For most of the time I have been serving as a pastor in the United Methodist Church I have heard conversations, read books and attended conferences addressing the decline of the church in general and the denomination in particular. I have been asked to consider myriad causes, scores of diagnoses, and more remedies than I can recall. Much of what I have seen and heard has been helpful. Most of it is heartfelt. Still there are times when I wonder if most of those doing the assessment of our current condition are failing to acknowledge the primary source of our malaise.
Soon after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; he scolds Jesus for explaining what that will mean for him: opposition, suffering, death. In spite of Peter’s well-meaning expression of concern, Jesus is unwavering—and even extends the implications of his identity and the mission to which has been appointed to include all who would choose to follow him: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
Years before his death in 1963, A. W. Tozer identified “a notable heresy [which] has come into being throughout our evangelical Christian circles—the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Savior and we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to!
“I think the following is a fair statement of what I was taught in my early Christian experience….
“‘We are saved by accepting Christ as our Savior; we are sanctified by accepting Christ as our Lord; we may do the first without doing the second!’”
“The truth is that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred Scriptures. Peter makes it plain that we are ‘chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience’” (1 Peter 1:2).
If you are concerned about the decline of the church, let me ask you to pray that more people will not only accept Jesus as their savior; but will also allow Jesus to be their Lord and resolve to take up their cross and follow where Jesus leads.
