Christ Community Church

I like watching college football (especially the Texas Longhorns – Hook ‘Em Horns!). Even if you do not follow the sport at all, you have no doubt seen one of those plays where the guy is running down the field with the ball, seemingly in the clear for an easy touchdown, when all of a sudden some defender comes out of nowhere and just mows the guy over. That is what I felt like when I read this post on Justin Taylor’s blog today.

In the post, Justin quotes a transcript of a talk that Russell Moore (dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) gave in chapel back in March. It hit me by surprise and from the side. I will quote it en toto:

Satan ultimately has a power that is not found most importantly in moral decay or in cultural chaos. His power is in the authority to accuse.

The power of accusation.

The power of holding humanity captive through the fear of death and the certainty of judgment.

Satan is not fearful of external conformity to rule. Not even to the external conformity of the rule of Christ–provided there is no cross.

Satan does not mind family values–as long as what you ultimately value is the family.

Satan does not mind social justice–as long as you see justice as most importantly social.

Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world.

If Jesus will receive the kingdoms of the world, this crafty serpent thinks, then he can hand them to him apart from the shedding of blood at the cross.

Apart from the overthrow of the demonic powers through the empty tomb.

Apart from a reconciliation between a holy God and a renegade humanity.

If he can just bypass the cross–and get to the kingdom apart from the cross–then he will have everything that he wants.

Pastor: Satan doesn’t mind if you preach on the decrees of God with fervor and passion every single week–provided that you do not ever preach the gospel of the cross.

Homeschooling Mom: Satan does not mind if you teach your children all the books of the Bible and all the Ten Commandments and all of the catechism–provided you do not teach them the gospel of a bloody cross.

. . . He will let you get what it is that you want, no matter what it is–sanctity of marriage, environmental protection, orphan care, all of these good and wonderful things–he will allow you to gain those things provided you do not preach and proclaim and live through the power of a cross that cancels his power of condemnation.

He so fears the gospel of a Christ crucified and raised from the dead that he is willing to surrender his entire empire just to appease the threat of it.

Moore is dealing with Satan’s third temptation of Jesus, in which he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of this world if only Jesus will bow to Satan. I think Moore is right on here. Satan will gladly give us every external conformity to Christ and His ways, provided the cross is left out.

We must always be very jealous to guard the gospel in our hearts and to guard our hearts for the gospel. Satan does not come at us with pitchfork in hand. He will come offering us the same thing he offered Jesus: the whole world if we but bow to him, leaving behind the cross and the gospel.

I have on my pulpit two quotes that I hope will be a guide to me in this, both from Spurgeon:

The sermon which does not lead to Christ, or of which Jesus Christ is not the top and the bottom, is a sort of sermon that will make the devils in hell laugh, but make the angels of God weep.

and

Preach Christ, always and everywhere. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great, all-comprehending theme.

Please do not misunderstand Moore (or me, for that matter): Christian values are good things. But if the values are separated from the person and work of Christ, they are as useless in terms of eternity as secular values. There are many things right about fighting for justice and righteousness in our country, but the thing that we desire (true, God-sent, earth-shaking, heaven-filling revival) will not come about because we have won an election or passed a bill. It will come when proclaim from the rooftops, mountaintops, and bus stops the gospel of a crucified Messiah, when God grants people faith to believe in this crucified Messiah, and people live for the glory of this crucified Messiah and not for themselves. Let us not fill hell with laughter and joy by forgetting the cross of Jesus.