Thoughts on "The Explicit Gospel"

"The religious, moralistic, churchgoing evangelical who has no real intention of seeking God and following him has not found some sweet spot between radical devotion and wanton sin; he's found devastation.  The moralism that passes for Christian faith today is a devastating hobby if you have no intention of submitting your life fully to God and chasing him in Christ." ~ Matt Chandler

I have been reading Matt Chandler's first book, The Explicit Gospel, for the past few days and have been blown away and floored more than I can recount in this blog.  For those of you who have heard him preach, his writing style is very similar to his preaching, that is, blunt and to the point.  His book focuses on the gospel from two vantage points, the ground level (i.e. the individual) and the "30,000 foot level" (i.e. all of creation) and has a section at the end that has some practical implications and dangers of spending all of our energy focused on one aspect and not taking the entire, "explicit," gospel into account.

I am currently half way through the "30,000 foot level" section, but could not wait to finish the book to share a few thoughts, specifically about the "ground level" section.  Chandler focuses on the gospel at the ground level in terms of God, Man, Christ, and Response.  The quote above has really stuck with me since I read it.  Probably because I live and work in a sphere so influenced by moralism.  But this quote really got emphatically pounded home by two other points that Chandler made.  First, we don't properly understand the severity and kindness of God and second, we don't often realize or think about the fact that the gospel ALWAYS elicit's a response.  The Gospel always brings about either "hatred or passion" toward Jesus Christ (ambivalence towards the gospel is just veiled hatred, let's be honest).  

The severity and kindness of God "both come from his (God's) perfect and holy self-sufficiency, and they are both extended justly to his creation, but the chief difference between them - and the reason we don't talk about it as much - is that only severity is deserved" (Chandler).  We don't often think about God's severity towards our sinfulness.  We don't fear God as we should.  This is the only explanation for how people can play the moralistic religious game.  Also, we don't understand that the gospel ALWAYS elicits a response.  This is because it is God who elicits that response to His word.  People are either hardened to the gospel or drawn too it, there is no in between.

We must stop playing silly religious games.  Religion, our ability to conform ourselves to a social or behavioral norm, has never and will never save.  Christ and only Christ can save.