The Shaping of Things to Come (part III)

"What do 'holy ones' do? They live holy lives. This is what scholars have called the indicative and imperative. The indicative defines us, and the imperative calls us to live the definition out in daily life. Incidentally, this is how the New Testament, especially the Pauline Epistles, is structured. In almost every case the first half of Paul's letters are framed in the indicative (you are saved, justified, etc.). The second half is framed in the imperative (therefore live as...). Who I am, or rather who I have become, in Jesus, must change the way I behave and determine to a great extent what I do... Our primary identities determine our primary purposes in life."
-page 148.

The mega-church all-star John Ortberg once told a hypothetical story of a man who was a total jerk, became a Christian and attended church every Sunday and participated in everythin that went on, and died years later, still a complete jerk. How could this happen? Especially, how could this happen to somebody who is supposedly "active" within a church?

The modern church expects people to "attend." Sometimes it lays out the challenges that go something like this:

• Invite your friends
• Don't have sex until you're married
• Don't be addicted to anything
• Vote Republican
• Serve somewhere in the church (like a greeter...)
• Read your Bible

There's more, but you get the idea. What does any of this have to do with being a disciple of Jesus? I will not deny that there is an ethical charge within our faith, but it comes from who we are in Christ, as Frost and Hirsch discuss in their summary of Paul's letters. We are transformed in Christ, and the changes occur from there. The church has dropped the ball on this, saying little about what it means to have a new identity in Christ, then saying even less about what that means for your day-to-day life. True transformation is when we look at a person and can barely recognize them because the Spirit has obviously changed them in radical ways, first inwardly, then outwardly.

Part of this is a re-grasping of holiness. This is going on right now in some church circles and I think it is a step in the right direction. There is a lot of bad connotations with the word, but it is Biblical and needs to brought back out of the cellar and put to the use originally intended by God, who is holy, and says that we are as well. I think holiness is the connection between the indicative and imperative mentioned by Frost and Hirsch. I think this is a large part of our Kingdom calling. Let's be holy.

Peace,

Matt