THE BLIGHT OF LUKEWARM CHRISTIANS
An Indictment of Contemporary Christianity
By Gary Ray Branscome
“He who is
forgiven little, loves little. // Because
you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will
spew you out of my mouth” (Luke
If you assume from the title of this
essay that I am going to be talking about nominal Christians, those who
rarely
attend church and show little interest in seeking out the company of
other
Christians, you are wrong. Such people may be “lukewarm,” but it is
more likely
that they have never been saved to begin with. No! The Christians I
have in
mind generally think of themselves as “good” or even “fervent”
Christians. But,
they are fervent for the Law, not the Gospel. The Christians that I
have in mind
may want to be in church every time the door is open. They may be very
strict
about the rules that they keep. They may be strict about how they dress
and how
they wear their hair. However, the thing that makes them “lukewarm” is
the fact
that they think that all of their rule-keeping is what pleases God,
brings His
favor, and makes them righteous in His sight.
I am not talking about those who
openly teach works righteousness. If that was the case they would not
be
Christians. I am talking about those who claim that they are saved by
grace,
those who claim to believe that they are justified by faith, but who
deny it in
their life because they think that what they do is what brings God’s
favor.
These people claim to trust in Christ, but they want to be motivated by
the
Law. They claim to trust in Christ, but they want to believe that God
will
reward them because of what they do. Therefore, even though they pay
lip
service to the fact that we are saved and cleansed of all
unrighteousness by
what Christ did, not by what we do, they want to believe that their own
“obedience” is what brings them God’s blessing. And, that contradictory
way of
thinking is clearly, “double-minded”.
I have tried to explain the importance
of not only trusting in Christ for salvation but also for
righteousness, only
to have people act like I was encouraging them to sin. The people I am
speaking
of cannot conceive of anyone living a righteous life without being
motivated by
the Law. Once, when I told someone that when we stop trying to make
ourselves
righteous the Holy Spirit will enable us to do what is right (Galatians
5:17), the man to whom I was speaking
said, “What
should we do, just let go and let God?” And, my answer to all who ask
that
question is, “No! We should resist the flesh. God wants us to resist
the flesh.
What God does not want us to do is to deceive ourselves by imagining
that our
own effort at resisting the flesh is what makes us righteous or brings
His
favor” (John 1:47). We should resist the flesh while at the same time
believing
that it is the forgiveness we have in Christ (not our effort) that
makes us
righteous. Why, the very fact that we struggle with the flesh is proof
that we
are not righteous. If we were really righteous (like we will be after
the
resurrection) we would not have a struggle to begin with. It would be
easy to
do what is right (Jeremiah 17:9).
The lukewarm mindset that this essay is
directed at
begins with half-hearted repentance. Every person who comes to faith in
Christ must
acknowledge his or her sin, and look to Christ for forgiveness. I might
add
that they must also be sorry for their sin (Psalm 51:17). Those who are
not
sorry for their sin, those who have no desire to change, those who say
“that is
just the way I am,” do not want to be delivered from sin. Therefore,
they are
deceiving themselves if they think Christ is going to help them get
away with
it (Hebrews
Those who have been cleansed of all sin by
the blood
of Christ, have no desire to return to a life of sin. Before, they were
filthy,
now they are clean. Before, they were condemned by God, now they are
His
children. Before, they had no hope, now they have the sure hope of
eternal life
in Christ. To such people freedom from the Law is not freedom to sin,
but
freedom to be righteous, freedom to live “a quiet and peaceable life in
all
godliness and honesty” without being condemned by every mistake they
make (Romans
7:6, 1Timothy 2:2).
However, lukewarm Christians are those in the
middle,
those who come to faith in Christ believing that they are 50%, 60% or
even 90%
righteous. Such people are not coming to Christ to be cleansed of all
iniquity.
On the contrary, they are just coming to Christ in the hope that He
will make
up the “little” they lack. Because such people come to Christ believing
that the
Law is what makes them fifty to ninety percent righteous, they do not
see
freedom from the Law as freedom to be righteous, but as freedom to sin,
freedom
to do the things they were afraid to do before. Now, I am not saying
that they
actually go ahead and do such things. If they did they would not be
repentant. What
I am saying is that as long as they think that the Law makes them
righteous (at
least in part) they will be unable to conceive of freedom from that Law
as
anything other than freedom to sin. And, that is why they are
constantly
harping about “obedience,” and trying to motivate people by the Law.
Lukewarm preachers are constantly
nagging people to keep the Law, with little mention of the Gospel (as
if everyone
already knows the Gospel and has no need to hear it again). They talk
to the
people in the pews as if they suspect them all of sinning like a bunch
of
unsaved reprobates. They talk to the people that way because they are
struggling with sin in their own lives, and think that everyone needs
to be
motivated by the Law. They think that they are fervent Christians, but
they are
in realty lukewarm. They strive to keep the law, yet fail, and
sometimes fall
into open sin, because there is a contradiction in their thinking.
In order to motivate people they may
stress certain rules, such as those regarding alcohol, dress, or hair.
They may
claim that Christ only frees us from some laws (such as those that
Moses gave)
without freeing us from others (such as any mentioned in Genesis, or in
the New
Testament). Or they may claim that having God’s favor depends upon
“obeying”
any direction they believe is coming from the Holy Spirit. I have
encountered
people who were constantly living in fear of God’s wrath because of
such
hellish doctrine: people who imagined that God was speaking to them
through all
sorts of feelings and impressions, and that they would be punished if
they did
not “obey”.
Nevertheless, even though people
living with
that sort of legalism can be constantly afraid of incurring God’s
displeasure,
they rarely tremble at God’s written word (Isaiah 66:2). On the
contrary, they
are more likely to act as if God should tremble at their word, and they
get
angry whenever God does not do their will. If the Bible says, “Let your
women
keep silent in the churches,” they just ignore it if it does not fit
with their
own ideas (1Corinthians
Because they are lukewarm toward the Gospel,
they
often reduce the Gospel to a work [i.e. asking Jesus into your heart]
instead
of making it clear that we are not saved by our act of praying a prayer
but
through faith in what Christ did on the cross (John 3:16). I realize
that
praying the “sinner’s prayer” can sometimes be an act of faith, but
people need
to understand that they are saved by what Christ did, not by what they
do.
Likewise, in their zeal for works they sometimes explain away important
truths
of the Gospel; such as the fact that by His death Christ atoned for
“the sins
of the whole world” (1John 2:2), and that He not only saves us by His
grace, He
also keeps us by His grace (1Peter 1:5). In fact, they are often
willing to
undermine the entire Gospel by explaining away what the Bible says
about
creation, the Flood, and the age of the earth.
Because the people I have in mind want
to be motivated by the Law, they try to motivate their children by the
Law,
often with disastrous results. Children need to know that their
standing with
God is not determined by what they do, but by what Christ did for them
on the
cross. Once they understand that, they need to be taught the importance
of having
a tender conscience before God, of admitting their sin and looking to
Christ
for forgiveness instead of making excuses for their sins. They also
need to be
taught that we do what is right because it is right, and because we
love God,
not to earn God’s favor. Furthermore, they need to be taught how
important it
is to walk in a clean conscience before God. And, if they believe that
their
sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ they will be open to
that
instruction. We should show our appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice by
conducting ourselves in a way that is above reproach, in a way that
will never
bring shame to His name. Sadly, legalistic (lukewarm) parents usually
just
preach, and yell, and demand “obedience” with the threat of God’s
wrath, until,
by the time the children are grown they are sick of it and want no part
of it.
The truth is that, if we could “obey”
we would not need Christ. The truth is that, no matter how hard we try
all of
our “obedience” is as “filthy rags” in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).
It is
our faith in Christ, not works, that is
counted as
obedience (Galatians 3:6, Romans 10:4).
Conclusion
While some lukewarm Christians take a
lax “sin in moderation” attitude, those who are zealous for the Law can
be, and
often are, lukewarm toward the Gospel. Of course they do not think that
they
are lukewarm. They may be very active in trying to get people to pray
the
“sinner’s prayer” (Luke