The Touchy-Feely, Candy-Coated Gospel

"We are blissfully out of our minds with pleasure before our Maker; he delights in our ecstasy. Our insane mode is between us and God; we promise to behave ourselves sane and sober before you! The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus died humanity's death; therefore, in God's logic every individual simultaneously died."

2 Corinthians 5:13-14 Mirror Translation

Boy oh boy. I just can't hear enough of the Good News. It is the most beautiful melody that has ever been sung. We are sons and daughters of the Most High and He takes the purest delight in our existence! Christ is being revealed in every human being, all of His beloved children, as we each become persuaded of His, oh so patient, love for us. The lies blow away and the truth stands strong like a lighthouse beckoning us toward safety and blessed assurance that we've arrived at home.

As I was deciding what to write on this week, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I was putting pressure on myself to write with the intention of changing people's minds to the goodness of God and it started to feel like a heavy burden. That's when I heard Papa's voice saying, "Sarah, just enjoy this. The message is going forth no matter what you do, so just enjoy being a part of it and say the things that make you smile. It makes me smile too."

So, the thing that makes me smile is knowing the unlimited love of the Father, Son and Spirit. They've embraced humanity with a love that does not fail even one person. 

A few days ago, I was recalling a time in my life when I would regularly hear messages from preachers that warned listeners of this thing they called "The Touchy-Feely, Candy-Coated Gospel". I was usually sitting on a hard church pew amongst people with emotionless faces as we listened to a fear-filled sermon from a scared, self-condemned speaker. And most of us bought it. We drank the kool-aid of sin-consiousness, fearful "reverence", and punishment and reward. All the while, Father, Son and Spirit were dancing and celebrating in our midst, trying to get us to shake off the chains of our seriousness and join them in the enjoyment of our burdenless freedom! As one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes says: "Joy is the serious business of Heaven."

Is there anything about pure good news that is not touchy-feely? Think about it. If a husband and wife have been trying to have a baby for a while and are told that they are unable to conceive, but a few months later a doctor comes in to announce to them the good news that they're pregnant. The response that this wonderful proclamation arouses in them is not a simple mental acknowledgement or belief in this truth. No, joy springs forth from their innermost being and touches their hearts, their emotions, their minds, and the depths of their souls. Their bodies may even tremble with excitement! Why? Because there is nothing bad about this good news. It's exactly what they've been hoping for and now their dream has come true. The doctor does not have to remind them of how pitiful their state was before or how unlikely their chances for pregnancy were because that has absolutely NOTHING to do with what is now true about them. Their entire reality from this point forward is centered around the fact that they are now parents, even though they haven't seen their baby yet. How ridiculous would it be if they continued to live life as though they were still barren?

So what happens to us when we're delivered the Good News that we've been co-crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in us? And that God did this without a single inkling of obedience from us? But that Jesus was THE obedient one and we were in him? My goodness! Why would we continue living as though we were pitiful little sinners? Why would we try to invent new methods for "fixing" ourselves or disciplining our old, sinful man...if that man is dead??? The Good News does not need the assistance of Bad News in order to make it sound better. So my conclusion is that if the Gospel does not touch your feeling emotions, it has probably been watered down with crap about how sinful we still are and that we must do something about it.

God loves to engage our emotions. He loves to see us happy and laughing and smiling the way that any good father feels toward his children. Read these two verses that I came across recently that reveal his romantic heart yearning to delight every part of us.

Hosea 2:19-20 says, "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord."

Hosea 3:5 says, "and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His GOODNESS in the last days."

The apostle Paul, who is the Gospel guru, says in 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died." So basically, he was going crazy and acting out of his mind because of the goodness of the Gospel! This great love COMPELLED him because of the simple conclusion that EVERYONE died with Christ!

This is an incredibly touchy-feely message. As John Crowder likes to say, "The Good News we carry is not only candy-coated, it's filled with bubble gum in the center!" Now, I know one question that might come to mind: What about Paul's warning to Timothy about men that will gather around teachers that say what their "itching ears" want to hear? Wasn't he warning him about this touchy-feely type of Gospel?

NO! I say that with absolute confidence. Earlier in the same letter to Timothy, Paul writes, "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-NOT BECAUSE OF ANYTHING WE HAVE DONE but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of THIS gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher." 

You see, this was Paul's gospel. He was warning Timothy about the itching ears that longed to hear about what laws we must still follow in order to be considered worthy or the demands that greek mythical gods placed upon the people to climb the hierarchy into divinity. Self-righteous people do not want to hear that everything needed for the destruction of sin and everything needed to live a holy and righteous life has been accomplished apart from anything we ourselves have done. It is all by the grace of Jesus from start to finish. Paul did not suffer for his gospel because he was going around telling people that they were sinners in need of a Savior or that they were sinners that needed to do something to be forgiven or made holy. He suffered at the hands of the religious elite because he was going around telling sinners that their holiness and salvation were completely apart from anything they'd done and that grace had freely bestowed righteousness upon them and brought about their full justification. His good news was not that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", his good news came in the verse following immediately after those words so that altogether it said, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (and still speaking about the "all" that have sinned he continues) being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Then he made the appeal to them to change their minds and believe this good news so that they could begin experiencing this reality. This made the religious folks about as mad as it makes us now.

So don't be afraid of the goodness of God. I know it's not what we're used to believing, but it's the truth that has been revealed in Jesus. And while it doesn't ONLY appeal to the emotions (it appeals to the mind and body and spirit as well), it does bring about wonderful feelings like love and joy and peace and the wide spectrum of the Spirit's yummy fruit. The only gospel that doesn't appeal to our feelings is a false one that lacks the Spirit of truth. Because the Spirit feels...deeply. Jesus said that the Spirit can be grieved. Grief is an emotion, a deep feeling.

All that being said, what do we do when we don't feel it? What do we do when our lives seem to contradict this message? I experienced this last week. I had a few opportunities to show radical love but I was too tired and didn't really feel like it and then old feelings of guilt settled in. This frustrated me to no end. So I began praying about it and the Holy Spirit helped me to understand something. I know that I am fully holy, righteous, sanctified, perfected, forgiven, made new and that everything that is true about Jesus is true about me. I know that the fullness of love that exists in the heart of the Father, Son and Spirit exists in me. None of these things are processes that take a lifetime of discipline to attain. They are gifts from the Father to his children that were given in Jesus. However there is a process of letting go to fully trust in these truths. We begin to experience these realities that are already true and we begin to see transformation in our lives through knowing the Father, Son and Spirit and having a relationship with them that frees us to finally trust them and their truth. And trust is not something that just comes overnight. But that's also not to say that trust is something we ourselves drum up or work towards. No, God is our pursuer. He is the one who persuades us of the truth and He is the one who holds our hands and gently convinces us to come out of our beaten-down corners to trust Him and His goodness. 

In knowing Him, we come to know our true selves in a way that is not merely intellectual, but experiential. And that is an intimacy that our Father enjoys to no end! And it is a process that frees us to be patient with ourselves and to just enter into His enjoyment of us. So when we aren't feeling it, we can keep believing and declaring the truth without getting anxious about when we're finally going to arrive. Because, really, we've already arrived in Christ! And we will see that in our experience the more that He persuades us to trust in his love and goodness. The more we hear the Gospel, the more we will hear His voice telling us that we lack absolutely nothing because He lacks nothing. And we will feel the beauty of this truth as it once again provokes laughter from our innermost being.

I want to speak to one more contradiction that tends to deter people from this "feel good" gospel. It's the contradiction I've seen on countless occasions when I've prayed for healing for someone and they didn't get better or prayed for healing for myself and I didn't see immediate results. I've been a part of two streams of thought regarding this. The first said that when we don't see healing, it's because this is God's will for right now to teach us a lesson. The second said that it's always always God's will to heal. Period. 

The first idea sucks because it gives the idea that God is an abusive father. No earthly father would withhold the healing of cancer from their child, if it were in their power to heal, in the name of teaching their child a lesson! So the Good Father most definitely doesn't do this.

The second idea is better because it assumes the goodness of God, but I always felt that if this was true, then if I pray for healing and don't see results I must be doing something wrong. I must lack something. If it is always God's will to heal, then the problem must lie with me or the person who needs the healing.

So, here are my profound thoughts on the matter: I don't know why the contradiction exists! Haha! However, there are some things that I know absolutely. I know that on the cross, Jesus completely dealt with sin and all of its devastating effects which include sickness, disease and death. Peter quoted Isaiah and said that, "By his (Jesus') stripes we WERE healed." So somehow the entire healing of every human being occurred at the scourging of Jesus! So now when we pray for healing, as crazy as it sounds, we can actually pray from a place of thankfulness that it has already happened. Sometimes (and I think these occurrences are increasing as we realize the authority we carry because of Jesus) when we lay hands on a person and pray for their healing, we get to participate in the manifestation of that healing actually taking place in that moment. But when it doesn't, we do not have to doubt God's promises, nor do we have to believe that we're not doing something right. We can simply trust that it's done and leave the mystery at that (and yes, that kind of trust takes time). Everyone's healing eventually manifests...even if it's not until the life after. That doesn't mean that we don't pray with great expectation that it will manifest immediately at our hands and words. It just means that if it doesn't, we can still stand victorious and joyful while still identifying with and carrying the burdens of the person who didn't seem to get healed.

To sum up. Yes, this is a very touchy-feely gospel. Jesus reaches the deepest emotions of our existence and brings them out to fill the world with the most gleeful race of humans to ever walk the planet! He is the light of the world after all...and we're just like him. So let's keep bringing the party to the people! If some get mad about it, it's okay. One day they'll be the biggest party animal at the feast!