Being on the World Race has shown me much about how Christianity should, and shouldn’t, play out if we truly believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his calling to us as believers. One way that I have seen this in particular is that Christianity is not a fan club. I believe the reason that we do not see the fullness of the fruit of Christ in our lives, yes mine included, is because we see Christ and the active body of Christ as our favorite sports team. I will use Husker football to illustrate my point (Go Big Red).
As Husker fans we love our team. We wear their colors, we watch them and cheer for them through the TV, we go to their games even if they are across the country, and when they aren’t playing we read articles and projections and updates about every player and coach. We scream at the top of our lungs when we are winning and we cry tears when we aren’t. If anyone talks bad about the Huskers it doesn’t take long before we are rebuttling every ridiculous claim that they make while showing them why their team is actually the one that stinks. When we talk about the Huskers, we don’t say “they” or “the Huskers” or “Nebraska,” we say “WE.”
This is a devotion that we need to have and I am not condemning a like of adoration for Christ. But we were not called to just be fans of Christ. We were called off the bench. Christ has called us out of the stands in which we’ve simply watched the game and cheered for our team from. As a fan you have much less influence on the game than you think you do. Sure when talking about the Huskers you may say we but you aren’t the one playing. Jesus is now calling you in. You are in the game. But what then is game are we playing?
Christ Jesus has called us out of a life devoted to disobedience and sin, which separates us from God, and has made us children of God along side of himself. So now, like Jesus, we are devoted not to sin but to reconciliation. Our goal by the end of the “game” is to see every tribe, tongue, nation, and people reconciled to God through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15-21). Every play in the game has that end goal in mind. We are to take the grace that we have been given. The grace that only comes through Christ Jesus and let the whole world know that it is available to them!
And when we aren’t out on the field we are in the gym fine tuning every aspect of our being to be fully equipped for the game (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That would be pressing into scripture, worship, community, etc. We are training ourselves to live and breath the Word of God that is the gospel of Christ. And when we aren’t in the gym, its all we can think about. Our brains are constantly running through every step of every play, how we can improve our own performance, how our team can improve, on everything. It consumes us and becomes who we are. It becomes our identity. We are no longer just fans but players.
You see the fan may be consumed by Husker football just as much as the player but it is the player that makes the true impact. It is the player that actually scores and it’s the player that stops the opponent from scoring. You see the fan wishes that he played football until he sees the real devotion, work, and strain that it takes to play. (I do know that this illustration is imperfect because it takes a specific level of skill, physical ability, and not to mention age to play college football. In short when God calls us he equips us in everyway we need through the Holy Spirit. He fills our shortcomings and makes the specific attributes “required” to play the game exempt.)
So now that we know what the game is and we also know that Christ has put us into the game, how do we apply this to actual Christian life? Well I’m glad that you asked because that is what the rest of my blog is about!
The one thing that the Bible is consistent about commanding us to do is preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now as I said above we should read our Bibles, worship God, and be immersed in Christian community as well as a host of other things. But I don’t want to focus on that right now. I want to focus our call to spread the gospel of Christ. Romans 10:14-15, Mathew 28:16-20, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:15-21, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Psalm 96:2-3 all talk about how we are purposed to proclaim the salvation of God in Christ to the world that he has created.
So in the most simple way that I can encourage you in the calling that Christ has placed on your life I say plainly: TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS. Tell your grandparents, your parents, your children, your mailman, your hairdresser, your cousins, your friends, your enemies, your friends enemies, your enemies friends, that guy in your gym, your co-workers, your boss that you don’t like, EVERYONE. You are called to do it! And if these verses don’t convince you to tell people of the good new of the gospel just listen to the second half of the greatest commandment that Jesus tells us. Love others. We are called to love others as ourselves. And the reason that you believe in the gospel is because you love yourself enough to know that Christ is the only way to salvation and so you have faith in him. In fact as followers of Christ we preach the word to ourselves daily as a reminder of our own identity in Christ. So the most loving thing that we could possibly do for others is to tell them of the only way to salvation that is through Christ. If you love yourself enough to believe in Christ you are called to bring that same message to the world. To not do so would be to ignore your calling.
Get off the bench. The God of the universe is calling you to do his will. To tell the world about the redemption that is found only in Christ Jesus. Don’t be a fan of Jesus. Get in the game.
