Welcome to Part 16 of the weekly release of my book, Unless God Builds It: A Proposal to Radically Rethink the Church.
In the last post, we began Chapter 5 and looked at the gospel as the concrete foundation of the church. I shared the story of how God shattered my own spiritual presumption, leading to the revelation of our present union with Christ—our actual, literal righteousness and new identity in Him.
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In this post, we explore why faith in what God has already finished is the only real application of the gospel, and how equipping saints with the simple truth of their union with Christ decentralizes ministry and shifts shepherding from managing human striving to inspiring real faith.
Faith is Always the Application
Here is where I submit to you that the Church is in desperate need of theological reform. Until now, believing the gospel with your whole heart has been thought to give you two things, essentially: (1) forgiveness of sins, and (2) assurance of salvation. You could say this in different ways—justification and glorification, reconciled to God and going to heaven, etc.—but the point is that we have seen how the gospel applies to the beginning and the end of the Christian life, but not so much how it applies to our actual day-to-day lives. Believing the gospel has served as the basis for our relationship with God and hope for the future, but when it comes to our sanctification, to spiritual growth, to making disciples, very few have understood the gospel’s applicability.
Hence, the list of to-dos. Hence, the “practical application” at the end of every sermon. Hence, the strategies and the methods that you will also find in many self-help books, business leadership curricula, and other world religions. Hence, the ever-growing use of psychology and human philosophies to help you heal and overcome sin. Despite their good intentions, the ones administering these things don’t actually believe that the gospel alone has the power to radically conform us into the image of Christ. This is only because they don’t fully understand the gospel, particularly the part about our present union with Christ.
Paul wrote that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Therefore, if we are not experiencing the sanctification part of our salvation in full effect, let us recognize that it’s only because we’re not believing the whole gospel. Jesus said that the truth will set us free (John 8:32). Therefore, if we’re not walking in freedom and victory over sin, it is precisely because we are believing lies.
If the Truth has all the power, then faith is always the application. God says this repeatedly, that faith is the way of the righteous (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Habakkuk 2:4).
The shepherd who understands the truth knows the power of it and refuses to ascribe power to anything else. They know that their job is to inspire faith, not human striving. And so they make it their aim to be ministers of Truth and nothing else. They are stewards of God’s wisdom, not of man’s wisdom. Their words give life to those who learn them. Their words lead their hearers into rest, not into striving; toward believing, not doing—the result of which is fruit. Their ministry has the same goal as Paul’s, “to bring about the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26).
For a very long time, however, the gospel has been replaced with impotent strategies and knowledge, which are employed by well-meaning ministers at every level of the Church who desire to serve God but are misguided in their attempts to do so. The subject of our union with Christ is covered on rare occasions at best, and even then, I find that few really understand it. For if they did, realizing that it’s the central mechanic of God’s salvation plan—beginning, middle, and end—they’d work tirelessly to establish this knowledge among the saints. It would certainly be more than an occasional study topic.
As a quick point of clarity (since I know there are still many unanswered questions about my position), I take no issue with the spiritual disciplines, and I believe they are indeed an important component of a healthy spiritual life. For the most part, there is nothing wrong with the doings I have previously mentioned. But the point is that they hold no power in and of themselves. They are only good to the extent that they help you to renew your mind, believe truth, walk by faith, come into agreement with God, etc.
For example, you may pray every day for God to be with you, but I will not celebrate this prayer; it is a waste of your time. God is with you. You may pray every hour for him to free you from your sin, but this is only reinforcing your wrong beliefs. God says that you are free from sin. Now you can move on to more productive prayers. Start walking by faith, thanking him that he is with you and has set you free from sin, asking for revelation about what is already true.
Similarly, you can go to church religiously and read your Bible voraciously, but if your church isn’t teaching truth, if the people there are instructing you in unbiblical ways, or if you’re not understanding (or believing) what you’re reading in the Bible, these disciplines do nothing for you. They may even harm you, in the event that they’re causing you to believe lies.
Likewise, it’s not a therapist who holds the power to overcome your childhood hurt; it’s seeing the truth clearly. A therapist may very well help you see the truth, but they just as well may lead you astray if they don’t understand the gospel in full and/or don’t have (or aren’t relying on) the Holy Spirit.
At this point, I apologize that I cannot go on about this revelation (and by “revelation,” I hope you see that I’m referring to something revealed in Scripture through God’s apostles and prophets, not merely to me after a supernatural experience). But as I said, I have elsewhere written a whole book on the subject, which I do hope you would read before dismissing what I say as foolish. While I don’t expect anyone to agree with me immediately, I must encourage you to humbly consider that I may be seeing something of great importance to the Body of Christ. It is my belief that this is the next great theological reform that will unite many believers around the world, lead the Church to a level of maturity it has never known, equip multitudes of saints for ministry more fruitful than they’ve ever imagined, and bring us one step closer to Christ’s return.
Equipped with the Truth
It’s a plain matter of fact that anyone who learns and believes the gospel will become spiritually mature as a result of it. That’s just how it works, no more bells and whistles needed. And insofar as someone has learned it and knows its power, they will be able to lead others in it, as well. That sounds a lot like ministry, does it not? And so, the central component of “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry”—i.e., making disciples, building each other up, teaching one another to obey the commands of God (Matthew 28:20), etc.—is simply establishing a proper understanding of the truth, particularly that which pertains to our union with Christ and, therefore, our sanctification.
The near total absence of this truth in the Church today is a major reason, I believe, that the saints have been ill-equipped for ministry, and also why they feel that discipleship is something that only their pastors can do. However, I’ve seen it myself many times that once someone begins to understand the unrivaled power of the gospel to transform us, something within them comes alive—that is, a desire, even a confidence, to minister to others. They begin to feel deeply that they are capable stewards of God’s grace, holders of the most wonderful knowledge in the universe, which promises to produce the fruit of the Spirit in anyone who will believe it.
And this—let’s be honest—is offensive to the world, even to many Christians. For “how dare someone claim to have superior knowledge, especially one who has not studied in a formal sense.” “How dare they offer a cure for depression, they who’ve not learned about it in psychology books.” “How dare they purport to know how freedom from addiction comes about; it must be that they do not appreciate the realities of the disease.” “How dare they suggest that something as serious as childhood trauma could be solved by something so simple as faith in Christ?’” “These simple-minded people; these uneducated, common folk; they think that they are more equipped than the people with the degrees!” And yet they are.
Indeed, equipping the saints with the mere truth of the gospel would have a greater impact on the world than if every saint became a gifted philosopher, a well-educated historian, a top-of-the-line brain scientist, and a trained clinical counselor all at once. Yet we continue to rely on such empty wisdom.
Let’s imagine that someone in a men’s group brings up his struggle with pornography. In a church that doesn’t understand the power and practicality of the gospel, the following kind of advice is likely what he would receive:
“We all struggle with that, brother. It’s something I’ve dealt with for 20 years, and I expect I will until the day I die. Just keep fighting the fight.”
“We’re all just sinners saved by grace. Don’t be too hard on yourself; God forgives you.”
“I really think you could use some accountability. How about you give one of us a call each day to let us know how it’s going with that struggle? And if you’re ever feeling tempted, just reach out for help.”
“There may be a spirit of lust that your father passed down to you. Have you prayed that God would deal with that spirit?”
“There’s this book on 10 Steps to Freedom that I really think you should read.”
“Have you thought about going to therapy? You may have some trauma from the past that you haven’t dealt with.”
“We need to pray that God sets you free.”
“Have you been reading your Bible daily? Getting in the word is so important for our spiritual health.”
Some of you may bristle at the suggestion that any of these would be bad advice, but I ask you a simple question: Can you imagine Paul, Peter, or John giving their churches any of this advice? Due to the counsel that I see they gave in the Scriptures, I cannot imagine it; therefore, I cannot call it wisdom from above. I cannot call it the truth that sets us free. Yet somehow these kinds of things have become the predominant wisdom that is thrown around in the Church today, which tells me that, generally speaking, the saints are not equipped.
However, among Christians who understand the power of the gospel, consider how you’d be ministered to. You’d be built up with Scripture, reminded of who you are in Christ, encouraged to rely fully on the Spirit, prayed over with truth and thanksgiving, corrected not in your actions but in your thinking, and inspired to walk not by sight but by faith. That sounds a lot more biblical, doesn’t it? You’d hear things like this:
“Some of us have actually grown out of that, so don’t give up hope! God has promised that we can walk in freedom and victory if we walk by faith. Do you know what it means to walk by faith?”
“Remember, you are not a sinner; you’re a saint. You’re righteous and holy as He is. Believe what God says about you, and it will transform you!”
“There are lots of things you could do, but the real solution is to learn how to rely on the Spirit. Let’s see what God is saying right now . . .”
“Do you understand that this isn’t you? That it’s not what you really desire? Paul says in Romans 7, ‘When I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.’”
“Thanks for confessing this. I want you to know that while it may not seem like it, Scripture says you’re actually already free. So, instead of asking God to set you free, let’s start by praying and giving thanks that God has already set you free from it.”
“I’m thinking about that verse in Romans 6 that says, ‘You must consider yourselves dead to sin…’ Do you feel like you’ve been doing that? Do you understand what that means?”
Obviously, there should be a lot more nuance to these conversations than the short statements I’ve provided above, but my hope is to convey how different (and more biblical) the substance of this ministry is compared to what most Christians are used to hearing. Speaking from what I’ve witnessed in my own church, this gospel-centric ministry becomes all but second nature when a community understands the mechanics of the good news.
And here’s the greater point: If you were to come to one of our groups, you’d hear these kinds of things whether or not I’m there. That isn’t because I’ve told everyone what to say in this scenario. It isn’t because they’ve read a bunch of the same books or because we have a particular strategy that our church always uses (besides relying on the Spirit). There was no class, conference, book study, or methodology that they had to learn to be equipped for this specific scenario. It required no formal training, no college degrees, no counseling certificates, no minister’s license. None of that was needed, for one simple reason: they know the gospel. They know what their Bible has to say about overcoming sin and obeying God. They understand that faith in God is always the answer. They know the promises of God and the power of Christ in them. They know that the way is Spirit and truth, and so, their ministry to one another reflects that.
There is an almost undeniable connection between (a) the saints learning the fullness of the gospel and (b) ministry becoming more decentralized. The gospel is a sort of great equalizer that invites everyone to learn its power and then become a minister of its power.
So, again, the role of the leaders in the Church isn’t merely to provide this ministry to all the rest; it is to train all the rest for this ministry. My goal as a shepherd is that the saints would be able, without my presence, to effectively lead one another in the way of righteousness, which requires, above all things, that they understand the gospel. The less dependent they are on me, the better chances we have of healthy exponential multiplication, where all people continue to get discipled and make disciples.
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Questions for the Comments:
When you confess a struggle to a fellow believer, what kind of advice do you typically receive? Does it tend to point you back to self-effort and coping strategies, or back to your identity in Christ?
Why is decentralized ministry (where believers build each other up in truth without depending on a pastor) so rare in the modern church system?
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In Christ,
Jake