TR Hartley

What does it mean for a church to be healthy?

Is it an increase in numbers (weekly attendance, baptisms, etc.)? Is it a good reputation in the local community?

Or, what does it mean for a Christian to have a healthy Christianity? Is it adherence to a set of rules? Is it an increase of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)? Is it evangelistic fervor?

I would answer: I don’t think any of those things are necessarily bad. Some are even necessarily good, like seeing an increase in the Fruits of the Spirit in the life of a believer, or presenting the Gospel to those not yet in the Kingdom.

But more foundational than any of that, is a correct understanding of the Gospel. You could have any number of other indicators of Christian vibrancy, and if the Gospel message isn’t properly understood, it will lead to unhealthy spirituality.

A brief depiction of the Gospel is that people are made to know (be in right relationship with) God, but are unable to do so. Our sin, our moral uncleanness, separates us from our morally perfect Creator. And we can’t fix that problem; no matter how hard we try, we will remain short of the standard of moral perfection.

And thus, since we couldn’t fix that, God fixed it for us. Through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, humanity has been offered a solution, the only solution, that allows us to be in right relationship with God. This offer is based in the goodness and faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus, and not in human effort. Thus, people who are relatively good (to the people around them) need Jesus, and people who are remarkably wicked need Jesus, and the New Testament is filled with stories of both types of people being welcomed to follow Jesus.

At the center of the Gospel are a number of concepts. But two concepts emphasize what we as people need to do in response to the Gospel.

1) God invites all of us, regardless of the bad we done, no matter the starting point, to come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ. All are welcome to come (to God, to Jesus, to the Kingdom) as they are. No matter how imperfect, how sinful, how broken, how hurt… all are welcome to come to God through Jesus, just as they are.

2) We are saved both from (from sin and death, from guilt before God) and into (into new life, righteousness, Kingdom life.) There is to be a continuing growth of Christlikeness for those who are present. None (myself included) are welcome to stay as they are.

A Litmus Test

You may remember litmus tests from grade school science classes. You take a little strip of paper, and dip it into a liquid.

Why? Because that little strip of paper has been dyed with a compound that changes colors based on whether the liquid is acidic or basic on the pH scale.

Whether you’re a farmer trying to determine what adjustments you need to make to the soil to best help your crops grow, or a physician trying to determine what’s wrong with your patient, (or even a teenager just trying to not look dumb in front of your lab partner) there are a lot of reasons why someone might want to know how acidic or basic something is.

And so, this simple, low-tech test is important. It’s a simple test, but it serves to give vital information.

Similarly, I think the way a church articulates (directly and indirectly) the Gospel is a really good litmus test for that church’s fidelity to the Bible and to the Kingdom.

Let me propose as a good summary of how a church/Christian can articulate a proper response to the Gospel:
“All are welcome to come as they are, and none (myself included) are welcome to stay as they are.”

I think this message is at the center of a correct applied understanding of the Gospel. I would, in general, trust any church or minister that “gets” this, and I wouldn’t trust any church or minister that doesn’t. (Obviously, there are exceptions to this; Prosperity Gospel churches might agree with both sides of this, and yet remain in serious error. This litmus test is meant as a tool, but it is limited and imperfect.)

If we were to paint problematic churches/Christians in broad strokes, we could separate them into two categories. The first category is legalistic, and the second category is licentious.

Legalistic Churches (and Christians) miss “All are welcome to come as they are.”

Again, we’re painting in broad strokes here. But let me say: a legalistic church will not understand – or emphasize – the truth that all are welcome to come as they are.

I don’t care if:

– someone shows up to your church drunk or high or both
– a same-sex couple visits your church together
– a man visits your church while wearing a dress or a skirt, or identifies as a woman
– a homeless person comes in with a strong odor or looking disheveled. (This isn’t a sin issue, but can rub a certain form of religiosity as “disrespectful”.)

Does your church understand that Jesus died for people who were far from Him? Does your understanding of the Gospel include a Jesus who seeks after those who are lost?

There is no starting position that disqualifies people from the Kingdom. The King of the Kingdom wants all to come, and so all are welcome to come as they are.

Let’s consider six passages that speak to this (emphasis added).

1. Matthew 9:10-13: “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Also Mark 2:15-22 and Luke 5:29-39.)
   • In these verses, we can see that there has always been a religious contempt for the mercy of the Gospel towards the undeserving. Jesus rebuked these Pharisees, and I think He has similar rebuke to similar current religiosity.
2. Romans 5:6-8: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
   • God has always lovingly pursued the lost, the sinner, the wicked. And that description applies to all of us. Every person is in a state of enmity towards God before accepting Christ, and God still chose to reach out to us, past our hostility towards Him, and to show us His love.
     
3. Luke 15:1-7: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
   • All of Heaven delights when those who are far from God, far from allegiance to Him, come to see Him as good and repent of their sin.
     
4. Luke 18:9-14: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ¹⁴ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
   • Anyone who has spiritual pride, that sense of “knowing” that they’re better than those around them, are deceived. Everyone needs grace. Those who acknowledge that are shown grace, and those who pridefully congratulated themselves on their superiority will be humbled.
     
5. 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
   • The role of the Christian isn’t to “gatekeep” certain types of people from God. It’s actually the exact opposite: To make the appeal of God to all people to be reconciled to God.
     
6. Matthew 22:1-15: “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
   
   ⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
   
   ⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
   
   ⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
   
   ¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
   
   ¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
   
   ¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
   
   ¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap Him in His words.”
   • In “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet”, Jesus shows that those who were invited initially refused to come, so the offer went out to everyone. To good and bad, rich and poor, everyone was invited to come. The invitation to participate in God’s Kingdom is extended to everyone.
     • But what about the man who wasn’t wearing a wedding garment in verses 11-13? I think Jesus’ point is that this man didn’t wear the clothes provided for him. This is a reference to self-righteousness, of thinking oneself “holy enough” in our own ability. And that makes sense of what happens right after Jesus tells this parable: The Pharisees “went out and laid plans to trap Him.” The self-righteous Pharisees understood Jesus’ meaning. (For more on this parable, this article from gotquestions.org was insightful.)

A church that presents a version of Christianity that requires people “clean themselves up” before coming to Jesus is a false church. That’s a perversion and bastardization of the Gospel. (Harsh language deliberately used.) These churches misunderstand and misrepresent the Gospel. And Christians who present Christianity in such ways are similarly in error.

A common form of legalism is leaning too far into the need for transformation, represented by an implicit misunderstanding of the Gospel that thinks “none are welcome to come until they x.” (With x representing cleaning up whatever sins that particular congregation identifies as particularly problematic or worldly.)

And yet, Scripture clearly addresses this mindset. This was the primary sin of the Judaizers who were harming the church at Galatia. In the book of Galatians (especially 2:1-3:14), and also in Acts 15:1, we see this drama unfold. Please note how Paul says that this sort of thinking invalidates the Gospel of Jesus, which is by grace. (Listen to Galatians 2:16b: “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”)

What’s the Solution to Legalism?

You can avoid legalism, leaning too far into the “none are welcome to stay as they are”, if you taking the first part to heart. “All are welcome to come as they are.” There is no need to earn a place at the table. But, being at the table WILL transform you. This is what Licentious Churches miss.

Licentious churches (and Christians) miss “none are welcome to stay as they are.”

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Licentious churches misrepresent the Kingdom and Gospel by minimizing the seriousness of sin and the importance of holiness. In these churches, “All are welcome to come as they are” is well understood and emphasized. And yet, they miss the second half of the Gospel: Our coming to Jesus is supposed to transform us!

Let’s listen to the words of Paul in Romans 12:

Romans 12:1-2: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do you see it? Paul is saying that we aren’t supposed to misuse the Gospel as permission to keep on living for self, for pleasure, for sin. Rather, we are present our whole lives to God and to be transformed by His words and His will.

And that is a consistent message with the rest of the New Testament. Let’s consider several passages (emphasis added):

1. Galatians 5:16-26
   “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
   
   ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
   
   ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
   • We are called to live with and under God in such a way that it transforms our moral perspectives, decisions, and actions. This isn’t optional if we want to participate in God’s Kingdom. Paul makes it clear in verse 24: Those who belong to Christ Jesus will respond differently to temptation and desire.
     
2. John 8:2-11:
   “At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him.
   
   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
   
   ⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
   
   ¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.
   
   “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”“
   • Yes, Jesus did absolutely forgive/extend grace/give pardon to the woman caught in adultery. But His words at the end of this powerful display of the Gospel is telling: “Go and sin no more.” He was expecting her to respond to the grace shown to her by pursuing holiness.
     
3. Romans 6:1-14:
   “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
   
   ⁵ For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
   
   ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. ¹⁰ The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
   
   ¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
   • In this passage, Paul is intentionally getting out in front of a distortion to the Gospel that would minimize the danger of continued willful sinfulness. He explicitly unpacks how seeing grace as permission to remain sinful is contrary to the Gospel, to holiness, and to Christ.

What’s the Solution to Licentiousness? Sincere Repentance is of Great Value

The solution to licentiousness is to repent. To acknowledge the areas in our lives where we’ve missed the mark, where we’ve strayed from biblical morality into our own (more convenient) moral thinking. Where we haven’t loved or forgiven or taken up our cross to follow Him. And then, to humbly bring those sins to God, asking for His cleansing and empowerment to live with Him, and not ourselves, as the Lord of our lives.

Pastorally, I want to address a concern that I see often confuses people. What about those who are trying and failing to walk rightly with God? Often, people can be discouraged by their own waywardness. “What’s the point, if I’m just going to screw up again?” I don’t think that’s the right way to look at it. To put it briefly, there is an enormous difference between “not repenting” and “repenting, sinning, and then needing to repent again.”

For more on this, please consider this article on repentance.

Warning Against False Teachers

This isn’t something we can gloss over. The New Testament has a LOT of warnings against false teachers. (Please give this excellent article from challies.com a read.) Depending on interpretation, as many as 18 of the 27 books of the New Testament warm against false teachers! (Some books do so more extensively, such as 1 Timothy.)

Broadly speaking, in the first century, the biblical authors warned against four main archetypes of false teachers:

1. False Teachers who Minimize the Seriousness of Continued Sin
   • Romans 16:17-19
     • Paul is here warning against people who are more dedicated to serving themselves (living for themselves) than for Christ.
   • 2 Tim 2:3-4
     • Here Paul warns against false teachers who tell people what they want to hear: They misrepresent the Gospel as permission to do whatever sinful thing they want!
   • 2 Peter 2:1-3, 28-22
     • Here Peter warns against false teachers who are themselves led astray by fleshly desires, and lead others astray.
   • Jude 1:4
     • Here Jude warns explicitly against false teachers “who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality“.
       
2. False Teacher Who Demand Works Prior to Coming to Faith
   • Acts 15:1-21 (especially verse 1)
     • Paul was being opposed by Jews who were saying that Christianity was necessarily a form of Judaism, and thus for non-Jews (Gentiles) to convert to Christianity demanded they also convert to Judaism. There were a number of rules and rituals demanded of Jews, and the suggestion that Gentile converts had to live these laws out was “sharply disputed” by Paul.
   • Galatians 1:6-9
     • Here Paul explains that demanding religious works prior to coming to Christ is “a different gospel” than what he believes.
   • Galatians 2:15-16
     • Paul here again is emphasizing that it is faith, and not religious actions, that bring justification (forgiveness of sin).
   • Colossians 2:16-23
     • Paul here is explicitly teaching that a demand for certain religious observations to earn God’s acceptance is only “human commands and teachings”. (22)
   • Titus 1:10-14
     • Here Paul identifies that those who teach a necessary adherence to Judaism (and especially circumcision laws) are teaching false doctrine, “things they ought not to teach.”
       
3. False Teacher Who Misrepresent Jesus as Not Divine
   • 1 John 2:18-27 (especially verse 22)
     • Another early heresy directly addressed by the New Testament authors was a belief that Jesus wasn’t divine. This false teaching had several incarnations, most notably Arianism.
       
4. False Teacher Who Misrepresent Jesus as Not Human
   • 2 John 7
     • A wide-spread heresy in the first century was Gnosticism, which taught that Christ only had the appearance of humanity, but was not actually human. This false teaching was consistently labeled as heretical by the early Church.

In all of these categories, false teachers are those who misrepresent the Gospel.

A Challenge to Ministers on Both Sides

If you aren’t willing to embrace either side of this, I hope you can see that what you’re preaching has ceased to be biblical Christianity, regardless of which side of this divide you fall on. Legalistic churches/ ministers/ Christians can rightly see the problems with the Licentious side, and yet miss their own error. Similarly, licentious churches/ministers/Christians can rightly see the legalism and haughtiness of the legalistic side, and completely misrepresent Christianity by missing the call to holiness.

The Gospel has two truths held in tension. All are welcome to come as they are, and none are welcome to stay as they are. Maximizing one side of this, and minimizing the other, will always result in unbiblical Christianity and false teaching.

Reflection

I don’t know many Christians (myself included) that are always and consistently good at holding these things in tension. It requires a constant re-tuning of my heart to not drift towards legalism or licentiousness. But there is a demand of God for us to do so when we realize we’re glossing over sin or demanding that people clean themselves up (rather than simply coming to Jesus in awareness of need {which is repentance}).

How about you? Is the Gospel you believe and live by a Gospel of grace that both forgives sin and emphasizes holiness?