Galations 2:20 NKJV
I read with some interest this weeks blog by Wayne Jacobsen titled "Franchising the faith." I've heard Wayne be critical of the modern institutional church before, that's nothing new for him. However, I've seldom heard him describe the church as a franchise. See, a franchise has customers, investors and a bottom line. Ok, maybe the church could be seen as a franchise after all. Based simply upon my own experiences, I have seen the modern church run as a franchise corporation. We have set up programs, conferences and video series all designed to introduce us to Jesus and bring us closer into Gods presence. Yet, we are told that we already have that through Christ Jesus. Indeed, the apostle Paul tells of the living Christ who lives on in us {Galations 2:20}. There is no twelve step program we will ever need that will bring us closer to Jesus than our own realization of who it is we truly are. We are not simply sinners saved by grace, but children of God through whom Christ Jesus lives each and every day {1 John 3:1}. It is through us that the world will ultimately see Jesus. For everything that we do and experience...we do as Christ who lives in us. I didn't come to my own realization through a church seminar, but by the revelation of God. I think of all the time and money I could have saved had I simply realized the truth of Christ in me sooner. Yet through all of my years in the church I guess I became...disenfranchised. If there is one thing that I have learned it's that the modern church all too often fails to bring Gods children into that knowing of their own relationship in Christ Jesus, that just wouldn't be profitable. Ultimately that's one of the reasons I grew weary of the church. I would hear others speaking to their own desire to step into a relationship with Jesus, but like a carrot on a stick, they seldom saw that desire fulfilled. I became one of those searching for Jesus in vain.
"There isn't a system humanity has devised that cannot be exploited to serve the needs of our flesh"
Wayne Jacobsen
It took me some time to realize that it wasn't church programs or somehow being more righteous that would lead me to a relationship with Jesus, but my own realization of the man I really was. This realization didn't come from a sunday morning sermon or seminar, but from Gods own revelation to me. As Jesus was revealed in me, it was like stepping into a brand new world. Instead of pursuing my own relationship with Jesus, I could rejoice in knowing that He had been with me all along. I tell everyone that the cross of Jesus is not the finish line, but the starting point of our own relationship with Him. Jesus did not take our sins upon Himself that we would spend our lives in pursuit of something we could never accomplish {2 Corinthians 5:21}. The very thought that a seminar or our own efforts could somehow bring us closer to our own salvation will not bring us any closer to Christ {Ephesians 2:8}. If that were the case, many more christians might be able to work their way into a relationship with Jesus. The carrot on the end of the stick, constantly yearning yet never achieving. That's not the path to relationship that Jesus intended for Gods children. We will never be able to work our own way into a relationship with Jesus. However, we could save ourselves a lot of time and frustration by simply realizing who it is that we truly are. Then again, that might drive the franchise out of business.
8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,9not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2: 8 - 9 NKJV
~Scott~
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