I have to be honest, the more and more I read in the Gospels of Jesus, the more I'm left asking, "how can anyone truly make contact with Jesus and not be changed?"
As we talk about how the world views the church as a "bunch of hypocrites," I think it's NOT because of what we are teaching, but it's exactly the things we are teaching that may attribute to this lack of real transformation.
You have undoubtably seen the shirt or the bumper sticker that says, "I'm not perfect, I'm just forgiven," plastered all over the back of minivans or youth groups everywhere. I believe that this subtle misleading theology has done more damage than good, and before all you bible scholars get in an uproar about salvation and justification issues let me explain.
Dallas Willard in his book "The Divine Conspiracy" sheds some great insight into this issue which I believe we need to consider. If we ONLY see the interaction with Jesus as merely forgiveness of sins, then we can only expect to see the benefits of this exchange when we die.
Is this the "life and life abundantly" that Jesus was talking about? Certainly not! Any interaction with Jesus must leave a mark in our life that causes us to interact much differently with the world around us.
Maybe we need to put more effort in showing and teaching not just the forgiveness of sins but instead what the reconciled (friendship) life with the Creator of the universe should look like!
Forgiveness of sins was a given...Getting up and walking is our part.
As someone who hopes to one day be called a scholar of anything! I totally agree with you, well said!!
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