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A Gospel About Us Is Another Gospel
A Gospel About Us Is Another Gospel
Is there a problem with churches who still teach the same old gospel, but worship in ways that are just more exciting to the physical senses?
Please consider this – it is not the same gospel. Americanism has minimized the gospel in many ways, but using the term “Americanism” directs us as into how.
1. “Jesus died for me” is true; but that can put more emphasis on me than Jesus. I can become the emphasis. Americanism focuses on individualism. And if I am the emphasis, then worship appeals to my senses.
2. “Jesus attracted many through the gospel” is true; but that can put more emphasis on attracting than on the message. Americanism focuses on success. And if attracting people becomes the measure, then we have swapped the effect with the cause. Large crowds are not proof of the gospel unless rock concerts are proof of the gospel. I, as part of the crowd, am appealed to by sheer numbers.
Don’t be deceived. Those two mistakes can take place in what some call “traditional” instead of “contemporary” worship. I prefer “ancient and approved”, but it is not about what I prefer. Authority is not where I am going. “Ancient and approved” can also lead to a problem older than America – hypocrisy and superiority.
So where am I going?
The gospel ultimately is not about us. Check for example the Exodus, a prototype of salvation. Read Exodus (and Galatians which we are currently studying), and soon you discover freeing people ultimately was about:
1. God being glorified (above false gods and worship).
2. God being faithful (to His promise to Abraham, and not Abraham’s personal righteousness).
Check the Golden Calf incident (Exodus 32), and notice how:
1. People see a broken promise so they are worried about fulfilling that promise themselves: “When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has happened to him!”” (CSB’17 Exodus 32:1).
2. Focusing on themselves led to a worship that focused on their senses: “… The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.” (CSB’17 Exodus 32:6)
Ultimately, focusing on ourselves is missing the grandness of the gospel. No wonder then, “contemporary worship” focuses on our senses. We don’t realize it, but worship becomes about us. Deluded, we can’t see that we are worshipping ourselves in the name of God.
True worship is not about us. True worship is about giving God His glory for His faithfulness. Yes, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but when the cross becomes more about us than God’s glory and faithfulness, then we have made another gospel…a gospel about us.
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