The Simplicity of the Gospel of Grace

When I was attending a preaching conference earlier this year United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon was remembering a conversation he had while he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He said he had been lamenting that despite all that he had tried, he could not increase student attendance at Chapel Services. One of his colleagues told him, “Will, you have to remember that Duke is an exclusive private university and the kids that come here are very smart – that’s why they don’t go to chapel.”

Bishop Willimon said he started to feel the sting of that comment until his friend continued, “They are smart enough to know that if they started to attend Chapel Services they would need to change they way they were living.”

I recalled Bishop Willimon’s comments this week as I thought about the simplicity of the Gospel of Grace. The essence of the new life in Christ the Apostle Paul continually affirms is quite simple. Dr. Larry Crabb in his book, The Pressure’s Off, summarized it by setting forth the foundational principals of life in Christ:

Core Passion: I live to know Christ
Core Experience: I come to Him to celebrate His glory
Core Strategy: I will trust His provision
Core Hope: I expect to become like Jesus
Core Attitude: Thy will be done

Admittedly, putting those principals into daily living is difficult because they are clearly counter cultural. There is much to ‘un-learn’ to make room for the new way of living. But, as G. K. Chesterton noted, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
There’s the rub. For so many people it is not that they do not believe the Gospel message; it is that they do not want to believe it. They don’t need Bonhoeffer to tell them about cheap grace and the cost of discipleship. Intuitively, they know they would have to change the way they are living and they are not ready to do that.

Hopefully, prayerfully, there will be a remnant living the Life in Christ when they have ears to hear.

Selah,

Alex