BLOG 3/3/14: UNCONVERTED BELIEVERS: “I NEVER KNEW YOU.’

BLOG. 3/3/14. (CONT.) UNCONVERTED BELIEVERS: “I NEVER KNEW YOU.”

In my quest with you, my readers, for proposing an Alternative Narrative for the church as it moves ineluctably into a post-Christian culture—to even approach the question of: What makes for authentic Christian faith and discipleship? is to be walking on very delicate (even dangerous) territory. But it is not a subject that Jesus avoided. Do you remember that at the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he sobers his listeners with this very possibility that neither their orthodox profession nor their boast of many good works are really the ultimate criteria?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

What Jesus had just been teaching is probably one of the clearest digests of his public ministry, and his kingdom teachings, that we have. It has to do with the lifestyle of obedience required of the disciple and the community of disciples that is to be a demonstration of a radical new order—the kingdom of God, or God’s New Creation. … But … it can be counterfeited: one can hide behind an orthodox profession of faith, or hold up all of the wonderful humanitarian and ‘churchy’ works he/she has done … and never really have one’s whole life in an existential, or life-engaging relationship to Jesus Christ himself. All of the profession and works can be self-promoting, self-affirming, esteem-seeking in the church—and have nothing at all to do with love for, relationship to, and obedience to Jesus Christ who alone is the giver of Life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer goes so far as to say that such a life can be ‘demonic’!

Many of us know this reality because of our own experiences. This is especially true of those of us who have grown up in the context of the Christian church. All of the words and affirmations and confessions are familiar. We’ve heard the teachings of Jesus. We have affirmed them, conformed our lives somewhat to them—but have never really encountered Jesus in such a life-transforming reality that his life becomes ours. We have never been thrilled with, and contagious with the wonder of what he has done, or of the radical discipleship to which he calls us. (I commend to my readers The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, especially chapters 18-19).

How to communicate this reality? I can only relate my own encounter. I was something of a ‘darling’ of the orthodox and evangelical Christian folk of my own community. I had a respectable regime of accomplishments in the church—when I stumbled into this Matthew 7 passage, and into Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘take’ on it—and it ‘blew me away.’ I realized that for all of my credentials, in which I had a certain pride, Jesus could say: “I never knew you.” I count that existential moment as a moment of profound conversion in my life those sixty+ years ago. I could only cry out to Jesus that I chose him as my Lord, as my Life, as my Savior, and as the One in whom and by whom I wanted my life to respond. I wanted Him to know me.

It is for that reason that I have watched, with some sadness, in the intervening years how many folk, ‘unconverted believers,’ inhabit the church, who are trusting in their faithful participation in Christian activities, their good works, and their orthodox professions—but seem oblivious to the life-transforming joy and power of Jesus, of his Spirit, that is the essence of his New Creation folk. This applies to those who are clergy as well as the whole of the church community.

A delicate, even dangerous subject to raise? Absolutely! But I renew my vows of faith in and love for Jesus every day since that, at first, frightening, and then converting moment. I’m willing to raise this subject with you. I would love to hear your responses.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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