An excerpt from Zechariah’s Prophecy, directed to his son, John the Baptist, the forerunner of all truly Christian ministry, the one who led prepared the way of the Lord through a ministry of repentance:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall dawn upon us from on high and to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Written shortly after I began pastoring at Crossroads
I walked into my new office this morning and noticed one of the leftover books on the shelf called A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren. In the wake of McLaren’s growing popularity I familiarized myself with his “work” a few years ago and read this book, as well as A Generous Orthodoxy, and one other forgettable title which I have since forgotten. Let me summarize the major theme found in each of McLaren’s books in this way. The ‘new kind of Christianity’ he is talking about can simply be called a “gospel” without repentance.
The good news of Jesus Christ comes as the free gift of grace, and that sounds exactly like this: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk. 1:15). We’re quite happy to talk about the swinging door of the Gospel, but how is it that we so often avoid mentioning the threshold of repentance?
Since grace is free, it is assumed, we mustn’t associate our it with any costs, any requirements, anything on our end that might be expected of us and so nullify grace as grace. But the fact is this: grace is free only because we cannot afford it. Its value is, in fact, immeasurable, because it is based on the infinite worth of Jesus Christ. It’s true, God isn’t looking for us to give him any-thing. He’s looking for us to give ourselves.
Grace is spilt blood, not melted ice cream. We should acknowledge, therefore, that while there is nothing of worth we can offer in exchange for the grace of God it is only so because God is not looking for us to barter with him with little pieces of our lives and pocketbooks. That’s principally no different than the old bartering system of sacrifices and burnt offerings, the one Zechariah-the-priest was employed by before he had to take a long leave of absence for some quiet time with God (cf., Lk 1:20).
But the priesthood and the whole sacrificial system was about to be turned on its head. No longer would man offer sacrifices to God for their sins, because God was about to offer a sacrifice to man, once for all (Heb. 7:27). The stakes were being raised from sacrificial lambs on the altar to the sacrificial Lamb on the cross. Herein lies the heart of the Gospel, the essence of Christmas. The Gospel reveals that God doesn’t merely want our “goods and services”—as though God were in need of anything at all, as though everything weren’t already his (Ps. 24!). Rather, he wants us, all of us, so he gave all of himself to us. The gift of Christmas is God himself!
God has removed the barter system altogether. He removed the distance that that economy creates. He wants us for us because he loves us—like a father but more than father—and only when we are awakened to that basic truth will we be bold enough to unfetter our desires to want him back. Can we dare desire to want all of God?! Can we truly pray the audacious kind of prayer that A.W. Tozer prayed when he said,
I want the whole presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion… I want all that God is or I don’t want anything at all.
Often, we’re too timid for such prayers. When it comes to entering into that self-giving gift exchange with God, we are our own worst enemies, because we continually fall back into the barter system. We do “this and that” for God hoping to appease him. We tithe little pieces of our lives as though God were in need of our support. And in so doing, we find ourselves constantly negotiating with our conscience over what is “enough” for God, being tossed about between our own unrighteousness and self-righteousness, wondering why we never feel wholly at peace with God, with one another, and with the mirror. The reason is simply this: nothing we can offer will ever be enough.
But Christ is enough! And God has already offered himself to us in Him. Merry Christmas!
So what does this have to do with repentance? With Zechariah?
Repentance does not mean “do something differently,” or even the popular definition, “turn around.” It means, quite simply, “change your mind.” It means the world and the ways of God we have always imagined have been invaded by an entirely different world by way of God himself invading ours. Christmas, God with us, the Son of God become Son of Man, the final sacrifice, resurrection of the dead. Zechariah, and the rest of the world, was going to have to repent, because this way of seeing the world and the ways of God is entirely unnatural and unexpected. For Zechariah, the whole priestly bartering system was about to be rendered obsolete. Christ was giving us all of himself. All altars would be closed for business. This Lamb would need no assistance, nor assistants, at the altar of his sacrifice.
So think about what we’re doing when we cheapen the idea of repentance, minimizing the cost of discipleship, making it out as if people can nickel and dime their way to God because, well, grace is “free” so surely our response can be “cheap.” What we are doing is inviting people back into the barter system, again putting distance between them and God and denying them the free grace of God, the only grace that brings true freedom: spilt blood, not melted ice cream. As Bonhoeffer put it, “When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die.” Therein lies the fullness of life, indeed the fullness of God, to all who are “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20).
But it’s not quite Christmas yet, so we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. For now, we need to think about changing our minds, repentance. How can the Church rediscover the language of repentance, calling people to “Repent, and believe the Gospel”? Because as long as the Gospel doesn’t require whole-life-repentance, as long as it is something we can fit into our budget and our day timer—as long as it is anything other than all ourselves—we have not received it as it is: all of God in Emmanuel. And in that case, we need to stop selling ourselves short, and selling others short, and reclaim the cost of discipleship: it will cost you not a penny less than the whole life of God, which is exactly the cost that was paid in Christ. That is what God sent his Son to give us.Himself. To make us sons and daughters in Him. So let’s respond this Christmas with the only gift God truly wants from us: us!
God loves you. God wants to draw you into an eternal exchange of love with him. God has given you everything to make that possible. Give him the gift he desires this Christmas. Receive him. Receive life. Receive Jesus—all of God in exchange for all of you, forever.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
—Ephesians 3:14-19
Enter the Story 