At a Price

At a Price:

God does not love us more because we read our Bible, because we spend more time in prayer, or because we go on mission trips.

Scripture tells us “while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” There is no greater love which God can unleash, reveal, or lavish upon us beyond what He has already done.

This does NOT mean we can experience no richer, truer, fuller, and more complete relationship with God Almighty beyond what we’ve already experienced. On the contrary, this side of eternity the remnant of sin in our lives diminishes the vastness, fullness, and repletion of that reconciled relationship.

Spiritual exercise, or “disciplines” as they have oft been referred to, is the way by which we voluntarily participate in a relationship with God in order to minimize the negative consequences of sin.

The debate in Christian circles frequently turns to the rudimentary topic of salvation. Salvation is the beginning of the Christian walk - it is NOT the fullness or the goal of the Christian life.

Within the western hemisphere there is an unfortunate and regrettable habit of making salvation the end-all-be-all because we are generally selfish and “me-centered” cultures. We tend to think of things in terms of personal benefit rather than community benefit or participation.

Therefore, if salvation is what gets us into heaven and our eternity is now secured… our thought process then defaults to that which is self-serving. What that looks like in our culture is frequently something like:

We “go to church” when we feel like it rather than being ongoing, perpetual, invested, and contributing members of a Christian community.

We receive much, but give back very little in terms of time, talents, and treasure.

We float on the periphery rather than putting down roots so that we can bolt when things get rough, don’t meet our expectations or preferences.

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Far beyond the vernal “salvation culture” of many North American churches there is rich and profound commUNITY to be had. Oddly enough, the very thing many of us so desperately desire - authentic biblical community (a.k.a. koinonia) - is the one thing we thwart, repel, oppose, and refuse to engage in.

The problem with many of the “Spiritual Disciplines” resources out there is that they tell YOU how YOU can become more intimate in YOUR relationship with God, but they do very little (or nothing) to compel us to love God AND neighbor - to simultaneously cultivate both our relationship with God by loving and pouring into others and with our neighbor by loving and being poured out for God.

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One of our biggest misconceptions about the Christian life is that we believe our relationship with God to be a form of spiritual insurance and insulation. We tend to think that as we walk with God the problems, troubles, struggles, and trials of life will be reduced, minimized, or eliminated altogether. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Praying to God to make us more like His son - Jesus - is one of the most powerful prayers the Christian can pray. But look at the life of Jesus… never a moment of selfish consideration, but only/always altruistic selfless love for the Father and for humanity.

The Christian life has Jesus as our exemplar for several reasons. The first is so that we will not deceive ourselves into believing that we are redeemed when we are in fact still slaves to sin. The second is so that the mission of God can be fulfilled through those who seek not to merit their salvation, but to be poured out in thanksgiving for it.

The Apostle Paul spoke and wrote of this to the church at Corinth:

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

You were bought at a price.

Does your life demonstrate a sincere “Thank you!” to God our Savior, or does it paint a picture of perpetual entitlement of a life, which selfishly still belongs to you?

Blessings,

-Kevin