At a ministry conference recently, I commented that, when measured against the heart of God in the Sermon on the Mount, large segments of American Christianity seem to be going completely off the rails. Even though it was a rather sedate crowd, that comment got an “Amen!” That reaction tells me two things: 1) Not everyone is going off the rails. Plenty of Christian leaders are aware of the problem and are asking the right questions. 2) The problem is real.
The question is: why is lack of transformation so common in American Christianity? On the one hand, the key to transformation should be obvious. We are transformed if and only if we come into the transforming presence of Christ. In Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We can live “in the Spirit” rather than “in the flesh” only “if Christ is in you” (Romans 8:9-10). This is an aspect of the foundational Christian belief that we are saved by grace, not by works.
So, what prevents us from encountering the transforming presence of Christ? The problem isn’t on his end. God wants all people to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). His love reaches out to everyone, sending sun and rain on us all (Matthew 5:44-45).
The problem is on our end. There is a core problem, but some Christian traditions have ideological issues that keep them from even getting started. In some traditions, people aren’t really called into the presence of Christ at all. They put the emphasis so strongly on “salvation = going to heaven when I die” that the concern is simply to get your name on the list. The presence of Christ, which breaks in and transforms us in this life, barely enters the picture.
“What prevents us from encountering the transforming presence of Christ?”
My own particular tradition has a different issue. We have strong “cessationist” roots. As a result, we often don’t expect Jesus to actually show up. We certainly don’t do anything that will fall flat if he doesn’t. As a result, we develop ministry and evangelism methods that don’t require him to. We need to get over that. As the saying goes, “What you win them with is what you win them to.” And so we have won people to slick entertainment, to a cozy community, to a fanatical team, or to rational arguments, but not to Jesus. The only way to win people to Jesus is to win them with Jesus.
Which leads us back to the previous question: what is the problem on our end that keeps us from encountering Jesus? Again, the answer is fairly simple. No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). If we love one, we hate the other. If we hold on to one, it repels the other like a reversed magnet.
Adapting some of Jamie Winship’s observations (particularly from Living Fearless), as we live in this broken world, we accept messages that our needs (physical, emotional, social) might not get met. There isn’t enough, so we believe we need to self-promote and/or self-protect in particular ways to get what we need. This mindset is “the mind of the flesh” (Romans 8:6)—a way of being that is molded entirely by and adapted to this broken world. It is “hostile to God” because its fundamental stance is that we cannot rely on God, but must provide for ourselves.
“The answer is fairly simple. No one can serve two masters.”
In the ancient world, these messages (that we need to do certain things to make sure our needs are met) were carved into wood and stone, placed on a pedestal, and worshiped. This was idolatry. This was how the Gentiles chased after all the necessities of life (Matthew 6:31-32). Take the statue away, and if you still believe that your life depends on self-promoting and self-protecting, it’s still idolatry. Paul says as much: “Greed is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
Our fundamental problem is that we carry our idols in our hearts, and they are mutually exclusive with the presence of Christ. We have to name our idols—articulate our false beliefs about ourselves, God, and the world. In spiritual warfare terms, these are “agreements” that have been used to build strongholds in our hearts. We need to hand them to Jesus so they can die on the cross with the rest of this old, broken world. Only then, with the house swept clean (Matthew 12:43-45), can Jesus replace them with his truth. Only then can he replace the mind of the flesh with the mind of the Spirit. Only then do we encounter the living, transforming presence of Christ.
Some churches see little transformation because people are not challenged to let go of their old masters. Why? I think our wealth, as Americans, works against us. “Woe to you who are rich,” says Jesus (Luke 6:24). We can pour money into maintaining the illusion that our self-promoting/self-protecting strategies are working. Or we have the resources to numb ourselves to the reality that they are not.
“We need to hand them to Jesus so they can die on the cross with the rest of this old, broken world.”
But even if people are challenged to let go of their idols, the roots of the false messages we live by often go very deep—to unarticulated scripts we’ve been running since childhood. Only a word from God cuts that deep (Hebrews 4:12). People need to be shepherded to the Shepherd who alone can lead them through the valley of the death-shadow to bring those roots into the light. Then, instead of being the magnet that is repelled away, he can repel them. With the house swept clean, Jesus can take residence.
No longer “in the flesh,” we can live “in the Spirit.” “And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:17-19, ESV).
