Christ + The American Dream

As I drove home tonight, a sign in front of a small church in my neighborhood caught my attention. It read exactly this, "Christ paid a great price so that you can have a great life."

There you have it. Christ humbled himself by being born of a poor, virgin woman, lived a life without a place to call his own, hung himself on a tree, willingly allowing himself to be murdered (maybe even screaming so loud on the cross that his voice was raw), and brought himself back to life, all in order that you and I might have the comforts of post-modern civilization. Man, what a cool dude. Thanks, Jesus!

If only the rest of the world could hear about this guy. Santa Claus got nothing on Him!

But He didn't die in order that we have a great life. That's not the Gospel. He died because God is Holy and will not be mocked by our stiff-necked pride and willingness to sell our souls for a slice of bread. He died because we deserve, in even our best days, to burn in Hell. Yes, Hell. He died in the place of sinners. He died and was raised again in order to buy back human souls. He's in the business of bringing dead men to life (to Himself). To have Jesus is to be saved from death and to be fellow heirs with Christ, to be eternally-satisfied, not in the life that we've been given, but in God Himself.

Scripture says all who wish to save their lives, will lose it. But those who wish to lose it for His sake and for the sake of the Gospel will find it. That's the Gospel! The truth is we want to twist His words to say what we want them to say. When He says, "I've come to give you life," we so desperately want Him to mean that we've won the lottery, literally. And we want to cash his death and resurrection in right now in the form of a new car, a sexy wife, 2.5 kids, relatively easy living, and a comfortable retirement traveling the country-side in a 5th wheel.

The truth is that many men in the Bible who knew Christ and trusted in Him with their lives, actually didn't find things going so well for them. They lost their lives for the sake of Christ and for the Gospel. And from all accounts, they were satisfied losing everything to prove that He, alone, is more satisfying than life itself.