Spiritual Formation Meets the Gospel
our US educational system fails but we still keep pouring more money into it b/c it's our only hope, it's the only answer we've got nowadays
unfortunately rules (in sense of monastic rules) degenerate into legalisms that no longer carry the original spirit
denominations tend to follow the same arc
eg, Jesuits are widely hated now
modernist v. fundamentalist controversy
conservatives won (in many ways)
but part of conclusion was right belief is what is essential to Xianity
it's important to believe the right thing, but is that adequate to life, is it all you need?
is right belief sufficient to experience the reality described in the Great Commission?
problem of professing
you always live up to what you really believe, which is often in conflict with what we profess to believe
in many of our churches we have professed to believe what we don't really believe for so long that we no longer know what belief is
do we believe God will take care of us?
believing in the virgin birth doesn't give you points. it's part of believing in the kind of world where God does such things.
if you believe that the Bible is God's infallible word to humanity, the best source of knowledge about the most important things provided by God Himself, you're going to live differently. you will integrate yourself with reality. you won't read magazines or newspapers instead of the Bible
'Gospel' of the Left: Jesus came to liberate people, so you can do what you want to do. So if you repress people you're a bad person and not even Xian. Says little about sin and forgiveness or progression in holiness.
'Gospel' of the Church: Hatch, Match and Dispatch (birth, marriage, death)
the Gospel that goes with spiritual formation is the one Jesus preached: led naturally to people becoming disciples, entering into a course of transformation that resulted over time in Xlikeness
'Follow me as I follow X' -- Paul
could go to all world and be effective
Gospel of new life that would come into you when you put your trust in Jesus.
Jesus proclaimed the availability of the KoG now to anyone who would put their confidence in Him
we know from history that spiritual formation does not meet these other 'gospels'. we have run the experiment. the verdict is in.
we also know that people who place their confidence in Jesus with reference to everything that concerns them become inwardly transformed into his likeness. they learn how to do that and are transformed by His Spirit that comes into them as they step into His ways as His student.
books on 'hard sayings of Jesus'. what about the hard sayings of the Devil?
if you live as a student of Jesus and trust Him you learn as you are transformed inwardly that Jesus' teachings are easy.
it's a part of the Devil's lies that God is trying to cheat us, to keep something from us, to make it hard on us.
the Gospel is trust Jesus and as we do it, the Gospel meets spiritual formation (or re-formation)
You can trust Jesus and through Him step into the KoG now
Jesus want to teach you how He would live your life if He were you
[Dallas gives a little too much credit to the old hymns and too little to the new ones]
Jesus is taking students. you're a disciple when you're with someone learning to be like him. apprentice. student.
people in the US think they've already heard the Gospel and rejected it or accepted it
Q&A
everyone who has put their faith in God will be with God in eternity
God is trying to get people into heaven, not keep them out. He's doing everything in His power to get them in.
but lots of people won't want to be there. they insist on being their own God.
differences in eternity are based on understanding and growth therefrom
what God gets out of our life is the person we become that goes on into eternity with our character
different responsibilities based on faithfulness
not a question of merit, but a question of trust [and readiness]
if you trust Jesus you can count on being with Him in eternity
best way to tell is how people live. do they trust Him? not based on profession. some of us might have to wear a dunce cap for a few thousand years. we continue to grow and progress in heaven. what we do in this life matters. we're not trying to just get in the door. the fires of heaven may be hotter than the fires of hell. everybody talkin' bout heaven ain't goin there. many who talk about going there would not like it.
it is the disciple who is the friend of Jesus and is trusting Him. thief on the cross still made it based on trust.
compare with 'cheap grace' a la Bonhoeffer
grace is cheap. it's free. that's the point.
it is expensive to God
problem is grace comes to be thought of in forensic terms, not life terms which lays foundation for forensic statement from God
'Abraham believed God and God reckoned it to him as righteousness'
Abraham trusted God in a living relationship
God forgives such people. such people live forever with God.
grace must be understood as a life relationship, which is the NT concept
when Paul says 'grace to you' he's not saying 'unmerited favor be to you'
[I'm not sure Dallas has B. completely right here. it seems like a little bit of a caricature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cost_of_Discipleship
B. says grace is costly 'because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him'
so maybe B would say: anyone who truly responds to grace gives up her life, does so at the cost of his life.
contrast this with cheap grace:
"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
and Dallas would agree with all of that.
of course, part of what Dallas is trying to say is that undiscipleship is more costly than discipleship
but that still does not address the 'cheap grace' that was present in the German state church and in liberal US protestant churches as this time. 'cheap grace' was being preached and ‘dispensed’
Furthermore, Dallas is probably mostly responding to how people take B and not B himself, but D is still a little unfair ;-) ]]
9:51
Preachers: afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted
how do we make disciples? Ravish people with the KoG. Discipleship is the greatest opportunity in life.
d'ship is not a sacrifice. non-d'ship is the sacrifice
[this says more about his problems with Bonhoeffer (but I still think Dallas doesn't quite do B justice. maybe how B is sometimes understood…)]
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