There seems to be a trend of late in American Christianity, where Law and Gospel has been relegated to “prosperity” and tries to soften how sinful we are and how much we need a Savior. Case in point: a time when I guest preached at another congregation. I had just finished my sermon, covering our inherent sinfulness and how we deserve nothing from God, but in His mercy He sent His only Son to die a death He didn’t deserve to save us from sin. I sat down, and the music director said something to the effect of, “Yes, we might make mistakes, and there’s days we do bad things, but that never kept Jesus our Friend, Jesus away from us, and aren’t we blessed to have a loving God like that?” And looked straight at me, almost chiding me for daring to say we are bad people who need a Holy Savior.
That, folks, is called “the theology of glory”, where someone takes Law and Gospel, the basic parts of our unworthiness of salvation before the pure and holy God, and waters it down to “you’re bad…but not THAT bad”. The music director hit on the basics of the Americanization of Christianity – that we do the best we can, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and God covers the ‘gap’ in Jesus. The more ‘good’ stuff you do, the better things work out for you, and if you come up short, God will love you anyway. Sounds like a spin on works righteousness to me.
This is why Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, and others like them are so popular. Sinful ears love to hear they’re not ‘that bad’ and can make God work for them if they do the right things. And if God isn’t all that mean and would never send someone to hell just for being a ‘little bad’, then God can also serve as a ‘cosmic slot machine’ – do the right things, say the right words, pull the handle – and presto! Prosperity! This false gospel is leading so many astray. There’s a great article I read recently that states this issue wonderfully. It’s a bit lengthy, but well worth the read:
http://www.wscal.edu/resources/MichaelHorton_GloryStory.php
God forgive them for taking the sweet message of the Gospel and turning it in to Christless Christianity – a message that has no hope and makes idols of ourselves.
