Confronting Cultural Christianity
Confronting Cultural Christianity is the theme of this Spring season of Church on the Edge podcasts. We will be working our way through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Weekly podcasts begin next Tuesday, but I thought I might take some time today to lay a bit of a foundation for those podcasts.
Galatians is what I like to refer to as a Reformation book of the Bible. Together with Romans, Galatians sets forth what we have come to know as the Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone, as opposed to a works-based salvation. It’s the difference between trusting God through what Jesus Christ His Son has done for me through His cross and empty tomb and trusting to my own goodness, the merits of my good deeds.
But there is a lot more to the New Testament book of Galatians than this. And I’ll be honest with you - it took me years to understand what Galatians is ultimately about.
I studied Galatians in seminary. I also taught the book on numerous occasions as a pastor and conference leader in both the United States and Asia. I knew it was important, but there was always this nagging feeling that I was missing something. It wasn’t until I served for several years in an international church in Seoul, Korea, that the Spirit of God unlocked the mystery of this book for me.
Our church in Seoul averaged at any one time as many as twenty to twenty-five nationalities. We were also a congregation of multiple Christian traditions and denominations. Not only that, but our church members were diverse socially and economically. Factory workers from the Philippines worshiped side by side with Vice-Presidents, Generals, and Korean Pop Stars. It’s an understatement to say we were a diverse congregation. And yet, in the midst of this incredible diversity, there was a unity like I have never experienced before or after.
With this in mind, I want to share a verse with you from the heart of Galatians. It’s a pretty well-known verse. You may be familiar with it. Galatians 3:28, found pretty much in the center of the letter, says this - “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This verse sums up the entire thrust of Galatians, which is that our unity and status as God’s people is found in Christ and Christ alone. We are diverse in culture, and we are diverse in worldly status both from an economic and social perspective. This is the sad reality in what Paul refers to as this “present evil age.” (Gal. 1:4)
But through Jesus, God has rescued us from this present evil age. We may still be living in it, but we are now, first and foremost, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. And as citizens of heaven, we find ourselves, through Christ, on a level playing field. People from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives are brought together through Christ. Everyone has a place at the table. This is the Good News.
The bad news, however, is that throughout the centuries of the church, there have been many who have sought to abolish this unity in diversity, replacing it with a cultural conformity that, in reality, is no different from the way of our world. Seeking to replace God’s rich diversity in Christ, they preach a gospel of conformity. Cookie-cutter Christianity is alive and well. Like the Borg on Star Trek, The Next Generation, their mission can be summed up in the phrase “Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.”
I’ll finish this post tomorrow and demonstrate how relevant the New Testament book of Galatians is for our day and why we desperately need to hear and heed its message in the church of the twenty-first century.
In Christ,
Dan
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