When we were lost, God became and He came. Not in the Spirit, but in the flesh. While dead in our sins, counted as enemies, He became one of us, and He came. He wasn't in some semi-detached spiritual form shouting out holy counsel, He became fully human and He came.
This is the true Gospel: God 'pitched His tent among us,' lived with us, ate with us, cried with us, rejoiced with us, lifted our heads, healed our eyes, opened our ears, cured our diseases, brought us out of darkness, walked side by side with us, taught us, gave us water when we were thirsty and food when we were hungry. He touched us, and He let us touch Him. He was here with us in every human way.
According to the prosperity gospel, all people have to do is give more, pray more, be closer to God and all will be well. Why should anyone go among the hurting? Just give them this message, preferably over the radio or television, and move on. Other churches are preaching the Word every Sunday, but are never making this Word "flesh" and dwelling among the lost.
This is not the Gospel. The Gospel is that God dwelt among men and then saved them. When we step away from the poor, for whatever reason, we are eliminating the humanity of Christ, and without His humanity there is no Gospel. He took our sins and our pain away as both God and man. It was through a combination of His love and strength that we were saved. Through His love He identified Himself with us and took our sin upon Himself - the true Intercessor. Through His strength He took on the full weight and darkness of this sin and then destroyed it completely upon the Cross, shattering its hold on us - the true Savior.
When we deny our brothers food and water, when we deny them their humanity, we deny the true Gospel which takes on their humanity and delivers them from the darkness. When they cry out . . . . we come to them. We don't shout out holy counsel from white-washed palaces. We physically enter into their world and touch them, hold them, feed them, cry with them, laugh with them and love them.
When we cried out, God became flesh and He dwelt among us. We can do no less for our fellow man. That's the true Gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment