July 6, 2010: Christianity Has A Long List Of Do's and Don'ts.

Pastor John Ortberg recently met with a new Christian named Mike who had been the victim of bad preaching. Mike, who was "drawn to Christianity by the message of grace," complained, "I was told that being a Christian wasn't about anything I had to do; it was about a sacrifice that had already been done on my behalf. But now that I'm on the inside, I'm told I have to do stuff all the time. I have to go to church, I have to read the Bible, I have to give money, I have to volunteer. I feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch."

Hallelujah! Mike gets it. He has been the victim of a bait-and-switch, and his confusion constitutes a strong indictment of gospel presentations that shun the biblically simple words "do" and "do not," "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not."

More times than I can count I have heard preachers say, "Christianity isn't a list of do's and don'ts." They're wrong. Christianity is that and a whole lot more. That is, while our faith is more than a mere list of commands and prohibitions (there's also doctrine and relationship, for example), it is certainly not less than that. When a person like Mike bows the knee to Jesus Christ, he will find that there are lots and lots of things for him to do and not do. And we should not be afraid to tell him that. If you read the gospels, you will see that Jesus gave people do's and don'ts the very first day he met them. For example: "Follow me" (Matthew 4:19); "Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you" (John 5:14); "Go proclaim the kingdom of God" (Luke 10:60); "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor" (Luke 18:22); "Go and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). Those are some pretty blatant do's and don'ts!

Here's a very short and incomplete list of biblical Do's if you want to be a Christian: Do believe in God (Hebrews 11:6); Do trust in Christ (John 14:1); Do take up your cross and follow Jesus (Mark 8:34); Do embrace the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). And here are some Don'ts: Don't be immoral, impure or greedy (Ephesians 5:4); Don't be a coward, murderer, idolator, or liar (Revelation 21:8); Don't engage in drunkenness, swindling, slander, adultery, or homosexual activity (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Despite the biblical abundance of commands and prohibitions, many teachers in the evangelical tradition seem to cast invisibility cloaks over them in the hope that they won't get in the way of anybody coming to Christ. Hence that terribly misleading "Do" verses "Done" rhetoric that Mike refers to in his complaint. Have you heard it? I have, and boy am I sick of it. It goes like this: "The difference between Religion and Christianity is that Religion is spelled D-O. I have to DO all these things to please God and get into heaven. But Christianity is spelled D-O-N-E. Christ has already DONE everything necessary to secure my salvation by living a perfect life and dying for my sins. I only have to receive his free gift!" The "DO verses DONE" illustration appears in Willow Creek's popular Becoming a Contagious Christian program and in a thousand other books and sermons too.

But please, please, just read the imperative-laden messages of Jesus and John the Baptist in the gospels, and of St. Peter and St. Paul in the book of Acts, and see if for one moment you can imagine any of them preaching that you don't have to do anything to please God because it's already been done for you! They would all face-palm themselves over the absurdity.

Imagine Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, condemned to death for the sin of lying, protesting (with their last breaths), "But Peter, I thought you said that the difference between Religion and Christianity was that Religion insisted I DO things (like tell the truth) to please God, but Christianity says that's all been DONE for me by Christ!" Peter would respond "I never said no such thing."

Or imagine Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8, peeved that Peter just told him to go hell after trying to buy the Holy Spirit, objecting, "But I thought this wasn't about works! I thought God accepted me just the way I am! Since when do I have to DO some good work (like revere the Holy Spirit) in order to please God? Gaining favor with God is something already DONE for me by Christ!" I could see Peter responding with the same words that Jesus once knocked him down with: "Get behind me, Satan" (Mark 8:33).

Thomas Jefferson once produced a New Testament with all miraculous elements literally scissored out of it. We know not to do that. But some of today's evangelicals, carried away by their own rhetoric, come close to cutting all the do's and don'ts out of the gospel. Stop it! Leave those commands and prohibitions in there just where Jesus and the apostles put them. They don't contradict grace. And if they bar people from coming to Christ, if they stop dead in their tracks people who "kind of like" Jesus but who hate to submit to him, then so be it. Jesus wants followers, not fans. Don't deceive the Mikes of this world by teaching, suggesting, or even hinting that there is nothing you have to do to be a Christian. That's not biblical.