In this past weeks Sunday Morning message I mentioned the word "triumphalism" and said that it was dangerous in the life of the church.  I want to take just a few moments and expand on that thought.   Perhaps the easiest way to understand what was meant by "triumphalism" is to contrast two different ways of viewing the Christian life.  Theologians have often differentiated between what they call the "theology of the cross" and a "theology of glory."   Now, to make this clear, "triumphalism" would be nestled under a theology of glory and would stand opposed to the theology of the cross. 

The theology of the cross is a theological system that understands all of theology, scripture, and indeed all of life through the lens of the cross of Jesus Christ.  Think about it this way; the Bible is a book about salvation from start to finish - it starts with creation and fall and ends in redemption and restoration.  According to the theology of the cross, we cannot understand scripture correctly without seeing it through the lens of the cross of Jesus - which makes sense because the Bible itself is a story about salvation and Jesus' purpose was to seek and save that which is lost.  If one wants to know about the God of the Bible or themselves for that matter, we must not divorce these questions from the cross of Jesus.  The fact is God revealed himself specifically in the pages of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, in other words, if we are to know God we must look to how He has revealed himself.  If one cannot know Jesus or understand the Bible apart from the cross - how then could we be expected to understand who God is or who we are apart from the cross? 

The Scriptures begin with the creation account, but we read in Revelation 13:8 that not only has God known who are His from the foundation of the earth but it speaks of the Lamb being slain before the foundation of the earth as well.  The point is that even before God created the garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve in it to care for it, he had already determined the remedy for their rebellion and therefore the creation story itself must be understood in light of the cross.  The book of Revelation, a book concerning the consummation of all things, starts pointing back to the cross and how He "freed us from our sins by his blood..and is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of earth will wail on account of Him." (Rev 1:6-7)  From the beginning to end the Bible is about Jesus and must be understood in light of the Cross.

The only way to understand who God is and who we are is through Jesus Christ and the cross on which He died, but for some reason, this message has gotten lost in much of the Christian world today.  The theology of cross stands opposed to the theology of glory which encompasses a wide swath of the Christian experience.  Where the theology of the cross looks at our own life and indeed the human existence through the suffering of the cross the theology of glory expects to find victory and answers through effort and spiritual growth.  A theology of glory expects the true Christian to win all the battles (if not now then eventually) and enjoy total success in their Christian walk (if not now then eventually).  A theology of glory boasts of a victorious Christian life meaning that they are living it well -- it is all about their strength and veracity in the battle that continues to rage with the world, the flesh, and the devil.   

The theology of the cross, on the other hand, sees victory in the Christian life through the lens of the cross.  God chose to save us and send his only Son who did not come in glory but humility and suffering from the very beginning.  He became weak and frail on our account and suffered throughout His life to ultimately be crucified and bear the wrath of God for the sin of every person that would place their faith and trust in Him.  Victory then in the Christian life comes not in the defeat of enemies now or establishing a world that is rooted in Christian principles of preserving and respecting all life but in the presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of our failures, weakness, and suffering.   The Christian recognizes that he or she will ultimately experience glory and ultimate victory and that glory is only achieved through the cross.  Jesus' life was marked by suffering and frailty - what would make us believe that our lives should be better than His?   The theology of glory believes that Christ game to give us our best life now in some respect, but the theology of the cross recognizes that our lives are marked by weakness and failure above all and therefore we find refuge and rest in the cross of Jesus.

In Acts 14 there is a point in which Paul is stoned for preaching the gospel of Jesus.  He is dragged out of the city and stoned until the people thought he was dead.  The disciples gathered around him, and Paul gets up and goes back into the town and leaves the next day for Derbe.  Paul continues to preach the gospel in Derbe and make many disciples and then returns to the place in which he was stoned, and the Bible says that he encouraged those believers in the faith.  Grasp what is happening, Paul is encouraging people to continue to do the things for which they saw Paul get stoned.  How did Paul encourage these followers?  He told that it was through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.  In other words, Paul was encouraging them with a theology of the cross that said all of life is to be seen through the lens of the cross. Victory in the Christian life is not your best life now, but the power of God displayed in our weakness and through the message of the gospel that is foolish to so many. 

The Centrality of Jesus Christ 
By Pastor Coalt Robinson

I ran across a paper by Donny Cho who is the Senior Pastor at Metro Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and was very intrigued by what he had to say about the centrality of Jesus in the Gospel.  Listen to how he frames his discussion (which lasts some 27 pages by the way): “Too many times the message from the Sunday pulpit that is passed off as gospel is either a “set of principles on living the Christian life” (spinning back to legalism / moralism / religiosity) or “warm inspirations to get through the week” (spinning you toward hedonism / relativism / license living).  The Gospel we are to have must save us from hedonism and legalism. What kind of gospel does that?”  Pastor Cho goes on to illustrate this by listing several Sunday School or Conference tract topics such as “5 Steps to Knowing the Will of God” or “7 Steps to more Fulfilling Prayer life”  along with simply, “Who is Jesus.”  Pastor Cho says that most of us will opt for the class on the 5 steps to knowing the will of God or the 7 Steps to a more fulfilling prayer life because we see those as more fulfilling — they are not basic like the, Who is Jesus class.  The fact is, a class on Jesus is seen as basic — we already know Him.  The same could be said of a Bible study — some may want to learn how to evangelize and others how to pray more effectively while another might suggest that we get back to the basics and study one of the gospels.  When one suggests a book of the Bible we often hear another say that they have already done that, “I have already studied the book of Mark, I’d like to move on to a topic that will really benefit us.”  I think the point that pastor Cho is making is that we, as Christians, have been conditioned from the pulpit toward hedonism on one side and legalism on the other, and for him, this isn’t the true gospel because the gospel must save us from these extremes.  

If Cho is correct — that we have a tendency toward these two different extremes, then we ought to be able to recognize it.  We must recognize teaching that is gospel centered compared to teaching that lends itself to legalism on one side or hedonism on the other.  First of all, I am not convinced that one can tell if a sermon or Sunday school class is gospel centered based on the title of it.  For instance, a class entitled, “Who is Jesus” may lend itself to legalism where “5 Steps to knowing the Will of God” may be very gospel centered in its approach to the subject.  Having said that, it is important to realize when we achieve things by following a set of guidelines this often breeds legalism.  Think about the title of this blog at twoofus.org entitled, “10 Things You Can do to Have a healthy Marriage”.  The title seems to indicate that for one to have a healthy marriage they need to follow this list of “things”.  Now there is nothing wrong with the article in and of itself, in fact, there are some very good things in it, just as there would be with all of the Studies that Cho lists in his paper.  On the other hand if we look at this list and think that in order to have a good marriage we must tick all of these items off then we boarder on legalism.  At this point someone might say that there is quite a difference between a blog and a sermon, and the answer to that would be yes and no.  Consider the similarities between the blog we mentioned earlier and this sermon at sermoncentral.com entitled “Six Steps to a Good Marriage”.  I am not arguing that there is nothing good in the sermon but just the opposite — the sermon has some great points such as, we ought to marry the right person and be willing to give in, but I have the same complaint.  The title as well as the points in the sermon seem to indicate that if you follow the steps indicated, like being considerate and not going to bed mad that one will have a good marriage as if there is a list of six items that we are to tick off in order to make marriage work.  Here is the problem with messages that lend themselves toward legalism — they keep Christ out of them.  Christian living is more about checking off a list then it is about the gospel — it is more about list checking then it is about total dependance on Christ Jesus.  I think this was some of Jesus’ problem with the religious leaders of his day — they were so concerned with the items in the Law that they missed Jesus.  Is the Law bad?  Certainly not but when it is treated as a list to be checked off to achieve holiness and a right status before God — it becomes a legalistic gospel which is no gospel at all.  

The same could be said for, what Cho, calls “warm inspirations to get us through the week” — these are messages that do not push us toward Christ but instead lend themselves more toward hedonism or relativism.  These are sermons, as Cho says, “take the work of Christ so that we can live life for ourselves, not wanting to do anything really with a life in Christ.”  In other words a message that says, for instance, Christ purchased our freedom therefore we are to live free — live as the people God created us to be.  Very often we hear messages like this, and while there is truth, the problem is that the thrust of the message points us away from Christ and not to Him.  Based on what Christ has done you are free to be you — what does that mean?  Free to drink several beers with your buddies?  Free to be a Christian and a homosexual?  We need to be clear what freedom in Christ means.  Yes, Christ set us free but he also gave us a freedom in which we couldn’t do while in bondage to sin — namely to be obedient to Him.​

The Gospel always pushes us to Christ.  Whether it be some act of Christian living such as our prayer life or our marriage — the true gospel always pushes us to Christ and is not a checklist of dos and don’ts.  The gospel is our our life in Christ not from Christ.  Paul, in Romans 1 says that he is “set apart for the Gospel” (verse 1) and that this gospel concerns the Son (verse 3) — make no mistake that Jesus is central to the gospel.  For Paul everything went back to Jesus — He is the center of the Christian’s life therefore all of our teaching and instruction ought to be gospel centered and Christ exalting. 

One of the things that Americans seem to hold dear is freedom.  All the way back in 1789 it was clear that Americans stood for and respected freedom.  It was in that year that Congress approved the Bill of Rights or the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States.  The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press or the right to assemble…  When we think of the Bill of Rights we think of freedom, but the Bill of Rights does not just tell us that we are free and certainly does not tell us that we are free to do anything we wish.  In the First Amendment we see that we are free to exercise religion and we are free to speak our mind and make our opinion known — no matter how ridiculous.  We have the freedom to assemble but within certain bounds — it must be peaceable. When it comes to the Second Amendment we see that we are free to keep and bear arms (A freedom for which I am very thankful) — there is no wonder when we think of America and more specifically the Bill of Rights that we think of freedoms — freedoms that those in other countries do not have. 

When we think of freedoms that we gain from the Bill of Rights or the freedom that we have by virtue of living in the United States of America we often or should think of that freedom in terms of what we are able to do without fear of punishment — like bear arms or assemble peaceably.  We are free to gather as Christians in Washington DC in support of life — we saw this not long ago in our country — thousands of people gathered together in our nations capital standing together for life peacefully protesting the practice of abortion — even when abortion is legal in our country.  On the other end of the spectrum, June is a month in which we see a lot of LGBT parades and gatherings and in our country people are free to gather and celebrate together.  Those in the LGBT community just like many Christians are very thankful for the Bill of Rights — not only for the freedom to assemble but for the freedom to express ourselves.

Often when we see the flag we are thankful for the freedoms that we have in the United States — we think of the people who gave their lives in order for people to have the freedom to speak freely and and assemble for whatever cause moves them.  Often when we walk into church and we look around we are thankful for the freedom we have to assemble together because in some other countries around the world that freedom does not exist.  I thank God for this: that I have the freedom to attend Bethel Church, to worship with this family without the fear of handcuffs — I think it is right to be thankful for that freedom — to recognize those who have fought and lost their lives for that freedom.  My point in bringing up the Bill of Rights is that when we think of freedom we also usually think of freedom in terms of what we are able to do in light of that freedom.  The Bill of Rights gives us the freedom to keep and bear arms for example. 

Now having said this, there are many who speak of freedom without indicating what that freedom means.  I think of the Lee Greenwood Song, “God Bless the U.S.A.”, “And I’m proud to be an American Where at least I know I’m free and I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.” Of course what Greenwood says isn’t wrong he just does’t specify what freedom he is singing about — is it the freedom to bear arms or assemble or speak his mind?  It is obvious though that he doesn’t mean that Americans are free to do whatever they want to do — just use that as an excuse when you are pulled over for driving 40mph over the speed limit in a school zone.  

I think this is what we have done in the Christian faith — we have started to say that we are free in Christ without indicating what we are free to do in light of that freedom.  I would also suggest that, for many of us, that we walk into the worship service and see the cross and our minds are immediately overwhelmed with thoughts of thanksgiving and gratitude toward our country and military for the freedom bestowed on us by virtue of the Bill of Rights and those who fought to protect it.  I wonder if we have muddled what it means to be free in Christ with what it means to be protected by the Bill of Rights.  I can wonder that because there are many who come into church and see the cross and think of the freedom given to us by our government not what it means to be free in Christ. ​

In Romans 1:1, Paul declares himself to be owned by Jesus Christ — he calls himself a slave and in that he means that his freedom from the bondage of sin and death is found only in giving his life to another master.  Freedom for Paul wasn’t an abstract freedom — it was a freedom that defined him.  Paul couldn’t speak of himself or give himself any credibility without speaking of Jesus Christ.  Listen to this first verse again, “Paul, a servant (doulos) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…”  Paul here introduces himself to the Romans in three ways and in each way he highlights the sovereign work of Christ Jesus in his life — in setting him free — in calling him to be an apostle and setting him apart for the gospel.  How are we to be truly free?  How can we experience true freedom?  Recognize with Paul that freedom is found only in Jesus Christ — meaning that it is in Him and Him alone that we are free to live in obedience to Him.  We were once held captive to sin and by nature and choice objects of God’s wrath — but now we are free from that — free from wrath — free from the penalty and power of sin.  Oh that we would see the cross and be overwhelmed and flooded with gratitude that we are free in Christ — free to serve — free to live— free to tell — and free  from wrath!

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​There is therefore now no condemnation 
for those who are in Christ Jesus.  
Romans 8:1

We want to make it as convenient as possible for you to get a hold of the Bethel Church family so as part of our church directory project you can have the directory on your smart phone or tablet.  The process is simple and secure.  The first thing you will need to do is find the app - you will need to go to the app store that corresponds to your device (if you have an Android device you will go to Google Play and if you have an iPhone or iPad you will find the App Store).  In the app store simply search for "instant church directory" and download that app to your phone.  When the app is finished downloading you will need to launch it.  It will ask you to put your email address in and click next.  If your email is in our directory you will get a place to put in a password on the next screen.  Check your email - find the password sent to you and put it in the app and click finish and you are good to go.  If your email is not in our church directory yet - you will get a message saying something along those lines.  If that happens simply send me an email here with your email address and I will put it in the directory.  Also of you notice that your information in the directory is incomplete or inaccurate in any way - please let me know here and we will get it fixed right away. 

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