A Sentimental Gospel

I'm thinking that we have made the Gospel too sentimental. Now, I'm a
sentimental guy, so don't get me wrong - I adore Jesus and I cherish
the love that he has for me. But I believe we have given Jesus a focus
different from that with which he came to earth. I think that, for the
most part, we look at the teachings, life, and death of Jesus as us-
centered. We think that Jesus hung on the cross and all the while he
was thinking of us, thinking of those who would be saved by his
sacrifice.

But a personal Jesus that offers personal salvation is an
individualized religion, while the big picture I believe Jesus had in
his sights included all of creation, and it pointed to a reality, a
Kingdom, we could not even begin to imagine. And I think that instead
of being us-centered, I believe Jesus had his sights on that Kingdom
and on his Father, and all the while he was inviting us into something
much larger than ourselves. Call it semantics, but I think there is a
large difference between saying "I have been saved by Jesus" and
saying "Jesus saved me." The former is "me" centered and the latter is
Jesus' perspective. The difference is in making Jesus the subject of
the sentence, not us. Jesus is the doer. Further, there is a large
difference between saying, "Jesus came for me" and saying "Jesus came
to invite me (and all of us) into something larger." The former makes
an end goal out of saving me, while the latter tells of how Jesus'
"saving" me is part of something much, much larger.

I believe Jesus came for the Kingdom and he came for God, and a
crucial part of that involves inviting us into God's story; God is
working for the redemption of all creation, not just humans; and Jesus
came for much more than our personal salvation, but for the redemption
and liberation of all creation from the ills of a fallen state - and
part of that involves the forgiveness of sin and the process of being
saved, healed, and delivered (salvation) from the power of sin over
us. But that freedom from sin is not an end in itself and it is not
just so we can run around and be happy and care-free - that freedom
allows us to participate in the larger story that Christ is inviting
us in to. That freedom allows us to get up out of the pit we find
ourselves in and run headlong toward the end which Christ himself is
running - the reign of God and the redemption of all that God has
created.

Just some thoughts. Thanks for listening,
Seth