In many sermons and blogs I’ve read lately, I’ve been noticing a trend in institutional Christianity. It seems like being a Christian is about taking on a huge weight. I hear pastors exclaim freedom in Christ, but they mean quite the opposite. The sheer gravity of the Bible seems crushing. Evidently, Christ saw the same thing. Here is a brief summary of Christ’s his beef with this weightiness imposed by the Pharisees (Matthew 23):

They pushed obeying the minutiae details of the law, but neglecting the important facets such as justice and mercy. They were shallow with clean outward appearances, but had corrupt insides. They made the Kingdom of Heaven exclusive and acted like they controlled the entrance. And they piled rules upon rules on the people, but didn’t lift a finger to help offer them any help (or hope).

Anyone feeling this? Or is it just me? I feel like the foundations of our faith are being used to smother and killing us under their own weight… when they were meant to free us. Christ meant for us to walk upon solid ground; to walk on His foundations, not be crushed under them.  Have we lost sight of Christ in all of this?

So how does this happen? One place it starts is in our worldview.

I recently heard someone say this, “Truth is good teaching and sound doctrine.” And later, they said that Christ was the truth. If you put this logic together you get:

Truth = Christ = Good Teaching and Sound Doctrine

Really? Is that the summary of Jesus? But if you take this definition of Christ you get a worldview very askew from what the Gospels intended. It is no longer about good news and more about rules and regulations. It’s not about the heart. It’s heavy and burdensome. It’s more about pursuit of knowledge than walking with Christ.  

Your worldview and the the way you approach Christ is paramount. It effects the very scope and flavor of your faith.

This scope and flavor of your faith determines how you read the Bible, follow Christ and process the world around you.

So how would you finish this equation?

Truth = Christ = __________?

Mine would be:

Truth = Christ = Hope, Love, Life, Relationship, Change, and Journey

What’s yours?

Here’s a great message from Bell on this topic:

Rob Bell - Lift A Finger

Yes, this is my house and I was taking the picture (and not helping!)