Good News

“We think that our intellect is offended by the Gospel, when really, it is our pride. We believe that we’re self-made. The poor know that it’s grace.”- Timothy Keller

These words come from a sermon of Keller’s called “Meeting the Real Jesus”. Think about them for a moment, if you will..

It’s a pretty bold statement for Keller to make no? To say that we Christians (generally speaking) live like we are too good for the Gospel. Ouch huh? But I don’t think any of us can deny..he couldn’t be more right.

 In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent a messenger to ask Jesus if he really was the one, the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus’ response is this : “blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” We don’t want to be insulted. We don’t want to be seen as fools. We don’t want to be kept waiting. We want answers, we want relief, we want judgment to the unrighteous..now. How American of you, John the Baptist.

This chapter calls the poor blessed, and it makes so much more sense to me now why this is the case. The dignified, the cultured, and the financially blessed tend to want religion. We like our Sunday morning routines, our coffee and doughnuts to go, our 30 minute (and not a second longer!!) sermons, 4 worship songs (40% hymns, 60% praise songs), a bit of fellowship after church, and a small group here or there. Doing too many service projects, having to give to missions, and sharing our faith in everyday circumstances..now that is asking too much (generalization I know). Here’s the problem. If we live this way, our lives become about a religion. But Jesus says no, it’s all about the Gospel.

In an illustration in Keller’s sermon he says this..allow me to rephrase.

You, take your Christianity, your pretend to do good while staying comfortable faith and go back in time, to the days that Jesus lived. Gather all the poor and needy (most of the population back then) and stand up among them and say “Listen! I have a message for you, the message of Christianity. We should love our neighbors as ourselves. We should accept each other’s differences. We should strive towards world peace!” Watch and see how many people fall to their knees and say “Finally!! I hated myself before, but now I have purpose and meaning! What good news!!” That would NEVER happen. This “religious” message would never have this kind of effect. It could never do what the Gospel did..it could never do what the Gospel does.

Doesn’t it make sense then why Jesus would say “blessed are the poor”? He’s not saying that all poor people are saved and that all religious people aren’t. Rather, he is saying that the rich tend to rely on their own efforts because of all that they have acquired, and the poor tend to understand that they are in need of a Savior. And that is the true message of Christianity. It’s one that emphasizes the forgiveness of sins through the grace of God.

Jesus did not come to earth and learn the ways of Salvation like other prophets of world religions claimed to do. Rather, Jesus IS salvation, he is the answer. Genuine Christianity is not a bunch of rules to follow, it’s a message of good news..a Gospel. It’s a story that focuses not on what man can do to get to Heaven, rather it tells what God did to intervene...and to save us all. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”( John 1)..how beautiful.

Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who know they’re no different than the poor, blessed are those who have compassion for the poor. Blessed are those not offended by Jesus and his Gospel.

“Run John, run, the law commands

But gives us neither feet nor hands.

Much better news the Gospel brings

It bids us fly and gives us wings.”

-          John Bunyan

People don’t need our religion. They need the Gospel. May we take it with us wherever we go.