Over the long holiday weekend (last Thursday was
Cassinga Day in Namibia) I was invited to join the Campus Crusade for Christ staff to teach at their annual staff retreat. I was given seven session over 4 days (Thurs night to Sun morning) to teach on the topic of "The Gospel." It’s simultaneously a topic simple enough for children to understand, yet deep enough for theologians throughout history to have written countless volumes about. My goal was to land somewhere in the middle.
We started in our first session by casting a vision for full life with God. We compared Genesis 1-2 with Revelation 21-22. It's always good to start with a grand vision of what could be! But that's not the world we find ourselves living in today. The reason for that is the "mutiny" found in Genesis 3. In our second session we looked at the true nature of sin and the effects of the Fall. To make sure we grasped what a big deal sin really is we looked at God's holiness and the death of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6. This raises a "dilemma" of sorts: How can God be just
and have a relationship with sinners?
The answer is that God provides a substitute to take the punishment for sin on their behalf. In the Old Testament that looked like animal sacrifices, but those only pointed forward to the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. The scandal of grace is that God now invites sinners into relationship with Himself. We looked at Luke 7:36-50 and the contrast between Simon the Pharisee and the immoral woman. While Simon proudly clung to his self-righteousness, the woman helplessly flung herself on the mercy of Jesus. That needs to be our posture as well.
In our last two sessions we discussed the common distortions of the gospel of grace: lawlessness and legalism. One could easily say, "If I'm saved by grace, then now I can live however I want." But like the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, a life saved by God's grace will be transformed by His grace. Or one could argue, "I've been saved by grace, but now I will grow in maturity by my own effort." But the whole point of the gospel is that we
can't clean ourselves up. Philip Yancey writes, “Proof of spiritual maturity is not in how ‘pure’ you are but awareness of your impurity.” Christian maturity is everyday recognizing our need for the gospel and helplessly throwing ourselves at the feet of His grace and mercy.
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| Clearly someone thinks I'm at the wrong retreat! |
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| Who says dodgeball is a kid's game? |
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| Introducing them to Code Names at game night |
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| Acting out the Fall from Genesis 3 |
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Acting out the Day of Atonement from Leviticus 16 -
one goat for the sacrifice, the other for the scapegoat |
The answer is that God provides a substitute to take the punishment for sin on their behalf. In the Old Testament that looked like animal sacrifices, but those only pointed forward to the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. The scandal of grace is that God now invites sinners into relationship with Himself. We looked at Luke 7:36-50 and the contrast between Simon the Pharisee and the immoral woman. While Simon proudly clung to his self-righteousness, the woman helplessly flung herself on the mercy of Jesus. That needs to be our posture as well.
