“You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object which the Bible proposes to faith,—Jesus Christ; and to substitute another object in His place,—the Church, the Ministry, the Confessional, Baptism or the Lord’s Supper,—and the mischief is done. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.”
“You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You have only push something between Christ and the eye of the soul, to draw away the sinner’s attention from the Saviour, and the mischief is done. Interpose anything between man and Christ, and man will neglect Christ for the thing interposed! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.”Wow. A 19th century quote and it is so true today. Because our current language speaks of Jesus coming to have a relationship with us and not to establish religion I would say, using today’s vernacular, if you lose sight of Jesus by these two distractions (or any other) you become religious.
How easy it is for us in the church in America to glance off of Jesus and put other good things in front of us. As Luis Palau says, those distractions might be good but they are not the Good News. That is why we must keep grace before us; remember we are saved and grow Spiritually by Jesus!
If you are interested I put a prayer guide for National Day of Prayer on our church site. www.windbornchurch.org
No comments:
Post a Comment