Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Problem-Solving, by Jim Fowler
Who tells us anyway that all human problems should or can be solved? Perhaps unsolved problems are more important for God than solutions are...since they remind us of man's sin and the divine redemption.
His intent was indeed revolutionary, but not in the sense of political insurrection or social transformation, but rather in a radically different concept of "kingdom" wherein He as the divine king would reign and rule as Lord in the lives of the people of God, manifesting His character which is diametrically opposite of that evidenced in the fallen world-order.
...Christian religion reverts to secondary efforts of problem-solving as their primary mission in the world, they are in effect denying the "finished work" of Christ by focusing on and engaging in "works" that attempt to "finish" God's work on His behalf...
Robert Capon's remarks are pertinent:
"Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions. ...If the cross is the sign of anything, it's the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world's problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can't do a thing about the world's problems that it never did work and it never will..."
When Christians think that they are "serving" God by attempting to solve the problems of people and the world, they fail to understand that "God is not served with human hands" (Acts 17:25) and their attempts to help God out in problem-solving is not helpful.
If it is not His activity, done His way by Him, then it is not worth doing. In addition, problem-solving religion is impatient in its desires to achieve its objectives. It wants to perform, attack, assault, seize the day as it engages in its agenda of activistic resolution. Waiting upon God and allowing Him in His sovereignty to deal with life and the world in His time and in His way can only be conceived as passivistic acquiescence by those who view the Christian purpose as problem-solving.
The "good news" of Christianity is the living Person of Jesus Christ, rather than a packaged solution to an identifiable social or personal problem. Even if the perceived problem is the spiritual depravity of an unregenerate individual, we do not extend or apply a packaged salvation to fix their spiritual problem, but point them to, and seek to introduce them to the risen Lord Jesus as their Savior.
When Christianity is regarded as a packaged solution to identifiable social or personal problems, the reality of Christianity becomes objectified as an "it," some "thing" to be applied to a problem as a utilitarian instrument. The message of Christianity is thus static and objectified, linear and causal, historicized and theologized as a personal and social solution. Jesus is not a solution! He is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6), the modality, reality and vitality of God who has invested Himself into the human condition and situation. He is the ontological Being who activates His creation.
Christianity is Christ's life lived out in Christians in every context of clashing cultures, differing ideologies, and pluralistic perspectives. Such manifestation of Christ's life (cf. II Cor. 4:10,11) may resolve some perceived problems among men, but problem-solving is not the mission objective of Christianity.
Every tenet of the fallen humanistic perspective posits human productivity and activity as the causal element of the betterment of mankind, so for the Christian to accept the radical modus operandi of faithful receptivity of divine activity in what by all appearances seems to be inutility and uselessness is diametrically different than the way the world operates. Jesus was so right when He said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36).
In explaining The Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul writes:
"Our world is entirely directed towards action. Everything is interpreted in terms of action. People are always looking for slogans, programmes, ways of action; action for action's sake. Our world is so obsessed by activity that it is in danger of losing its life. A man who spends all his time in action, by that very fact ceases to live.
The world only desires action, and has no desire for life at all. ...What matters is to live, and not to act. ...What we need to do is to live, and to refuse to accept the methods of action proposed by the world,...(even) the church's 'calls to action' made in miserable imitation of the world.
Men should be alive, instead of being obsessed with action. To be alive means the total situation of man as he is confronted by God...living to the glory of the Creator."
What, then, is the active responsibility of the Christian individual? We actively make the choice of faith to be receptive and available to all that God wants to be and do in us by the grace-dynamic of the Person and work of Jesus Christ. In obedience we "listen under" the guidance and direction of God's Spirit to discern His course of action; how He desires to enact His Being in our behavior. "He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Herein is the freedom from the performance of problem-solving programs; the individual freedom to be man as God intended man to be.
------------
His intent was indeed revolutionary, but not in the sense of political insurrection or social transformation, but rather in a radically different concept of "kingdom" wherein He as the divine king would reign and rule as Lord in the lives of the people of God, manifesting His character which is diametrically opposite of that evidenced in the fallen world-order.
------------
...Christian religion reverts to secondary efforts of problem-solving as their primary mission in the world, they are in effect denying the "finished work" of Christ by focusing on and engaging in "works" that attempt to "finish" God's work on His behalf...
------------
Robert Capon's remarks are pertinent:
"Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions. ...If the cross is the sign of anything, it's the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world's problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can't do a thing about the world's problems that it never did work and it never will..."
------------
When Christians think that they are "serving" God by attempting to solve the problems of people and the world, they fail to understand that "God is not served with human hands" (Acts 17:25) and their attempts to help God out in problem-solving is not helpful.
------------
If it is not His activity, done His way by Him, then it is not worth doing. In addition, problem-solving religion is impatient in its desires to achieve its objectives. It wants to perform, attack, assault, seize the day as it engages in its agenda of activistic resolution. Waiting upon God and allowing Him in His sovereignty to deal with life and the world in His time and in His way can only be conceived as passivistic acquiescence by those who view the Christian purpose as problem-solving.
------------
The "good news" of Christianity is the living Person of Jesus Christ, rather than a packaged solution to an identifiable social or personal problem. Even if the perceived problem is the spiritual depravity of an unregenerate individual, we do not extend or apply a packaged salvation to fix their spiritual problem, but point them to, and seek to introduce them to the risen Lord Jesus as their Savior.
------------
When Christianity is regarded as a packaged solution to identifiable social or personal problems, the reality of Christianity becomes objectified as an "it," some "thing" to be applied to a problem as a utilitarian instrument. The message of Christianity is thus static and objectified, linear and causal, historicized and theologized as a personal and social solution. Jesus is not a solution! He is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6), the modality, reality and vitality of God who has invested Himself into the human condition and situation. He is the ontological Being who activates His creation.
------------
Christianity is Christ's life lived out in Christians in every context of clashing cultures, differing ideologies, and pluralistic perspectives. Such manifestation of Christ's life (cf. II Cor. 4:10,11) may resolve some perceived problems among men, but problem-solving is not the mission objective of Christianity.
------------
Every tenet of the fallen humanistic perspective posits human productivity and activity as the causal element of the betterment of mankind, so for the Christian to accept the radical modus operandi of faithful receptivity of divine activity in what by all appearances seems to be inutility and uselessness is diametrically different than the way the world operates. Jesus was so right when He said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36).
------------
In explaining The Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul writes:
"Our world is entirely directed towards action. Everything is interpreted in terms of action. People are always looking for slogans, programmes, ways of action; action for action's sake. Our world is so obsessed by activity that it is in danger of losing its life. A man who spends all his time in action, by that very fact ceases to live.
------------
The world only desires action, and has no desire for life at all. ...What matters is to live, and not to act. ...What we need to do is to live, and to refuse to accept the methods of action proposed by the world,...(even) the church's 'calls to action' made in miserable imitation of the world.
Men should be alive, instead of being obsessed with action. To be alive means the total situation of man as he is confronted by God...living to the glory of the Creator."
------------
What, then, is the active responsibility of the Christian individual? We actively make the choice of faith to be receptive and available to all that God wants to be and do in us by the grace-dynamic of the Person and work of Jesus Christ. In obedience we "listen under" the guidance and direction of God's Spirit to discern His course of action; how He desires to enact His Being in our behavior. "He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Herein is the freedom from the performance of problem-solving programs; the individual freedom to be man as God intended man to be.
posted by GBT at
Thursday, June 23, 2005
