”There are not a few who are so occupied with truth that they forget "the true one," so occupied with faith that they lose sight of its personal object, so given to dwelling upon the work of Christ that they overlook His person.

What and Who He is seems a question of small importance, provided they know that He has accomplished a work by which they may secure eternal life. "We are forgiven," they say, "we have peace; all is well." They take but little interest in the person of Him who has purchased these blessings. ---- The redemption is all, and the Redeemer is nothing, or, at least, very little to them. The sufficiency of His work is all, the glory and excellence of His person, nothing.

What is this but selfishness? We get all the benefit we can out of the work of Christ, and then have no desire for Him! And this selfishness introduces itself everywhere into the actions and thinking of this class of people.----- His truth is precious; His work is precious; but it is with Him that we have chiefly to do. It is Jesus! Jesus alone! Jesus Himself! whom we feel to be absolutely necessary!

We must go beyond truth to "Him who is true. "Truth is precious, but in itself it is cold. But the glory of the Gospel is this, that it carries us up beyond truth to its living fountainhead! No, it brings us into the very bosom of Him who came out of the Father's bosom and has now returned to it, carrying with Him all those whom the Father has given Him; there, with Him to abide in happy fellowship, world without end! (Horatius Bonar: The Night of Weeping)

The Great God Self

For a final thought on this chapter we need to ask why is it that so many churches are believer-centered and not Christ-centered. The obvious answer is that because many of the so-called conversions we are seeing are not really true conversions. Many of our converts are really people just wanting a better life for themselves rather than ruined sinners suing for mercy. They have some kind of religious experience and are told they are now Christians. However they are still the center of their life and if a minister began to exalt Christ he would have a hard time reaching these people. In fact this type of so called Christian is in reality quite bored with Jesus. These folk are much more interested in themselves than they are in Christ. It’s too hard for people who exist to serve, preserve and promote themselves to share their affection with a rival God, albeit the living and true God.

Man and God are rivals and church leaders know this. In spite of this knowledge, rather than preach the Gospel the Churches often opt for ways to build a bigger crowd. The prevailing wisdom goes something like this, “If we preach about believers, their growth and progress we are sure to draw a crowd. Let’s face it, people just aren’t hungering after Jesus these days. So if we are to be successful we need to be able to read the culture in which we live and trim our sails accordingly. We need to find out what they are interested in and meet their needs. If we have them here we can eventually introduce them to the Gospel.’
It all sounds plausible but why dethrone the Gospel? To build a big crowd, while dethroning Christ Jesus, is an act of betrayal and treason. Pastors need to ask themselves whether they want a Crowd or a Crown!

Here’s another scenario that answers the question as to why many churches are not Christ centered. Perhaps Christ Jesus is not center stage in many of our churches because, apart from there being no appetite for Him, it’s too risky. He would get in the way of our plans and besides that, we want to build our churches….what if that wasn’t the same as Him building His? What if huge assemblies are not His plan every time? It may be too risky to find out
But to summarize this chapter! Sin ruined us and turned us into raving subjectivists. Because of sin, man and his condition is the center of his concern. Even when people get genuinely saved the very assemblies they join themselves to often teach them how to remain self-centered and actually hinder them from becoming Christ-centered. Salvation should rescue us from our fallen condition. Since, therefore, our experience was the center of our pre- Christian life it should no longer continue center stage after Salvation.

I believe, however, the Holy Spirit is calling for a people who will love Jesus Christ and worship Him. In fact, such people are popping up in every place desiring to hear about Him and are passionate to know Him. The Spirit is raising up a Gospel-centered people who will serve and glorify Him and, by His Gospel, build His Kingdom.

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

© Miles McKee Ministries

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