“Evan-jellyfish,” is a term I have heard used to describe evangelicals without a spine. To such, Christianity is about being nice—just like Jesus. After all, “He gets us,” as the multi-million dollar TV campaign nicely presents. Of course Jesus was nice, except when He was flipping over tables, cracking a whip, demanding repentance or you perish in hell, calling people vipers, and prophesying wrath to come!
Yet, Jesus spoke the truth in love. He neglected neither. Christ was “full of grace and truth,” (John 1:14). Our message is not one of condemnation, but compassion. Yet, the way out of condemnation is not human goodness (however we define it), but heavenly grace. To promote love without truth is liberalism that has no saving power. If we are already nice, then we can have this very nice Jesus whomever we imagine Him to be, and think all is well for the afterlife—whatever we conceive that to mean.
Paul is contrasting the ministry of the Old Covenant with the message of the New Covenant in chapter three of 2 Corinthians. There was a glory in the law given to Moses, for it came from Holy God. It set forth God’s standard, but gave no means to keep it. Moses’ face reflected the glory for a time, but it faded. In opposing liberalism, we are not promoting legalism. That is a ministry of the letter that kills.
Rather, we have a ministry of righteousness—that very righteousness which comes by faith in Christ and gives us grace to change from the inside out. The Apostle would later state in this letter, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (5:17). It is the ministry of the Spirit that gives eternal life. Our focus is on courageous communication that Paul commends in 2 Corinthians 3:12, “Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—”.
This conveys THE BASIS OF COURAGEOUS COMMUNICATION, “Therefore, since we have such hope…”. The unshakeable hope we have rests in the finished work of Christ. It is a not the “hope so” of legalism or liberalism, but the concrete assurance of justification from Christ’s work in the past that saves us from sin’s penalty, sanctification in His ongoing work in the present that saves us from sin’s power, and glorification at His return that saves us from sin’s presence. There is no hope to be found in a message that declares we are good already as liberalism does, or demands that we be good in our own ability as legalism does. Rather, it is about Jesus who is, “the Way, the Truth, and the LIfe.” The only hope, for none come to the Father but by Him, (John 14:6).
This means we can have THE BOLDNESS OF COURAGEOUS COMMUNICATION, “we use great boldness of speech—”. Paul did not say, “I’m OK; you’re Ok” but confronted us with the reality of our sin and the gravity of the sentence upon us. Nether did he tell us to pray to Mary, confess to a priest, keep some ritual, be nice and so forth—hoping that in the scales of justice, the good may outweigh the bad. False religion—whether of a cult or some perverted Christianity—has the works of bad people put in the scales and so our religiosity and ritual on the other side tip the balance in our favor. The problem with that it is actually the holiness of God in one side of the balance, and whatever we put into the other side will not even move the scale. Only one human ever equaled the perfect righteousness of God—the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, we boldly proclaim the Gospel.
This is the good and glorious work that Christ does in us by His Spirit who regenerates and sanctifies. In HIs abiding presence and our pursuing an abiding relationship with Him that transformation occurs:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:17-18).
Our courageous communication is of freedom in Christ—free to be all that God wants me to be, realizing it in increasing measure, as I grow and glow from the glory of Christ in and with me. “He gets us,”—yes, if you mean Christ gets us by reaching into the pit of sin and pulling us out of the muck and mire, cleaning us up, and clothing us in His righteousness, fitting us for glory.
Hallelujah, what a Savior we preach! May His Gospel be our courageous communication!
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