In the Black!

eptember 8, 2009

Dear Fellow Travelers,

The following is an excerpt from Robert Capon’s book, “Kingdom, Grace, Judgment” (p. 203): “Jesus came to save a lost and losing world by His own lostness and defeat; but in this wide world of losers, everyone except Jesus remains firmly, if hopelessly, committed to salvation by winning. It hardly matters to us that the victories we fake for ourselves are two-bit victories, or that the losses (and losers) we avoid like the plague are the only vessels in which saving grace comes; we will do anything rather than face either the bankruptcy of our wealth or the richness of our poverty. And what then is it that we do when we thus disregard our true wealth? We delude ourselves into thinking that our own salvation can be achieved by keeping books on others. The Samaritans wrote Jesus’ name down in red ink because He fell short in their religious audit; the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable looked down at the publican and thanked God that he himself was not a crook. And we do the same: ‘I know I’m no prize, but at least I’m better than that lecher, Harry’—as if putting ourselves at the head of a whole column marching in the wrong direction somehow made us less lost than the rest of the troops. It would be funny if it were not fatal; but fatal it is, because grace works only in those who accept their lostness. Jesus came to call sinners, not the pseudo-righteous; He came to raise the dead, not to buy drinks for the marginally alive.”
If you should be honest, you would have to admit that the church, even the one you attend, is very involved in the “religious auditing” business, and it has written the names of most of its members in red ink. I’m betting that it even has YOUR name written in red ink! If that is not true, then you are in the minority—a very small minority.
You can, however, count on this: Contrary to the way your church has entered your name, every name that is written in the Lamb’s book of Life is written in black ink, thanks to the shed, RED blood of Jesus. The certificate of debt that was against you and hostile to you, has been cancelled and nailed to the cross. “And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14 NASB ).
Maybe it is time for the church to get out of the “religious auditing” business and get back to the preaching of the one, true Gospel, the one that proclaims this glorious truth: He did for us, what we could never do for ourselves; namely, satisfy God’s requirement for righteousness.
As Capon implied, it makes no sense at all to put ourselves at the head of a whole column marching in the wrong direction, thinking that, somehow, that makes us “less lost” than the rest of the troops.