Protestant evangelicalism has inherited a tradition of thinking about the gospel primary in terms of me and my sin crisis. This was the context for Luther’s insightful break through on the idea (that had aways been there in the text) that we’re saved by grace alone (in contrast to works righteousness). Luther was seeking to shake his sin-guilt.
This truth of the gospel is firm and true. This part we get.
The problem, however, is that those of us who have inherited this tradition have failed to go beyond here. Our conceptualization of the gospel and of Jesus has focused like a laser beam on Jesus as the one who has saved me from my sin.
This pattern of thinking about Jesus, I find, creates a failure to fully engage in the part of the gospel that links up with Jesus’ command, “Follow me” (Luke 5:27; 18:22–23; Matt 4:18–20; 19:21; John 1:43).
Jesus is far from our big brother in heaven who alleviates our shame (sin-guilt) and grants our wishes. Rather, Jesus, based on the fact that he has offered his life in our place, commands us to follow him; he commands us to die to our wishes, our desires and dreams (that don’t align with his will), and obey his command.
The nature of the dialogue needs to change. There must be a change from our dominate voice saying, “Jesus, forgive me,” to his dominate voice saying, “Follow me.”
