Rad

The following is a quote from David Platt’s new book Radical.  I have not read the book yet (and I’m not sure that I will), but I do agree and give an Amen! with what he has to say here:

The modern day gospel says, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.”  Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, “You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life.  Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.”

The former sells books and draws crowds.  The latter saves souls.  Which is more important?

In the gospel God reveals the depth of our need for him.  He shows us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to come to him.  We can’t manufacture salvation.  We can’t program it.  We can’t produce it.  We can’t even initiate it.  God has to open our eyes, set us free, overcome our evil, and appease his wrath.  He has to come to us.

Now we are getting to the beauty of the gospel.

So how do we respond to this gospel?  Suddenly contemporary Christianity sales pitches don’t seem adequate anymore.  Ask Jesus to come into your heart.  Invite Jesus to come into your life.  Pray this prayer, sign this card, walk down this aisle, and accept Jesus as your personal Savior.  Our attempt to reduce this gospel to a shrink-wrapped presentation that persuades someone to say or pray the right things back to us no longer seems appropriate.

That is why none of these man-made catch phrases are in the Bible.  You will not find a verse in Scripture where people are told to “bow your heads, close your eyes, and repeat after me.”  You will not find a place where a superstitious sinner’s prayer is even mentioned.  And you will not find an emphasis on accepting Jesus.  We have taken the infinitely glorious Son of God, who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of God and who now reigns as the infinitely worthy Lord of all, and we have reduced him to a poor, puny Savior who is just begging for us to accept him.

Accept him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance?  Don’t we need him?

I invite you to consider with me a proper response to this gospel.  Surely more than praying a prayer is involved.  Surely more than religious attendance is warranted.  Surely this gospel evokes unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that he is.

David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (Multnomah Books, 2010): 32, 36-37.