When most of us hear the term water boy we think of the dude that delivers water to athletes when they wish to be refreshed (or we think of Adam Sandler’s movie, but that misses the point!). Being a water boy is a mediocre job that doesn’t draw a lot of praise, but it is a necessary one.
Unfortunately, if we are not careful, we can easily relegate God to the position of a cosmic water boy. Think about it. We thank God for the good things—be it a new car, a sunny day, a promotion at work, or whatever. “Thanks for the cup of water, water boy.” And when bad days come we usually know, on some level, that God is the only one who can get us through it, so we pray and ask for help. “Hey water boy, I need some water over here! Hurry up!”
These are very natural tendencies for us to have. As a matter of fact, they are so natural that one does not even have to be a Christian to do them! We are hard wired to know that something or someone deserves to be praised and thanked when we experience something wonderful. We are equally hard wired to cry out for help to something or someone that is bigger than us when life get’s hard.
So what am I implying? Is it bad for us to thank God for his blessings? Is it wrong for us to ask God for help? Of course not! Scripture is clear on this matter.
What I’m trying to get at is how we view Jesus and, consequently, what is it that we believe it means to be a Christian?
For many people, being a Christian involves believing certain theological propositions and behaving a certain way. There is some truth to this. However, it does not give us the full picture. Being a Christian actually involves much more. If I could sum up what being a Christian means in one word it would be “transformation”. The message of the Gospel changes us; it does not leave us as we were.
Now, I’m well aware that in certain parts of America people grow up hearing some form Christianity. Unfortunately, a lot of nice people have been inoculated against the true message of the Gospel by the hearing of a folk gospel that basically teaches that:
- There is a God
- All people are essentially good
- The Bible is a magical book with a lot of good stuff in it
- Jesus loves everybody and is a really, really nice guy
- We are to be good people
- We should go to church (even though it’s boring)
- God’s wants us all to be happy
- Angels are everywhere and are pretty
- One day some people will go to hell (mostly people we don’t like) and a lot of people will go to heaven and become angels
When you ask these people if they are Christians you will get a resounding “Yes, we are!” But is this all Christianity is? Is this what Jesus died to give us? Again, when we think of the Gospel we must think of it in terms of transformation. What does it do in our lives and how does it change us?
In 2 Corinthians 5, 6 and 7 we observe some ideas of what that transformation includes. From these three chapters we see six things that the Gospel gives us.
First of all the Gospel gives us a New Identity: It changes our relationship with God
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (5:17)
We are a new creation. We have been changed! God has transformed us from
- enemies to friends
- orphans to children
- objects of wrath to objects of mercy
- being far away to being near to God
- being naked to being clothed
- sickness to health.
We are now co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). The Gospel comes to us and changes us. It remodels our lives. This means our identity is not in our past decisions or the scars that we bare. It is in Christ. So radical is this Gospel transformation that Jesus referred to it as a new birth (John 3:3)! But, we’re not just a bunch of new identities floating around out there on the horizon. No. Jesus gathers us. This leads us to the second point.
The Gospel gives us a New Community: It changes our relationship with people
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (5:18-19)
“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’” (6:16-18)
Notice the plurals in the text:
- Reconciled us to himself
- Gave us the ministry of reconciliation
- Entrusting to us the message of reconciliation
- Therefore, we are ambassadors
- We are a temple of the living God
- I will make my dwelling among them
This is one of those things that assumed all throughout the New Testament—Christians are to be together. The Gospel doesn’t just save us and change us, but it also places us into a body; into a family (a.k.a. the church). Jesus died to bring this about therefore this is no small thing. This was not an afterthought! It wasn’t as if Jesus said to his disciples, “Hey guys, I’m heading back to heaven. You guys should get together and hang out. Maybe start a group or something”. No! Community is God’s idea! In community needs are met, love is given, fellowship is enjoyed, sorrows are shared, mercy and service are extended to one another.
Paul’s illustration in 1 Corinthians 12 is perfect. He talks about us being a body. Think about your big toe. When you bump it on a table and cut it open you don’t just keep walking. The rest of the body doesn’t get together and say stuff like “I swear that big toe is always wining! He is so high-maintenance!” No, you stop and other body parts (hands and fingers) go down there and help (first aid). You realize that your toes affect the rest of the body.
We have to remind ourselves that we have been baptized into one body. Again, Jesus died to bring this about. This is no small thing!
Thirdly, the Gospel gives us a New Mission: It changes our relationship to the world
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (5:20)
We have the ministry of reconciliation. We are Christ’s ambassadors! Do we think about this much? We are commissioned to tell people about Jesus. And, just for clarification, (you probably know this already) but people without Jesus go to hell. I’m not trying to cute here. I’m being factual. Fat people, skinny people, rich people, poor people, republicans, democrats, Baptists, Presbyterians, public school teens, home school teens, nice people, mean people. People without Christ go to a Godless eternity that is absent of anything good with no hope of escape. Does that idea occupy any real estate in our mind? Does it come on our radar screen at any point during the day? If not there is something wrong.
Now, I want to establish the fact that we don’t go out and share the Gospel because it’s all up to us and that these people will go to hell because we didn’t tell them. We don’t share the gospel out of fear or guilt. No, we go and share the Gospel because God, through Christ, has ransomed people from every tribe, language, people and nation. We go with joy and excitement and anticipation of what God is going to do! We go, out of a love for our neighbor and out of a belief that God is mighty to save! Does that make it easy? No way! Look at 6:4-8! Paul experienced a lot of hardships in order to take the Gospel to people!
Fourthly, the Gospel gives us a New Set of Values: It changes our relationship to things and ideas
“…through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (6:8-10)
The Gospel changes how we look at things in life. It changes the things that we value. Money is held loosely, occupations are worked differently, family responsibilities are seen in a new light, husbands are submitted to and wives are loved and cherished as Christ does the church, children are raised in the fear of God, sufferings are seen as servants of our sanctification, death loses its sting.
The Gospel is like a set of glasses. We look through the lens and it changes how we see things. It is pervasive! There is not one thing left untouched by the Gospel. It frees us from the things that society tells us are important. We don’t have to keep up with the Jones! GK Chesterton said, “A man who has faith must be prepared not only to be a martyr, but to be a fool.” In the eyes of the world we become fools because the things we value are drastically different than what they value.
Fifthly, the Gospel gives us a New Behavior or Ethical System: It changes our relationship to morals and actions
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’” (6:14-18)
There are things that we do and there are things that we don’t do as Christians. God calls us to be different. Look at the phrases in verses 14-18:
- Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers – 14
- What partnership does light with darkness have? – 14
- What fellowship does righteousness and lawlessness have? – 14
- What agreement has the temple of God and idols? – 16
- Be separate from among them – 17
- Touch no unclean thing – 17
- Holiness – 7:1
Of course, Paul is not calling us to retreat from the world and form our own little community. We’re not supposed to go out and start a convent and isolate ourselves from the rest of the world! The issue is not being with unbelievers, but acting like unbelievers. This is how Paul describes it:
- Not worshipping idols
- Not living in darkness
- Not walking in lawlessness
God calls us to be holy. And holiness takes work! To be clear, there is a positional holiness that we have through Christ. God sees us holy because Jesus has imputed his perfect righteousness upon us. However, there is also a personal holiness that we strive for in this life. Every day we are in a battle. John Owen put it this way:
“…the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin…Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. Your being dead with Christ virtually, your being quickened with him, will not excuse you from this work.” (On the Mortification of Sin in Believers)
Of course the danger of talking about ethics, conduct and behavior is that they can be reduced to moralism or legalism. This is where I found John Stott’s counsel so helpful:
“When we proclaim the gospel, we must go on to unfold its ethical implications, and when we teach Christian behaviour we must lay its gospel foundations” (Between Two Worlds).
In other words, we are saved for good works, not by good works! (Eph 2:8-10). This leads me to the final point.
The Gospel gives us a New Motivation: It changes our relationship to the bottom line
“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (7:1)
The Gospel changes why we do what we do. It de-legalizes our actions. We love him because he first loved us. We don’t love him so that he will love us! There is a phrase that people use to express this point: “Behind every imperative, there is an indicative.” What does that mean? It means behind every command that God gives us there is a promise or a truth that motivates the obedience to the command.
In 2 Corinthians 6 God promises to “make a dwelling place among us” and that he “will be our God and we will be his people” and that he “will be a father to us”. These are his promises or truths. These are indicatives. Then we read in chapter 7 verse 1, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” This is the imperative. Notice how it is built upon the previous promises of God (the indicatives)? All throughout Scripture this is seen. (Take time to look at Deuteronomy 10:12-15; Exodus 20:2-17; Ephesians 4:32; and Colossians 3:1-15, 12-13. See if you can point out the indicatives and imperatives.)
This is really important to understand! You see when people hear the Gospel they often hear it through different earpieces. Some hear it through the earpiece of legalism; some through the earpiece of license; and some through the earpiece of grace. The following chart gives you an idea of what I’m talking about.
| Earpiece: | Legalism | License | Grace |
| Understanding of the Gospel: | The Gospel means I must do certain things in order to please God and be a “good person”. | The Gospel means I can do what I want because God forgives me no matter what! | The Gospel is amazing and scary. I am saved by grace! There is nothing that I can do to make God love me more or love me less. I am accepted by him because of the work of Jesus |
| Motivation: | It’s all about a point system. God gives me rules, I obey those rules and I get what I want. If I do X number of things then I expect an X number of things to be given to me by God. That is what he owes me for my good behavior. | The Gospel means that I can have me cake and eat it too! Because God is gracious and forgiving I can engage in sinful behavior without any consequence. God knows I’m not perfect. He knows I’m going to mess up. But that’s ok, because I can just say I’m sorry and move on. | Because God has saved me and made me his child my heart is forever changed. I obey him because I love him and I am grateful for his grace. When I sin, it brings great sorrow and I turn again to Jesus to find forgiveness. |
| God’s demand are: | Required for salvation | Minimal | Satisfied in Christ and out of sheer joy and gratitude I obey whatever he says |
| Fear: | If I mess up and overlook some rules God’s love for me diminishes and others may think less of me. | God may ask too much of me and inhibit my lifestyle. | I don’t want to hear the Gospel through the earpiece of legalism or license. |
| Idol: | Reputation | Pleasure | N/A |
The way the Gospel is heard through these three earpieces is, obviously, very different. The Gospel of Grace is amazing and scary. Tim Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, recounts a conversation he had with a lady at his church.
“Some years ago I met a woman who began coming to Redeemer, the church where I am a minister. She said that she had gone to a church growing up and she had always heard that God accepts us only if we are sufficiently good and ethical. She had never heard the message she was now hearing, that we can be accepted by God by sheer grace through the work of Christ regardless of anything we do or have done. She said, ‘That is a scary idea! Oh, it’s good scary, but still scary.’ I was intrigued. I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: ‘If I was saved by my good works – then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – at God’s infinite cost – then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.’”
So, is Jesus your water boy? Is he merely someone you thank when he does something nice for you or someone you call out to when you need help? If that’s all he is, I pray he will become much more to you. I pray he becomes your savior—the one who rescues you from the kingdom of darkness by giving his own life and thus obtaining all the blessings of God. I pray he will become your Lord—the one who rules and reigns in all areas of your life. The one to whom you graciously submit and surrender all that you lay hand and heart on. I pray he will become your treasure—the one you love (2 Timothy 4:8) and long to see.
Gospel-ology 