The Groundhog Day Gospel
The Gospel of Christ is not a gospel of second chances. Yes, God gives second chances. However, we do not have a gospel of second chances. Let me explain. Many of us think to ourselves, “I have sinned
and failed.” We come to Christ and he
forgives our sin and failure. This gives
us a clean slate. We have another
chance. We go out and purpose to try to
do better. When we eventually stumble then
we have Christ to again forgive us, pick us up, and maybe give some coaching or
teaching so we can live better lives. We
go out clean, then stumble again, and then repeat the process. And then repeat the process. Again.
And again.
We hope we have been improving, getting better, and becoming
a better person. Maybe we are getting to
be a better imitation of Christ? Maybe we
can get closer to God? What else can a
person do?
The above is not the Gospel.
The above is a spiritual application of the movie Groundhog Day.
We don’t have a Gospel of Second Chances. Why not?
Because we never had a first
chance. Without the first chance, then how can there be a second, a third,
or even a seven-times-seventieth chance?
Why no first chance?
We were all born into a broken world, a world broken and dysfunctional
since the Fall in the Garden. We were
not only born into a fallen, broken world, we ourselves were born broken, born
with a sinful disposition. This was not God’s desire, not at all what he
intended, but we and all before us have been broken and have contributed to the
vicious, downward cycle of dysfunction and brokenness in this world.
We never had a first chance because we never had a chance to
live holy, righteous lives in the first place.
Yes, God gave Moses the Law but the purpose was not to give us a manual showing
us how to live lives pleasing to God. The
Apostle Paul wrote that the purpose of the Law was to show us we do not, and
will not, live sinless lives. The purpose
was to show the world that we cannot fulfil the Law, to show that we can never,
no matter how hard we try, never be holy, never be righteous, never be sanctified,
and thus never be acceptable to God (Romans
3:19-20). We are guilty and already
condemned. Showing us this is a good
thing since the Law shows us the absolute necessity of God’s mercy. The penalty
is death and without the Blood of the Lamb to pay that price for our freedom we
have no chance.
The Gospel of Christ is that God through Christ Jesus came not
to give a second chance to you or me, but to bring death to the old man and to
bring to life a new creation in us. This
new man, this new creation, this new person has the Holiness, Righteousness,
and Sanctification of Christ. It is
through the efforts of God, not the efforts of man; it is Christ in you or me, not
you or me, that makes us a new creation.
Yes, we can act holy, but without Christ we cannot be
holy. We can do righteous works, but
without Christ we cannot be righteous.
We can act sanctified, do the works of one who is sanctified, but only
Christ can make us sanctified. Yes, in
our own efforts we can act sanctified, righteous and holy, but we can’t keep it
up. We can’t keep it up through our own
efforts because it is only an act. I do not
mean we are phonies or hypocrites; I mean these are merely acts, not who we
are.
The Groundhog Day Gospel is a gospel of bondage, of endless
repetition, of continual frustration. A
gospel that does not bring us closer to God but lets us cling to the delusion that
we can do better next time; the delusional that it is all about becoming better
people. The message of the Groundhog Day
Gospel is, “Not good enough” with the
subtext, “Try harder, fail better.” Like the movie, each day we repeat the cycle. Unlike the movie, we never escape the
cycle. Being better is not good enough. The word gospel literally means “good news.” This Groundhog Day Gospel is bad news. It is a false gospel. While this false gospel will not keep us from
having our names written in the Book of Life, it can rob us of a lot of joy that
God wants us to have in Christ.
What to do? How can
we be freed from the slavery of this false gospel? How can we escape the living hell of not good enough and try harder, fail better? Christ
suffered death on the Cross to free us; he never intended to settle for us just
being better people. What God wants is
more than we can give him though our own efforts. He died and rose again to make us sons and
daughters of the living God. “Because of what God has done, you belong
to Christ Jesus. He has become God’s
wisdom for us. He makes us right with
God. He makes us holy and sets us free”
(I
Cor 1:30 NIRV).
What to do? Jesus was
asked by the people, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John
6: 28-29). Believe we are each a
child of God if we have come to faith in Christ Jesus. Believe Christ did it all and that our
standing as such is settled and will not change. God wants a close relationship with his
children. How close? God wants to abide
in us, to live in and with us, through the person of the Holy Spirit. Accept that the efforts of Christ brings this
about, not our own efforts. So rest,
take a Sabbath, take a permanent vacation from your own efforts. Rather than look to the efforts of our flesh,
our human nature, look to God. (Romans
8:5-8). Follow God and let the Holy
Spirit work in you and through you.
Rest from your efforts; abide in Christ; let the Holy Spirit
do the work that he was given to do. You
may be surprised when you realize your acts, your behavior, your inclinations will
be changing, moving toward godliness. That
God is working in you. You
will find that being changed by God, by abiding in him, brings permanent change
that could never be obtained by your own efforts.
Be blessed!
RB
RB
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