The Gospel in Ten Words (12 page)

In this world
acceptance comes at a price. If you want to be accepted you have to perform,
you have to deliver, you have to shine. You have to be first in and best
dressed. You have to close the deal and make the sale. You have to woo the girl
and win the crowd. You have to dazzle the customer and impress the boss. You
have to press the buzzer quicker than the next guy. In other words, our
acceptance is determined by other people. To win respect and approval, you have
to play by the rules others have set. You have to conform to their standards.

Live
like this and your legitimate need for acceptance will dictate what you do,
where you live, how you talk, even what you eat, drink, and wear. Your life
will be defined by other people’s expectations. This is what I mean when I say
we can hand our lives away. In our desire for acceptance we sign up for courses
we’re not really interested in, we take on jobs that suck the life out of us,
and we get cozy with those who don’t love us.

If
acceptance is the carrot, then the fear of rejection is the stick. The fear of
rejection causes us to live dull, riskless lives, to stay silent when we might
speak out, and to hold back when we might launch forth. In our desire to avoid
rejection we sign up for nothing, we stick with jobs we have outgrown, and we
get cozy with no one.

The
desire to ascend to the high places of acceptance and avoid the valleys of
rejection is one of the strongest reasons we do the things we do.

Every manmade
religion trades in the market for performance-based acceptance. For Christians
this unholy trade is based on the lie that says you have to work to make
yourself acceptable and pleasing to God. You’ve got to toe the line, do what
you’re told, and make whatever sacrifices are currently in vogue with those up
the front. Some churches prescribe codes of conduct and assign people to
accountability groups to make sure they keep them. Others, who may scoff at
this Old Testamenty idea of writing down rules, don’t hesitate to impose with
equal fervor their own unwritten expectations defining “acceptable” behavior.
In either case, newcomers quickly learn what one must do to be considered “a
good Christian” or “one of us.” Those who conform are welcomed (Acceptance!
Hooray for me!), while those who don’t are marginalized (Rejection! Dear God
no!).

Performance-based
acceptance is a diabolical game with no winners and plenty of losers. Those who
fail to perform are made to feel like nobodies while those who get the gold
stars can end up further from grace than when they started. This happens when
the applause of men deafens them to the voice of the Father that says, “You
don’t need to do any of this to please me.”

Life’s
winners can be its biggest losers if they become addicted to the feeling of
being special that comes from accomplishment. “You love me, you really love
me.”
In the pursuit of that high they sacrifice themselves and their
families on the altar of achievement. They may even come to define themselves
in terms of their results or, in Christianese, their “fruit.” They become
number-worshippers, their conversations littered with references to how many
people God is touching through their ministry. “God is really using me. I must
be a Somebody.”

When
things turn sour and their success evaporates, they no longer know who they
are. “I thought I was a minister but my ministry’s gone. Who am I?” What began
as a legitimate quest for acceptance and approval ultimately robs them of their
identity.

The market for
acceptance and affirmation is a slave market. It perpetuates a system of human
sacrifice based on envy and selfish ambition. It dehumanizes all who trade in
it and
fosters a distorted
image of our
heavenly Father as a loveless, scorekeeping judge. To end this unholy trade it
is essential that we preach the gospel of acceptance, and here it is: The love
of the Lord is not for sale. Like everything with grace, his acceptance and
approval is a free gift that comes to us through Christ alone:

To
the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the
Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV)

This
verse is fantastically good news for those who want no part in the acceptance
game.
Look at the first part of that verse. Does it
say, “To the praise of the glory of
your service
?” It does not. His
acceptance of you is to the praise of the glory of
his grace
. Isn’t that
wonderful?

But wait, it gets better. Look at the middle part of that verse.
“He made us accepted.” His acceptance is not something you ever need strive
for; you already have it. What relief! What freedom!

But wait, there’s more. Look at the final part of the verse: “in
the Beloved.” This is referring to Jesus. God’s acceptance comes to you on
account of his Son. So if you want to know just how acceptable you are to God,
you only have to look at the One called Beloved.

On the day Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven declared,
“This is my Beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, NKJV).
Do you know how much ministry success Jesus had accomplished before God spoke
those words? None. According to the gospel writers, Jesus had not done a
blessed thing. He had preached no sermons, healed no sick, and raised no dead.
And yet God said, “I am well pleased with him.” That’s acceptance such as the
world does not know. That is the unconditional affirmation of heaven.

You may
have heard preachers say “find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10). This
is usually presented as one of life’s big questions, as though we need to trawl
through the Bible on a learn-everything-that-pleases-God quest and then do it.

But we already know what pleases the Lord. He told us at the River
Jordan. It’s Jesus. There is nothing more pleasing to God the Father than God
the Son. Jesus is not competing for his Father’s acceptance and favor. He is
not in a three-way contest with the law and the prophets. On the Mount of
Transfiguration Peter wanted to put up three tents honoring the different
ministries but God put the spotlight squarely on Jesus:

This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him! (Matthew 17:5b, NKJV)

And what does Jesus say? “Come to me all who are weary of trying
to please others and all who are tired of trafficking in the market for
acceptance and I will give you rest” (see Matthew 11:28).

When
Jesus came to earth he shocked everyone by refusing to play the acceptance
game. In those days there were rules that
disqualified people from approaching God on
the basis of behavior, gender, ethnicity, and health. For instance, if you were
a sinful, foreign woman with leprosy, you were about as far from God as it was
possible to get. Then Jesus showed up and made a beeline for sinners,
foreigners, women, and lepers. It’s almost as if his intent was to show us that
grace is superior to the law. Think about that: The law excludes but grace
includes. The law rejects but grace accepts. The law draws lines
between us and them, but grace tears down dividing walls.

It’s
law or grace. Which do you prefer?

Jesus
received everyone who came to him: tax collectors, prostitutes, Romans,
Samaritans, the mentally unstable, the physically handicapped, and children. He
even had dinner with the odd Pharisee or two. Imagine that. Even intolerant,
religious wingnuts were accepted by Jesus.

Jesus
accepted the unacceptable and loved the unlovable to reveal his Father’s
gracious heart of acceptance. God is not willing that any should perish. His
desire is to have every single one of his lost children come home.

Evangelists
talk a lot about receiving Jesus but the good news begins with the announcement
that Jesus receives you. It is his acceptance of you that makes the difference.
In the eyes of the law you were disqualified by sin, but in the eyes of the
Father you have been qualified by grace. You were far away, but in Christ Jesus
you have been brought near. You were unacceptable but he has made you accepted
in the Beloved.

How
did this happen? The moment you opened the door of your heart to Jesus, the
favor and acceptance of heaven came flooding into your life. When the Son moved
in you instantly became just as acceptable and pleasing to the Father as Jesus
is.

What
pleases the Lord? It is faith in Jesus. It is resting in his finished work even
as the world tries to seduce you back into the dog-eat-dog culture of
competition. It is sitting at his feet even as the Marthas of ministry pressure
you into doing your part. It is receiving others with the same grace and favor
that Jesus Christ received you.

The grace
of God is the key to understanding his divine acceptance. If you see grace as
merely a ticket into the kingdom
—
it gets you through the front
door, nothing more
—
then
you’re going to be susceptible to the lie that says you have to work to please
your Father. You will feel the pressure to prove your salvation by doing all
the things Christians are regularly told to do. “You’ve got to bear fruit.
You’ve got to witness to your neighbors. You’ve got to make every meeting and
support every church activity.” This is just nuts.
This is no different
from how the world works. Instead of bringing the grace-based freedom of heaven
to earth we’re trying to export our performance-based religion to heaven. Guess
what? Heaven’s not buying.

Grace
does not merely get you through the front door; grace takes you all the way
into the throne room and sits you down at the right hand of your heavenly
Father. Do you understand how gracious that is? Do you appreciate the monumental
price Jesus paid to make you acceptable to God? If we truly valued Christ’s
sacrifice, we would not dare cheapen it by adding our own.

In
our own strength nothing we do impresses God. Our very best is simply not good
enough. That’s the message of the law. But this is also what makes the good
news
good
: He has done it all.

We are accepted “in
the Beloved.” Some take this to mean we are only in the kingdom because we have
a friend in high places. This is misleading. It’s like saying, “God can’t stand
you personally but as a special favor to Jesus he’ll pretend he can’t see you.”
I know, it’s silly. Yet some Christians are worried sick that if God really
knew the secrets of their hearts he would kick them out in a heartbeat. In
order to avoid detection they maintain such a low profile you could mistake
them for pancakes. Others wear masks because they fear rejection. “If you knew
who I really am, you wouldn’t love me.” Well guess what. God knows you better
than you know yourself and he still loves you.

Genuine
acceptance is based on knowledge. You can’t truly accept someone unless you
know them and God knows you. He knows everything you have ever done and
everything you will ever do. He knows your darkest secrets and every skeleton
in your closest. He knows what you did last summer and what you’re going to do
next winter. And despite knowing all this, your heavenly Father still loves you
like crazy.

You
may be worried that you will disappoint God. It’s not going to happen. It is
literally impossible to disappoint an all-knowing God. When you make a mistake
you may surprise yourself—“I can’t believe I did that”—but God is never
surprised. Since nothing you do ever catches God off guard, rest assured that
you can never disappoint him. When you stumble he responds with unaffected
grace: “I knew you were going to do that, but don’t worry, I still love you.”

Jesus
knew ahead of time that Peter was going to deny him and yet Jesus didn’t reject
Peter. Instead he loved him and prayed for him. Jesus knew ahead of time that
Judas would betray him and yet Jesus didn’t reject Judas. In the very act of
betrayal Jesus called him “friend” signaling that even in that dark moment the
door of acceptance remained wide open.
[42]

We
don’t deserve any of this. We have done nothing to merit his favor. If
anything, we have done plenty to warrant his displeasure. Yet Jesus reaches out
to a sinful world and says, “Open the door and invite me in for dinner.”

Jesus’
acceptance is mind-boggling. It’s like nothing on earth.

The good news of
God’s acceptance is not widely preached. You are much more likely to hear about
God’s high standards than his unmerited favor. It’s like Jesus has this list of
positive qualities he is looking for in his ideal bride. “She needs to be a
good cook, like Martha, and have plenty of good works, like the woman in Proverbs
31. She should have a sense of humor and enjoy long walks on the beach …”

It’s
ridiculous. Jesus has no list and if he did, none of us would ever make it. Yet
many act as if Jesus was grading them on their performance. They mistake the
voice of condemnation for the Lover of their souls: “How much did you pray last
week? Five minutes? Oh deary dear. I didn’t think I could be disappointed but
you disappoint me.”

This
perverse picture of performance-based acceptance has given rise to a strange
situation: While many Christians know that Jesus is the friend of sinners, they
don’t know that he is the friend of
them
. They don’t see themselves as
God’s friends but his servants. “I’m just a humble doorkeeper in the house of
my Lord.” No you are not. Jesus didn’t suffer and die to increase the size of
heaven’s household staff. What in the world does God need servants for anyway?
The One who spoke the universe into existence is quite capable of doing
everything himself.

God
is not your divine employer; he is your heavenly Father who loves you. It is
imperative that you get this. You have to see yourself as totally
accepted by God and basking in his divine and unmitigated
pleasure. This is where the rubber of your faith hits the road of his grace. If
you don’t receive his acceptance, you will waste your life running after
something he has already given you.