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When You're So “Biblical” that You're Un-Christian

Assuming the Gospel

It is possible because too often these hard core Biblicists simply assume the gospel.

Jesus is not emphasized as the means and motivation for righteousness. Instead, Christianity becomes a laboratory to apply biblical principles. Sanctification is rooted in a striving to do and be better.

Slowly but surely Jesus, his dying and doing for sinners, gets benched for my living and doing for God.

You can tell you are in one of these settings when you listen to Christians pray (cf. Luke 18). They often talk about how bad everyone else is vs. how bad they are. They talk about how much better they want to be rather than how great Christ is.

The gospel may receive a hat tip, but it is not the great ocean that satisfies our thirsty hearts and supplies our tears. It is just assumed.

There is a lot of ‘God-talk,’ ‘Bible-talk’…but very little Jesus-gospel-sin-talk.

Painful Irony

There is a painfully ironic contradiction here.

See, on the one hand, you have the hard-core, committed, Bible-guy…he is sold out to the Bible. And he will quickly channel his ‘inner-Saul’ and chuck spears at anyone who is not on the same page with him (1 Sam. 18:10-11). After all, they are compromisers.

These are the guys who have conferences, watch-blogs, and sermons dedicated to taking out famous gospel-editors and biblical compromisers.

But here is the irony: too often, the most ‘biblical’ folks are the most ‘unbiblical.’