"Live for me. I died for
you."Wretched. Vile. Wrong.
This kind of guilt-trip Christianity is poisonous. It's poisonous because it teaches that God gave you Christ not out of His own Fatherly love, but because He just wanted your obedience. And it's poisonous because it teaches that what Jesus won on the cross was not your full salvation, but merely the opportunity to win salvation for yourself through your own works.
Leave it to the Evangelicals to combine the worst of Geneva and Rome in six words and to think that they're somehow doing the Lord's work in the process.
Thank God for Lutheranism. Thank God for faithful preaching and faithful preachers. Thank God for His Gospel. And thank God this billboard ain't it!
-Pr. Hans Fiene from a Facebook posting
The only caveat that I would like to add to this critique of the billboard, and that he is thankful for the Gospel:
ReplyDeleteWhile I have found my home in Lutheranism, and am extremely thankful for it, I would not daresay (nor do I think Pr. Fiene is saying this eithr) that Lutheranism has the monopoly on the Gospel. As Chaplain Mike from the InternetMonk.com website has stated before: "“I am a Christian, and I practice my faith in the Lutheran tradition.” I have found that the Lutheran tradition addresses the distinction of Law and Gospel in an extremly faithful manner.
That being said, I want to reiterate that with this post am I saying Lutheranism is the only true place to find the Gospel. I have found it there, and have found my home there.
Where was it located?
ReplyDeleteNot sure, Ron... This was originally posted FB.
ReplyDeleteAnytime you can get people to think about Christ is a good thing. He did die, so that people can live forever, and yes they should live for Him. Millions of people if not billions have seen this billboard and if God uses it to speak to just one person it was worth it.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. Confusing or erroneous statements about Christ do not save. Instead, they obscure the Gospel. In many ways it is harder to reach a misinformed sinner who think's he's right with God than an abject pagan.
DeleteIn Christ's own parable, the seed that fell in shallow ground, among weeds, and was plucked from the ground did not result in living faith.
And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. -- 2 Cor 5:15
ReplyDeleteCommentary on 2 Cor 5:15 by the Faculty of the University of Navarre:
Christ's death is the price paid for men -- their ransom which sets them free from the slavery of sin, death, and the devil. As a result of it, we belong no longer to ourselves, but to Christ and the new life -- in grace and freedom -- which he has won for us we must live for his sake...
"What follows from this?", St Frances de Sales asks. "I seem to hear the voice of the Apostle like a peal of thunder startling our heart: It is easy to see, Christians, what Christ desired by dying for us. What did he desire but that we should become like him? 'that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.' How powerful a consequence is this in the matter of love! Jesus Christ died for us; by his death he has given us life; we only live because he died; he died for us, by us, and in us; our life then is no longer ours, but belongs to him who has purchased it for us by his death: we are therefore no more to live to ourselves but to him; not in ourselves but in him; not for ourselves but for him" (Treatise on the Love of God).
"We are urged on by the charity of Christ to take upon our shoulders a part of this task of saving souls. ... As a result, we will foster in ourselves a vehement desire to live as co-redeemers with Christ, to save all souls with him" (Christ is passing by, Saint Josemaría Escrivá).
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ReplyDeleteSeeing a cross with our Lord Jesus Christ,asking us to Live for Him,�� is for everyone to Remember! And those who do not,or refuse... We are to Evangelize and use words if necessary.��
ReplyDelete