account and tells us to set our hope ‘fully’ on the grace we shall receive ‘when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:13)

Again C S Lewis expresses this truth with clarity and ease:

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.   

Ironically perhaps it is as we orientate ourselves toward the future that we become most effective in the present. Lewis was right to say that:

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.    

Few Church leaders it seems are confident enough to boldly proclaim the reality of the return of Jesus, the awful judgement of both the living and dead and the creation of new heavens and a new earth. That, however, is the only context within which the gospel makes any lasting sense and is perhaps why so many in Britain today feel so at ease with their sinful condition. It is my conviction that if we want to see the lost saved, churches grow and the kingdom of God advance in this nation we must recapture our eschatological focus. If we don’t the Church will slide further into irrelevance and her message will continue to be met with shrugs of indifference. 

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