“…the Christian message is basically amoral and irreligious,
paradoxical as that may sound.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian life has two dimensions. The first is faith
and the second is good work, doing God’s work on earth.
A believer should live a devout life and do what is
right. But this should not be the center of one’s faith.
The first dimension of Christian life, our faith, our
connection to God, is much more essential. The second dimension, or good works,
is never as valuable as faith.
In today’s world, people admire Christ because He is a
great teacher, the greatest ethicist. He is admired for dying for His ideals.
We take those ideals, and pay Him praise with our
lips. We even go out and try to follow His lead. Doing good works for other
people. Trying to make a change in our society.
But we do not take Him seriously. We don’t bring Him
to the center of our lives. We don’t bring our lives into contact with the
claim of Christ.
The claim that He is God. That He is the Son of God.
That He existed before the time existed. That He created the world and
everything in it. That He is our Lord and we must worship Him.
We don’t believe that He speaks the revelation of God.
We don’t bare to believe that He is that revelation.
Do you have the courage to do it?
Do you have the strength it takes?
It is important to clarify the seriousness of this
matter. To extricate Christ from the secularization process in which He has
been incorporated.
We maintain a distance between Him. Take a step away
from the word of Christ. And never allow no serious encounter to take place.
We live with Christ as a religious genious. As an
ethicist. As a gentleman.
But when He claims our lives entirely with the full
seriousness that here God Himself speaks. When He demands us to acknowledge
that God once became present only in Christ.
He claims our commitment. Not relative commitment. No the church as a social club. Not the church as a social movement.
Our commitment to an absolute truth. To the absolute
ruler. Our commitment to the only God.
And He has an absolute claim on our commitment.
Good works have almost always and everywhere been
valued more highly than faith. They are easier to measure. And easier to see
and to show to other people than abstract commitment to a “faith”.
It is true that we should go good works and respect
the importance of them. There is no such thing as cheap grace.
We cannot sit still and look at our brothers’ and
sisters’ suffering and claim that we have faith in Christ. That we are His
children and heirs of His Kingdoms.
But in Martin Luther’s words: “…we should be careful
that we don’t elevate good works to such an extent that faith and Christ become
secondary. If we esteem them too highly, good works can become the greatest
idolatry. This has occurred both inside and outside of Christianity. Some people
value good works so much that they overlook faith in Christ. They preach about
and praise their own works instead of God’s works.”
The religion is a man-made thing. It is something that
people do. A building we build, so that we can sit inside, together. And feel
that we belong.
But Christianity is something different. At its heart
there is something different. Christ Himself – a living God. A real person.
Our faith, everything about Christianity. Is about the
relationship we have with this person. This King of King, the ruler of all and
everything. The creator of earth and heaven. The Father of All. The One and
Only.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “Factually speaking,
Christ has given scarcely any ethical prescriptions that were not to be found
already with the contemporary Jewish rabbis or in pagan literature.”
Christianity isn’t about a new and better set of
behavioral rules or about moral accomplishment. The religion and moral
performance are the very enemies of Christianity and Christ.
They present to us the false idea that somehow we can
reach God through our moral efforts. That we can be saved by our own works.
Faith should always be first.
Do not forget Martin Luther’s words: “It is faith – without good works and prior to good works – that takes us to
heaven. We come to God through faith alone.”
“… a person becomes righteous by faith.”
Martin Luther
