Christ centred? by Richard Roy

What it means to be Christ-centred. This paper is based on the proposition that although we frequently use the expression ‘Christ-centred’, it is neither well-understood nor practised. Nevertheless, in this worksoriented culture, it is crucial that we comprehend what it means to be Christ-centred. To assist us in our understanding, we turn first to Paul’s writings starting at Philippians 3:1-11, particularly vv. 10-11 where he says, ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.’ This passage gives us an insight into Paul’s consuming passion indicated by his words, ‘I want to know Christ’ (v.10), ‘but one thing I do’ (v.13), and ‘I press on toward the goal’ (v.14). There is no doubt that the apostle’s devotion to Christ was the chief characteristic of his life and writings. For example, when he came first to Corinth, Paul said, ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Cor 2:1-2). Further, when he spoke about his own life, he said, ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal 2:20), and, ‘For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain’ (Phil 1:21). When Paul prayed for his churches, he said, ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him [i.e., Christ] better (Eph 1:17-18). When he referred to his ministry goal, Paul wrote, ‘For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake’ (2 Cor 4:5), and, ‘We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me’ (Col 1:28-29). As Gordon Fee says about Paul, It does not take much reading of Paul’s letters to recognise that the gospel is the singular passion of his life; that passion is the glue that holds this letter together. The gospel, especially in Philippians, for Paul refers primarily neither to a body of teaching nor to proclamation. Above all, the gospel has to do with Christ, both his person and work. To preach Christ (1:15-16) is to preach the gospel, which is all about Christ; to preach the gospel is to proclaim God’s good news of salvation that he has effected in Christ.i

Contemporary practice of Christ-centredness In light of the above, what would the pursuit of Christ look like in current church practice? Here are some suggestions. Our passion for Christ would mean that we would talk a great deal about him and the gospel. As the psalmist said, ‘I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations’ (Psa 89:1, 105:2, 119:27, 145:11). This means that our preaching, teaching, congregational singing and prayer would feature prominently the Lord Jesus Christ including his life, death, resurrection and his ongoing work through the Spirit. This plain reality presupposes that we will both preach and relate more to the NT than the OT and when we do refer to the OT, interpret it Christologically. As theologian Donald G. Bloesch says, It is possible to preach from the Bible and yet not preach Jesus Christ or the gospel … Every sermon should include the gospel of God’s work of reconciliation and redemption in Jesus Christ, even though it may not explicitly focus on this theme. Even when we preach from the Old Testament we should preach Jesus Christ and him crucified (cf. 1 Cor 1:23; 2:2). Too many sermons merely repeat the stories of biblical heroes rather

than show how these heroes point to Jesus as the sole source of our redemption.ii

As renowned Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) said, ‘The best sermon is that which is most full of Christ’.iii Spurgeon followed this statement with the ensuing story: A Welsh minister, when preaching at the chapel of my dear brother Jonathan George, was saying that Christ was the sum and substance of the gospel, and he broke out into the following story. A young man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he had finished, he foolishly went to the old minister and inquired, ‘What do you think of my sermon, sir?’ ‘A very poor sermon indeed,’ said the older man, ‘because there was no Christ in it. Don’t you know, young man, that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?’ ‘Yes,’ said the young man. ‘Ah!’ said the old divine. ‘And so from every text in Scripture there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And, my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, “Now, what is the road to Christ?” and then preach a sermon, running along the road toward the great metropolis—Christ. I have never yet found a text that had not a plain and direct road to Christ in it. And if ever I should find one that has no such road, I will make a road; I would go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master. For a sermon is neither fit for the land nor yet for the garbage heap unless there is a savor of Christ in it. Further, to be Christ-centred would mean that we frequently recall the stories and teachings of the gospel in our sermons, songs and prayers, and love to do so, because the gospel was Christ’s principal work, that which cost him his life, and is the monolithic event in our Christian history. There is no Christianity without the gospel. Just as Israel frequently rehearsed the details of the Exodus, its principal salvation event (e.g., Psa 78), so we Christians glory in the cross as our fundamental pillar of faith (Gal 6:14). The Early Church, indeed the NT also, used creeds and songs to state and restate their beliefs as the following shows. The genesis of the church’s symbols (as creeds have been called from early times) resides in protocredal statements of faith and worship embedded in the NT. With the confession, ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3) early Christians acknowledged that the Nazarene was to be spoken of in the same terms as Yahweh of the OT. The text interpolated at Acts 8:37, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,’ represents a primitive Christian baptismal affirmation. Other NT credal formulas affirm Christ’s incarnation, saving death and glorious resurrection (Rom. 1:3–4; 1 Cor. 15:3–4; 1 Jn. 4:2). The great Christological passage Phil. 2:6–11 may have been sung at early Christian baptismal services. 1 Cor. 8:6 affirms the unity of God and the co-ordination of the Father with Jesus Christ. Finally in the NT a Trinitarian confessional pattern emerged (Mt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14), which became the paradigm for later credal formularies.iv

The creeds invariably proclaimed Christ and the gospel. In the same way, our songs should serve as creeds to frequently restate the gospel. Further, to be Christ-centred means recognising our total dependence on him and living accordingly, because in Christ is found our inexhaustible life source. We are literally dependent on Christ for everything (Col 2:6-12). This is one of Paul’s principal meanings of the word ‘grace’. Grace goes far beyond unconditional acceptance and forgiveness in

Pauline theology. To Paul, grace meant participating in Christ’s riches through the empowerment of the Spirit of Christ to enable believers to pray (Eph 6:18), to live (Rom 8:13; Gal 5:25), to love (Rom 15:30), to work (2 Cor 3:5-6), to preach (Eph 6:18-19), to give (2 Cor 8:7), to worship (Phil 3:3), to do anything and everything. Paul, like Jesus, acknowledged that without the Father, he could do nothing (John 5:19; Gal 2:20). However, through the vast riches available to him through Christ he could live a godly life either in poverty or in plenty (Phil 4:13, 19). Consequently, Paul’s writings are rich in graceempowering language. They are rich in ‘Spirit’, ‘in Christ’, ‘through Christ’ and ‘by Christ’ language (e.g., Col 1:1-8). In the light of Paul’s example here, if there was a renewed recognition of our dependence on Christ, prayer would become a conspicuous feature of our practice because through it we access the grace in which we stand. Contrariwise, there is a strong contemporary emphasis on what we can do apart from prayer, congruent with a society that is fixated by human effort and outcomes. It comes out in our songs and our preaching. We sing about what we will do, rather than what Christ has done and what God will do in us because of the cross. We preach that people must try harder, press in closer, and generally exert themselves more strongly for the kingdom’s sake. This kind of message is described by Bloesch as that which is ‘law without the gospel so that our hearers are told what to do in order to ensure for themselves a place in God’s kingdom rather than on what God has already done for them in Jesus Christ’. v Now, there’s a lot to be said for greater dedication to God and the cause of Christ and his gospel, however, whatever we do must be empowered by the Spirit. Hence, we need to fully proclaim the gospel of God’s gracious empowerment in Christ so that people will not try to repent, to pray, to witness, to work, to forgive, to ‘worship’ without trust and dependence on God’s grace in Christ. As Bloesch says, our response must be ‘induced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit rather than an accomplishment of human free will’.vi He gives power to the weak, he empowers for witness, and he gives us grace to work ‘harder than all of them’ (e.g., 1 Cor 15:10: ‘But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me’; see also 2 Cor 12:9). Without him we can do nothing (cf. John 15). Those who thoughtlessly say that since they already have Christ, they can do all things and therefore simply need to exert full effort to live the Christian life, are ignorant of the NT and the writings Paul. Paul’s dependence on Christ and the Spirit through prayer is a hallmark of his grace-based life, let alone his extensive teaching on dependence on Christ (cf. Eph 1:17-18, 3:14-20, 6:18-20). To be Christ-centred also means that we would interpret Scripture with Christ as its focal point. I like what Nigel Wright says about the Bible not being a ‘flat book’. vii What he means by this is that the Bible should not be used in a way that every passage has ‘equal value’. He says, The Bible is to be interpreted christologically, with Christ as the key for interpreting and reading the whole. Reading and heeding every part is important, but the Bible is not a flat book with every part of equal significance: Christ is the centre and makes sense of the whole. This leads to a different approach from the balancing of texts in that it inclines the discussion of disputed issues in a more theological direction. The Bible is read through Christ who is the clearest revelation of the Father and from this core a theology of the Triune God emerges in the light of which the individual texts of Scripture may be understood in true perspective.viii

For example, a great deal of preaching in contemporary churches comes from the OT and is used allegorically.ix These allegories are purported to have biblical authority because scripture passages have been used. When OT Scriptures are not used allegorically, authority is assumed for them because the texts are scriptural. Even when scripture is exegeted accurately (which it often is not), it is assumed that it has authority, again, because it is biblical. To use an example, prosperity for all is taught with biblical authority simply because the OT includes passages about prosperity (e.g., Deut 5:23, 6:24; Psa 1:3). If we assume that the passages do in fact teach that prosperity is applicable to all people (which is doubtful), this is treating the Bible as a flat book. However, the Bible is more like a mountain range which peaks at Christ. Its profile therefore must be seen as being overshadowed by the mountain of Christ and the gospel. Consequently, we interpret the Bible christologically. To illustrate, what did Jesus say about material goods and what bearing does the gospel and its teachings have on our attitudes toward them (e.g., Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9, 11, 13)? This is where our authority for teaching on money and wealth derive. In addition, a great deal of contemporary preaching which originates from the OT mainly concerns principles of godly living or leadership. Along this line Bloesch says, ‘Here Protestantism comes dangerously close to the style of preaching prevalent in the Catholic churches in which a moral homily, usually brief and to the point, takes the place of the kerygmatic proclamation.’x As valuable as this may be, if that is all there is to our preaching, have we arrived at a Christless Christianity; a moral system of living? Do we simply assume that somehow everyone knows that Christ is present somewhere in our preaching and practice? Are we looking to Christ in these godly principles, or could we apply these principles without Christ? A decisive test of whether or not our ‘Christianity’ is Christless is, could we exclude Christ? I fear that many of our ‘spiritual’ methodologies and principles are functioning without Christ and the cross at all. The advice John Wesley gave to his preachers along these lines is still relevant: Q.19. What is the best general method of preaching? A. To invite, to convince, to offer Christ, to build up; and to do this in some measure in every sermon. The most effectual way of preaching Christ is to preach Him in all His offices; and to declare His law [i.e., the sermon on the mount] as well as His Gospel, both to believers and unbelievers. Let us strongly insist upon inward and outward holiness: and, with this view, set forth Christ as evidently crucified before their eyes; Christ in all the riches of His grace, justifying us by His blood, and sanctifying us by His Spirit. Always suit your subject to the state of your audience. Choose the plainest texts you can. Take care not to ramble, but keep to your text, and make out what you take in hand. Be sparing in spiritualising or allegorising.1

Conclusion: We have seen how that in Paul’s life and ministry, Christ and the gospel were his abiding passion and focus. In light of Paul’s example, we rehearsed some implications for contemporary church practice. To say that our focus on Christ is the most crucial challenge facing the contemporary church may sound extreme, but when we overlay our faith and practice on that of Paul and his writings, there can be little doubt that this is the case. What 1

John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3rd edn. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998), viii: 317; Henry W. Williams, The Constitution and Polity of Wesleyan Methodism: being a Digest of its Laws and Institutions brought down to the Conference of 1880 (London: Wesleyan Conference Centre, 1880), 267.

is called for in this paper is nothing less that a new reformation that brings Christ into his pre-eminent place as Head of the church and Saviour of the world.

Gordon D. Fee, Philippians (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999), 47.

Donald G. Bloesch, The Church: Sacraments, Worship, Ministry, Mission (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002), 182, 186.

iii

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, ‘What is the Road to Christ’, in The Quotable Spurgeon (Hiawatha, IA: Harold Shaw, 1990).

Sinclair B. Ferguson and J.I. Packer, New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1988).

Bloesch, 181.

Bloesch, 180.

vii

Nigel G. Wright, New Baptists, New Agenda (Cumbria, UK: Paternoster, 2002), 22-23.

viii

Ibid.

Cf. Bloesch, 178-188.

Ibid., 181.