Believing The Gospel
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"If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water."
John 4:10, NJB
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE THE GOSPEL?
How is it that so many people in the Gospels who met Jesus face to face could not recognize him as anything other than just another guy? It gives me a little peace of mind when I'm fretting over whether or not I really believe or if I believe enough.
But it begs the question, what does it mean to believe the Gospel? And what of the inevitable incompleteness of my belief?
…what does it mean to believe the Gospel? And what of the inevitable incompleteness of my belief?
I love that Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to provide water for him so he could offer living water to her. It's beyond unexpected; many commentators conclude that the entire interaction between Jesus and the woman would have been inappropriate on every level.
But he is resolved about revealing Good News to the woman, and through the woman, to the entire town. For 2 days, Jesus did something Jews never do, he ate and drank and made conversation with a whole Samaritan village. The woman and her neighbors slowly realized and believed that he was indeed the Savior of the world.
Jesus doesn't tell the Samaritans to become like the Jews but to see who he is. If you have a background in the Church, this may sound like an off-limits missional strategy. Jesus doesn't prescribe a new way of getting or staying right with God but offers what only he can offer. "...No one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life" (John 4:14, NJB).
Jesus doesn't prescribe a new way of getting or staying right with God but offers what only he can offer.
INVITED TO BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, NOT TO HELP
In short, Jesus simply asked them to believe. He spoke to them about who he was, that he was the Messiah they were waiting for. That he was the one who would "explain everything" and fulfill the words of the prophets. Is it not striking to you that Jesus didn't revitalize religion in that village but instead spent the weekend in communion with them?
Is it not striking to you that Jesus didn't revitalize religion in that village but instead spent the weekend in communion with them?
We struggle with this idea a lot. So much that it may not even come up in sermons or bible studies. When it does come up, we have a long list of rebuttals and questions. Jesus was doing something that would eclipse everything people thought they knew about how to commune with God. How many times and in how many ways do we repeat the Samaritan woman's words to Jesus: "You have no bucket, sir" (John 4:11)?
We look at an ordinary man who is himself the reconciliation of all things and presume to add our contribution as if he needed the help. We "look to Jesus" while simultaneously imagining that since he gave his life for us, we ought to give our life for him in devotion and gratitude. We persist in the ways we think we can make ourselves and our world more presentable to God.
We "look to Jesus" while simultaneously imagining that since he gave his life for us, we ought to give our life for him in devotion and gratitude.
WHEN THE CHURCH DOESN’T BELIEVE THE GOSPEL
Yet, Church people, especially leaders, spend more time making Christians more Christian (more thankful and devoted) than communing with those who haven't heard the news. Instead of celebrating and passing on scandalous grace, we imagine that if we spend too much time with impure people, we'll be contaminated or led astray.
There are many practices the Church takes for granted as integral and essential that are only loosely rooted in Scripture. But, based on how fervently these practices are promoted, you'd think they are the very essence of the Church. When pressed, we hold more tightly to the way we follow Jesus than we do to Jesus himself.
When pressed, we hold more tightly to the way we follow Jesus than we do to Jesus himself.
Afraid that we might be proven fraudulent, we wind up treating the spiritual life like cardiovascular fitness. The harder and more consistently you work, the healthier you'll be. While this is true for physical health, it's nonsense in spiritual growth.
BELIEVING THE GOSPEL IS LIKE BEING SET FREE
But this is how the Church tells Jesus he has no bucket. In impatience and innovation, we set out to improve the performance of the Church to make it more effective. Or we imagine that we must elevate levels of belief to a certain point to ensure validity. We are effectively enslaved to a prescribed spirituality that calls us not to trust Jesus but to live up to him instead.
We are effectively enslaved to a prescribed spirituality that calls us not to trust Jesus but to live up to him instead.
This is not belief, and this is not what you were called to when the kindness of the Lord led you to repentance. The Christian faith is not a higher calling or a purer life. It is simultaneously the exposure and the reconciliation of everything you've ever done and will do. The call is to trust who Jesus revealed the Father to be. To rest in the work Jesus is said to have done. To receive the life he has freely given to you and to everyone.
The Christian faith is not a higher calling or a purer life. It is simultaneously the exposure and the reconciliation of everything you've ever done and will do.
Belief is not a virtuous or moral exercise. Belief is the Samaritan woman running to tell her friends, "Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done; could this be the Christ?" It is being content with who we are in Christ instead of trying to become someone we’re not.
Belief in this way is like surprise, like when you hear some actually good news, and you just have to tell your friends about it immediately. Belief is a relief from the burdens you've worked so hard to conceal and carry for so long. Belief begins when you suddenly realize that being exposed isn’t condemnation, it’s freedom.
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