The invisibility of God is a great problem. It was already a problem to God’s people in Old Testament days. Their pagan neighbors would taunt them, saying, “Where Is now your God?” Their gods were visible and tangible, but Israel’s God was neither. Today in our scientific culture young people are taught not to believe in anything which is not open to empirical investigation. How then has God solved the problem of His own invisibility? The first answer is of course “in Christ.” Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son has made him known.” “That’s wonderful,” people say, “but it was 2,000 years ago. Is there no way by which the invisible God makes Himself visible today?” There is. We return to 1 John 4:12: “No one has ever seen God.” It is precisely the same introductory statement. But instead of continuing with reference to the Son of God, it continues: “If we love one another, God dwells in us.” In other words, the invisible God, who once made Himself visible in Christ, now makes Himself visible in Christians, if we love one another. It is a breathtaking claim. The local church cannot evangelize, proclaiming the gospel of love, if it is not itself a community of love.
John Stott

Forums

Forum Navigation
You need to log in to create posts and topics.

MORALIZING or CHRIST?

Forum Archives
2,519 Posts
#1 · January 19, 2005, 5:47 pm

Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>

NOTE: I have often wondered whether the public have come to view
we conservative Christians more as "morals" crusaders, rather than
people who represent the simple Gospel of Jesus. The writer below
had some pretty provocative things to say about this.

MORALIZING or CHRIST?
-by Michael Rew

[See Luke 16: 13-15; 18: 18-43; 19: 1-10]

I wondered why America has a hard time experiencing revival. I came
to a partial conclusion: the love of money. The Scriptures I cited
above outline what I believe is a basic blueprint of the love of money
in our country and in the American churches.

Many American Christians are pushing traditional values, morality,
and the Ten Commandments instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I once read or heard that a journalist interviewed quite a number of
Christian conservatives for a documentary. They talked about laws
and social reform, bans on this and that, but only one of them
came out and asked the journalist if any of these Christians had
shown him what the Gospel really meant. No one had.

Holding up the Ten Commandments is not a bad idea. The law is
our teacher to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3: 24), but I have
sensed that many morality movements overly emphasize keeping
the law, not coming to Christ.
------------------------------------------
QUESTIONS: Can 'morals' save? Should we be renowned as
people of the "law" or people of the gospel? Is it right for the
Christians to be viewed as allies of 'Big Business' and capitalism
when, after all, Jesus came as a poor man preaching to the poor?

While not advocating a kind of 'socialism' here, can you tell me,
are any of these things right?

God bless you all.

Click for thumbs down.0Click for thumbs up.0