The Under-Emphasis of the Resurrection

I am currently reading "Raised With Christ" by Adrian Warnock. After my series of posts at the beginning of last month this quote seems fitting.

Most of us are not intentionally neglecting the resurrection.  We do appreciate its importance and value it highly.  But the resurrection has not been explored as fully as many of the other doctrines and has not been given the attention it deserves.

Paul states emphatically that without the resurrection we would still be in our sins.  Without the resurrection we are lost and there is no hope!  There is no salvation without a living Jesus.  We need the resurrection to have its power-generating effect inside of us if we are born again... We need a change within us that only the resurrection can produce...

The degree to which we neglect the resurrection is also the degree to which we neglect to think about Jesus as he really is, now.  Jesus is enthroned in heaven and is reigning inside every believer.  His powers are limitless, and he is at liberty to do as he wishes... The world seems blind to the Bible's description of the resurrected Jesus, full of power and authority.  This description is highly offensive to the world.  But to worship Jesus as the artists have portrayed him, instead of as the Son of Man in all his glory, is nothing short of idolatry.

To meditate on the reality of the risen Jesus promises to be of great benefit to us.  Hope, optimism, enthusiasm, and certainty are likely to result.  Angst, uncertainty, and complexity, as well as attempts to deny ourselves legitimate pleasures in an attempt to carry our own cross, might be the result if we neglect to meditate on Christ's glorious victory over death.  This kind of condemnation and legalism is widespread in the church today.  In the modern world, many accuse the church of being dead.  This impression will merely be confirmed if they only hear us preaching about a Jesus who was crucified for them, speaking about him and acting as though he is still dead.  Colossians 2:6-4:1 contrasts the legalism of religion with the resurrection life that is ours in Christ Jesus.  Without setting our minds on our living Master in heaven we will never be able to live as God intended.

What's interesting is that he connects a lack of focus on the resurrection to legalism within the church.  In my previous posts I made the point that I feel like we don't focus on Christian living enough because we are afraid that we will introduce legalism and because we do not teach the resurrection.  But maybe it would be more appropriate to say that to teach Christian living without a proper understanding of the resurrection MUST result in legalism.  We have properly recognized that in the modern evangelical movement, but rather than correcting it by teaching Christian living AND the resurrection, we now teach neither Christian living NOR the resurrection.  And so we are left with something far short of the gospel of the Bible.

Works and Doctrine - The Conclusion

So I think that these two things: ignorance concerning the resurrection of Christ and an inflated reaction to legalism within the church, has resulted in the lack of Biblical balance that we see today. We must return to the gospel that the Bible teaches, a gospel that contains both grace and work (in their proper order). We must return to the teachings of the Apostles, a teaching that emphasizes both the cross and the resurrection. And we must learn that it is NOT ENOUGH to die to sin, we must also live to righteousness. Not because by dying to sin or living to righteousness we will be saved, but because God has made it transparently clear that both of these things are essential to our faith.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

The Teaching on Works

2) We have such a fear of legalism creeping into the church that any mention of what our lives as Christians should look like is immediately labeled legalistic. Recently in Adult Sunday School my pastor read excerpts from the Didache, a compilation of early Christian teachings (dating around 175 AD). These teachings were simply a list of things that Christians should partake in and do. Many people in the class responded by saying that this sounded legalistic and wrong, however it appeared to me that the lists were directly out of Scripture. See Matthew 5-7, Titus 3, Colossians 3:12-4:6, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, 2 Peter 1:5-11. It would seem that many people would get up and walk out saying they will not put up with legalism if these Scriptures were to be read. But we must come to see that talking about and expounding upon what the Christian life should look like is not legalism!! In fact, encouraging good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25) is commanded in Scripture, so we should be doing it. Encouraging and even teaching good works is not legalism; legalism is when good works are seen as a prerequisite for salvation. We must come to see that apart from Galatians 1-4 on the superiority of grace over law, chapters 5 and 6 would be legalism. But apart from chapter 5 and 6, the doctrine of grace in chapters 1-4 would be wholly incomplete. Until we are able to freely talk about what the Christian life should be, until we are free to describe and encourage Christ-like living without people getting their feathers all ruffled, until we do this we will not have truly started building the kingdom of God. For what is a kingdom where the king is not obeyed? As long as we continue to not live our lives for Jesus, as long as we only focus on the things we are not to do but leave out the things that we are to do, we are not serving Jesus but rather ourselves.

The Lack of Teaching on Works in Accord with Sound Doctrine

I have felt for a long time that modern evangelical Christianity (as I have experienced it) has a curious overemphasis on ceasing to sin and an alarming lack of emphasis on doing good works. We recognize all of the bad things that we are not to be doing and frequently talk about them, but how often is the new life that we are to be walking in Christ expounded upon? I have heard countless sermons that go on and on about dying to sin and what that looks like and the process entailed and then finish with minor if any reference to living to righteousness. However, when we really consider the gospel message, when we look into what the Bible teaches of salvation, we will see that our life is crucial! At this some of you may be putting up red flags, and while I would love to address them now, that is not the intent of this post, however I would encourage you to look over Ephesians 2:8-10, Matthew 7:15-27 (spec 20 & 24), Galatians 5, Colossians 3:5-4:6 (note the extensive list of good works following the short list of bad works to avoid), Titus 2, James, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 4:1-11. I could list many more passages, but even a short perusal of these will quickly illuminate the fact that 1) the good news of our salvation is rarely mentioned in the Bible without being immediately followed by a call to live a good life and 2) passages encouraging us to stop doing bad things, to put off sin, are always followed by a specific admonition to also put on godliness, or good works.

Unfortunately it seems that the modern day evangelical community has lost this focus on what our new life in Christ is supposed to be and I have recently come to two conclusions as to why this is.  I will devote each of my next two posts to discussing these points.