there is something strange about christians. we like the idea of heaven. we like the idea of escaping judgement. we like to know we have been freed from death. But we do not like the idea of dying. we do not like to think about what it means to give up ourselves. we want something greater, but we want to exist outside of the the responsibility of having to give anything up to be a part of it.

The truth of Jesus’ sacrifice is somewhat wasted on our american mentality. Yes his gift is free to all, there is no denying that. (ref.). But in an evangelical push to bring more into his kingdom, we often do not expound on the ramifications of accepting this free gift. Yes, there are “no strings attached,” and yes his yoke is easy and his burden is light, but it simply cannot stop there.

Allow me to mention first that i am not heading in a works oriented mindset, lest you shut out my words before i have written them. I am merely trying to broaden our thinking. We limit our relationship with our Father by thinking salvation stops after accepting the gift. It doesn’t stop with the gift any more than it stops with merely “going” to church.

When we say salvation is free, what people really hear is salvation requires nothing now, and it requires little later. The truth is that salvation requires nothing but accepting at first. Jesus paid our ransom and all we must do is recognize this and come to him in the reality of our brokenness. But how arrogant are we to assume that this is “it?” It is a travesty i find to be mostly exclusive to our western mindset.

See, we are consumed with the idea and the pursuit of comfort. Some call it the pursuit of happiness, which sounds very patriotic and grand, but ultimately lacks soul. When Christ said my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he wasn’t referring to anything we could handle on our own. In fact, when you study the person of Jesus, it is hard to ignore how he RARELY ever spoke of living in a manner that we could consider ourselves capable of. Yes, maybe for a time we might find that we are living according to the calling. But after a few days, weeks or what have you, it will become more apparent that how we are living is nothing more than a poor imitation of the true calling. Yes we are called to be imitators of Christ. Christian literally means little Christ. So yes in a word we are called to imitate Him. But we can only truly imitate him and his character when we are identified by and filled up with Him! It is impossible otherwise! there is no lasting strength in my own efforts. My attempts at righteousness are pathetic and feeble when held up to the glory of the God Who saves.

In our pursuit of comfort, we force the pursuit of Christ to become something of an ancillary accessory to life. We fit him in where we are able, and if He doesn’t fit in, or if his calling starts to require too much we allow him to slide away. Its the equivalent of a favorite pair of shoes. Sometimes we find that it’s ok to wear the shoes to go out to dinner with friends, or to go to the market. But we wouldn’t dream of being seen at a formal dinner party or company event. It simply isn’t “right.” I believe this mentality of “fitting Christ in” stems from an idea that being a christian equals being comfortable. I am fairly certain that the rest of the Christian world would disagree, because for most of the world faith in christ is punishable by imprisonment or worse.

What then? Are we to feel guilty for being blessed? are we to chastise ourselves and our churches for having much? I would argue no, but only to a point. the reality is that we need to live in constant recognition of several things:

1) we are blessed beyond belief. its almost disgusting how much we have, and how very unsatisfied most of us are. We need to adopt an attitude of thanksgiving. Not only for the abundance of material things, but for the abundance of love displayed through our Lord’s perfect sacrifice. This leads to the second point:

2) no longer can we allow our thinking of Christ to include his desire for our comfort, as if this is the sole purpose of faith. Comfort is part of being american, but it cannot be the pursuit of the Christian. the pursuit of happiness is deceptive and hollow because it assumes that happiness can be found in the pleasures of this world. When we accept the gift of salvation, we must accept the reality of his calling. We are told simply to love God and love people. Love is expressed in the pursuit. If you say to your spouse you love her, but will not strive for her pleasure, if you do not purpose to see that she is fulfilled by you, then you do not love. you might enjoy her (likely for what you gain from her) but you do not truly love her. a relationship with christ does not allow for mere enjoyment (although this is a significant part of it); It is not about what we can gain from him, even though we gain so much; Accepting his life means that our life entirely becomes about Him, and what he requires. Christ requires that we love him. If love is expressed in pursuit, then we must pursue Him above all else, as true love requires. There is no other conclusion for the Christian!* (Some may argue the point of having a child-like faith and the simplicity of it. While i cannot disagree with having “simple” faith, this argument is flawed. Even a child understands the concept of love and pursuit. Watch the games they play, watch the way they interact even in the most mundane ways possible every child understands how to pursue. They may not have the greatest capacity, but they are unaware of this. If you are aware of a greater capacity, it is useless to say “i live a childlike faith.” A child is aware he must grow. He does not get older and still say “i am a boy.” He will age and mature and so must we in regards to our faith and how we live.) Comfort comes when christ takes over, which leads to the last point.

3) Christ must not be molded to fit our lives. He must be the center of our lives, and from there we discover how we must live. This cannot truly happen before. Before he is our center we can only glimpse at what we feel we ought to do. Once he is our center, our main pursuit, and our life’s purpose what we ought to do and how we should live becomes clear.

My heart has been grieved as i witness the decline of american christianity. the focus we place on the freedom of God’s gift has become a tool in satan’s hand. In our churches there must be a renewed emphasis for those preaching about taking the free gift of salvation. We must not ignore the gravity of the calling that comes with having been saved and bought by our mighty God. Our savior deserves more than a people who love him for what they get. He deserves a people who love him freely because of all he gave.