The Gospel of Signs, Sageness, and Success

Tim Keller shows us that Paul preached one gospel but it was distributed in two different forms to two different audiences. This helps us think through what form of the gospel America needs to hear the gospel in.

“So yes, there must be one gospel, yet there are clearly different forms in which that one gospel can be expressed... After [Paul] insisted there is only one gospel (Gal. 1:8), he then speaks of being entrusted with "the gospel of the uncircumcised [Greeks]" as opposed to the "gospel of the circumcised [Jews]" (Gal. 2:7). When Paul spoke to Greeks, he confronted their culture's idol of speculation and philosophy with the "foolishness" of the cross, and then presented Christ's salvation as true wisdom. When he spoke to Jews, he confronted their culture's idol of power and accomplishment with the "weakness" of the cross, and then presented the gospel as true power (1 Cor. 1:22-25).”

Paul appealed with the “gospel of signs” (my phrase) to his fellow Jews. They desired to experience God's power through miraculous signs. But they totally missed the biggest sign of all when Jesus showed up on the scene and accomplished the biggest miracle the world had ever seen.

Paul appealed with the “gospel of sageness” (my phrase) to the Greeks. They desired to be wise through reflection and experience. But they totally rejected Jesus, the wisest person to ever walk the planet.

The gospel confronted both audiences while... rebuking their earthly desires to have power and wisdom while at the same time offering them the opportunity to have heavenly power and wisdom by clinging to the person and work of Jesus.

I think that today we as Americans desire success more than anything. We desire high-paying jobs, big ministries, mega-churches, super-athlete kids, big retirement packages, and anything else that sets us apart as being important or on top.

But the gospel of success confronts these idols because true biblical success does not always match up with earthly success. What if God calls you to give up your high-paying job to raise your own salary and work with a non-profit instead? What if God doesn't give you a super-athlete kid but rather gives you a kid with a birth defect? What if he calls you to give away your retirement savings before you get to retirement for the sake of advancing His Kingdom on earth?

When we think of success as preaching watered-down messages to get more people into our churches, skipping church to take our kids to ball games so that they'll become heroes in high school, creating Christian business directories to increase the success of only those inside the church, I think we start missing godly success altogether.

Yes, the gospel of success confronts our culture's idols but it also gives us the opportunity to cling to Jesus and have true success – that which isn't always measured in dollars, numbers, or prestige. It gives us the chance to leave a real legacy here on the earth – one that glorifies God and helps us to be set free from our bondages to sin so that we can enjoy God more and experience Him more deeply.

The gospel of [true] success needs to be distributed to all Americans.

Freedom Isn’t Really Freedom

by Tyler Zach

Is it possible for a free person to be a slave?

Is it a paradox that a person growing in freedom can actually become less free?

Rob Bell, in his newest book, Sex God, says something quite interesting:

“Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want. But freedom isn’t being able to have whatever we crave. Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it.”

Let’s look at a drinking scenario since it is a rather common occurrence in fraternities and sororities.

Many Greeks have the potential to become pendulum swingers when it comes to personality and attitude. During the big parties, these students are energized, happy, humorous, and seem to enjoy life to the fullest. But during the school week comes complaining, bitterness, and depression. Thus, the weekly Wasted Wednesday becomes an oasis opportunity for these guys and girls to drink and be satisfied with life again.

In choosing the freedom to drink, these students slip more and more out of freedom.

We often become dependent on what are free to do. Therefore we become un-free.

Guys who choose to look at pornography because they are free to do so, become addicted and then become slaves to pornography. Girls who choose to date one guy after another because they are free to do so, become addicted to dating and then become slaves to dating.

Whatever you are choosing to do that you have become a slave to, as trivial as it may seem, still affects your daily attitude. A guy who doesn’t get his daily or weekly dose of pornography will simply act different than a guy who isn’t dependent on pornography. A girl who can’t go without having a boyfriend will act different than a girl who can be without a boyfriend for a period of time.

So, how can we be really free?

The bible makes it clear that we are born as broken people. We are slaves to doing the things that bring chaos instead of order. We’d rather be addicted to things that benefit ourselves rather than benefit others. We are slaves of wrongdoing.

Jesus, however, offers us an alternative – being slaves or right doing. Can you imagine being the type of person who can’t help but do the right thing in every situation?

This is true freedom: Not being addicted to any wrongdoing.

However, simply abstaining from wrong things will not lead to satisfaction. A lot of Christians are really good at following the rules and abstaining from the wrong things. But there is no joy and not satisfaction in their life. That is why they secretly envy their fraternity brothers or sorority sisters who are living it up, partying, and enjoying life to the fullest. This type of envy makes it easy for them to condemn the wrong doers because they wish they could be having fun too!

No, true freedom means replacing the addiction of wrong things with the addiction of right things. True freedom means leaving behind the story of your life for a better story.

By receiving Jesus into your life and submitting to his way of life, you will eventually become more and more addicted to him and a life of right doing. You will find yourself desiring to go down and serve Hurricane Katrina victims rather than going on a party trip to Mexico. You will find yourself serving your housemates by doing extra chores rather than locking yourself in your room to look at pornography. You will find yourself hanging out with and mentoring younger brothers and sisters in the House instead of spending an hour on the phone each night with your boyfriend or girlfriend – who you will eventually break up with.

Being a slave to right doing is the only kind of addiction you want to have in your life. And this change of life can only come through Jesus. He died and was resurrected so that we could die to a life of wrongdoing and resurrected into a life of right doing.

Self-help books won’t do the trick.