Gandhi, the great liberator of India, once said, "If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today!" Many well meaning Christians have since seized upon those words and have attempted, at times, to make the rest of us feel guilty about the many deficiencies in our Christian living.
And you know what? There's some truth in the things that they say about our lifestyles.
They're right, our behavior ought to make us stand out from the society around us.
We ought to be more loving, generous and forgiving.
The problem is, however, that we can preach as much as we like about Christian living, but if the gospel is not the center of the message, the listeners will be left powerless to change.
It is only a clear beholding of Christ's cross and righteousness that will effectually kill sin and cause us to grow in grace.
The 18th century English preacher, John Berridge, confirmed this when he said that, in the days before he understood the gospel, he preached on morality so much that after several years there wasn't one moral person left in his parish! But back to Gandhi! Gandhi was genuinely distressed by the racism and hypocrisy which he encountered in Christian churches! But was Gandhi correct in his analysis? Would India have become Christian if all the Christians had followed the teachings of Christ? No sir-not by a long shot! Gandhi, like countless others fail to grasp that there is no such scripture that says, "The gospel of good behavior and a changed life is the power of God unto salvation.
" Of course the gospel changes us, but the gospel which delivers nations is the gospel of Christ! The gospel is about Christ Jesus, not about our changed lives! It is the gospel of Christ that is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe.
Our lives, no matter how spotless can never qualify as or rival this.
Someone once said, "You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day...
By the deeds that you do, by the words that you say...
People read what you write, whether faithless or true Say, what is the gospel according to you?" Cute, but sheer nonsense! The gospel has already been written and written in blood-God's blood! The gospel is not about "the deeds that I do", but rather about the deeds that Christ has done! But' says someone, "isn't it true that Christians are supposed to be loving?" Yes indeed that is true.
Jesus said so in John 13:35 and John 15:12.
But to assume that people will flock to become Christ's disciples because they see the love in the redeemed community is to invest these scriptures with more meaning than is intended.
We are to love one another as Christ commanded, but our loving one another will not get people right before God.
Just as no one is acquitted before God by having a changed life, so no one is suddenly inspired to flee to God for mercy merely by observing our Christ-like life.
Yet, so much supposedly 'sound' preaching focuses on the inner experiences of change as though that was the paramount thing on the Father's mind! The thing of paramount importance to the Father, however, is the Son.
It is His desire that in all things Christ would be preeminent (Col 1:18-19).
The Father delights in Christ and so should we.
He has glorified His Son and so should we! To substitute the preaching of Christ crucified for a message about us is a travesty.
However, by and large, subjective preaching has conquered many of our pulpits.
And is it any wonder? In many evangelical circles nowadays, salvation is actually seen as the inward experience of new birth.
Regeneration, in the thinking of many, has replaced Justification by grace through faith as the ground of acceptance before God.
Rather than, by faith alone, resting on and embracing Christ alone, people are now being taught to look inward.
Gandhi's words, therefore, resonate with many and they now falsely believe that the power to get others saved lies within them, in the condition of their hearts and in their behavior! If all of India, or any country for that matter, is to come to Christ then the gospel of Christ needs to be restored to its rightful place.
Our churches need to once more, become gospel driven! Since Christ, His person work and offices are the center and heart of the gospel, they need to be proclaimed loudly and continually.
And that's the Gospel Truth