Reflections on Ch. 2 -- Gospels of Sin Management

There are two gospels prevalent in our culture, Willard says. On the "right" is a gospel that makes dealing with our sin problem to achieve personal salvation the main thing. On the "left" is a purely social gospel that achieves salvation by trying to right social/systemic wrongs. Both ultimately fail, he says, because they are primarily "gospels of sin management" that reduce the incarnation and the cross to bar codes that God will scan at the judgment day and admit the bearer into heaven.

Both are far removed from the message of Jesus -- "the kingdom of God is available to you, now." Both focus on superficial works (a code of personal holiness on one hand, commitment to social justice on the other) as a substitute for real Christ-likeness, which is joining him in bringing about his Father's kingdom here and now.

By focusing on these methods of managing sin, by focusing solely on Christ's atonement or by trying to atone through social action, these incomplete gospels, Willard says, both lull Christians into a false sense of security -- I'm marked with the bar code that counts -- and allow non-Christians to believe they have rejected the message of Jesus when they really haven't heard it in its entirety. As a result there is a lot of faith and religion that focuses on getting into heaven or thinking about far-off problems and yet has nothing to do with how one lives here and now, in the midst of ordinary life.

• What is the gospel to you?
  
• Does being a Christian have anything to do with the kind of person you are? Can being like Christ become a "work" that leads to false salvation?

As we mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis for participating in a plot against Hitler, it's worth looking at his well-known criticism of "cheap grace." In his classic "The Cost of Discipleship," Bonhoeffer writes that "cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, so everything can remail as it was before" -- essentially, grace is the bar code that God will scan without looking at the product. But Bonhoeffer notes that the price that God paid for grace means it must be costly to us as well. "Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock."

Willard quite rightly notes that "grace is cheap from the point of view of those who need it." But he wonders whether God would establish a system by which the mere assent to ideas, rather than living in accordance with the principles of his kingdom, would suffice.

• Is grace costly or cheap? Or can it be both?

Most challengingly, Willard suggest that we have substituted principles of grace and social action for actually sitting at the feet of Jesus the teacher. Formal religious behavior or isolated "mountaintop" experiences take the place of the imitation of Christ. And, he says, systems of church membership, Christian education, and preaching focus on these principles and experiences rather than the kingdom of God and our role in it.

• Have we substituted little gospels for Jesus' core message about living in God's kingdom now?
• How can these "gospels of sin management" be a stumbling block to people searching for spiritual meaning or an experience of the fulness of God?