Lowering the BAR? I Don't Think So!

An excerpt from Second Chance Solution 2nd Edition 
The following is probably not the wisest deposit to make in the brand management ‘sampling’ space. 
‘Shane, don’t you get it? If you want people to read your work and consider your ideas, you must draw people in with palatability!’   
They say you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. However, you catch even more with manure! 
Anyway, no grand sales pitch! No witty repartee! No, evocative intrigue! Simply a call to really, really engage with a tale of salvation spread over two seminal and unparalleled Covenants! 
Bon Appetite!  Shane Wesley Varcoe 
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LOWERING THE BAR ... DO YOU THINK SO? 
Head Space – Is grace reactive or pro-active? 
Discuss these thoughts, particularly in light of Romans 5:21 
In the individualistic consumer-focused culture in which we find ourselves immersed, it is easy to customise the gospel of the Kingdom of God (as Jesus referred to it) especially if that customising trims the uncomfortable aspects the full counsel of God may generate. Yes, it is right that we personalise the divine truth and work of Christ and make it our own. However, in so doing we must never permit our culture to mould that truth to fit our own circumstances, expectations, needs or self. The gospel must mould us to fit heaven’s desires. 
One of the key elements in crossing the line from personalising to customising is found in a process called ‘Christian Reductionism’. In simple terms (pardon the ironic pun) it is a process that instils the idea that a complex whole can be easily understood by simply breaking it down into small sections. Now that may assist in understanding some elements better, if it does not impugn the whole by the misrepresenting of a smaller component. If we do not see the whole and understand it through both the components and the whole, then we will most likely embrace only the aspects of the gospel that suit us, which will eventually lead to an error and in turn, the passing on of that same error. Again, personalising must never be customising! 
I have been concerned for many years now that there is a growing influence of customising in the pre-conversion journey. 
          The quality of the ‘gestation and birthing’ process of a new disciple most often determines whether heaven is able to adopt them and take charge in their lives. Again, in my experience, one of the greater problem areas has been what I call ‘Lowering the Bar’ – the lessening of heaven’s standards. When we operate in a reductionism space you can see how easily, though inadvertently, this may happen. The reductionism mentality attempts to break the gospel down into supposedly easy-to-understand, bite-sized portions of palatable ideas. We can lose sight of the greater holistic counsel and some of the stronger expectations that only come through when we have an understanding of the whole. These things are lost in the précised versions of gospel presentation. 
A classic example of reductionism can be seen in presenting John 3:16 without reading verses 17 through to 21 or even just verse 18. We say ‘God so loved the world’ but forget the ‘whosoever believes’ and omit even more quickly the ‘whosoever does not believe is condemned already’. When we make the gospel into a customised ‘join the dots, one, two, three, now you’re free’ process, we inadvertently fail to tell the whole truth of the gospel. We either lose sight or worse, fail to present what Christ expects of those who choose to become His disciples. These expectations are not onerous tasks we must perform for acceptance, rather understood revelations that lead us to submitting to correct divine processes that set us free to connect again in the previously lost divine communion. 
It is here that I want to unpack The Saviours – The Author of Salvations Words, in Matthew Chapter 7:13-14 
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (NASB) 
          Listen, if you can, to these utterly profound and unique words. In fact it is in this passage, and by the Incarnate God, that we hear the only time the word ‘narrow’ is used in the entire New Testament. There is an exhortation, I believe a pleading here, that can easily be overlooked. Jesus starts with a call to enter the narrow gate, firstly because the wide and easy broad gate leads to utter ruin. Then in the pleading there is a second call, ‘enter through the narrow gate…’ This word is rich with tense meaning including nuances of ‘very straight, confined and an intrusive thronged’ sense. It is a radical juxtapose and contrast to the ‘easy path’. The intent is to draw focus to this path as the ONLY option. 
          Then spill the words that we can so quickly brush past, ‘and there are few who find it!’ Are you getting this? Few! This outcome seems utterly incongruent with the very nature and intent of the incarnation. The ‘new flood’ that is Jesus death and resurrection, was to give mankind its Second Chance! Not only is the profundity in this matchless work, but the intent and declarations behind and from it… ‘whosoever believes’, ‘come all who are weary and heavy laden’, ‘I’ve come to give life and life abundantly’, even the final words ‘go into all the world and make disciples of nations’ speak to vast and immense catchments! 
          Well, I contend, it is our Lord, not in contradiction, but in paradox that is declaring not a pre-selection fait accompli, as some theological frameworks would interpret; rather a forecast indictment on those who are not, will not, prepare for and understand what it means to enter this Kingdom. 
          Again, much like the last two Parables Jesus used of the Virgins and Talents; accountability for that which was ‘given’ in the first place on the understanding (in relationship) of the walk and work together, it is important to continually reiterate that the Triune God has set discipleship in community for mission to be the mode of operation, not simply a decision for Christ, but a renewed mind disciple, following. In fact it was Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who boldly declared, “…Christianity without Discipleship, is Christianity without Christ!” 
          I contend that this seemingly austere caveat is not dissimilar in nature/mode to the statement Jesus made about the poor in Mark 14:7, ‘for you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them…’ 
          He was not referring to an inevitable state of a percentage of any population, as if it were designed that way, no! Jesus was referring to the fact that God has known the reason why the poor continue in the land, it is because God’s people failed to implement and fulfil his relational commandments around ministering to the needy. If the Levitical law had been properly implemented with Jubilee caveats and the like fully enacted, then poverty would be all but eliminated. But, alas, not all the people obey all the time and the part we may be called to play in the relational covenants is not fulfilled…God in his loving and free will relational wisdom, subjects Himself and his ‘vineyard’ to that management failure – but only until He returns. 
          I present to you that Jesus is saying here in Matthew 7 that the reason why few people ‘find the narrow way’ is because those who were meant to show the way by model, mission, method and manifestation failed to do so. Their mode instead may have been the cheap grace or the soft sell pitch I’ve alluded to earlier. People are lead to accept, not salvation from their sins, translation for darkness to Kingdom of His Dear Son, a surrender of allegiance - rather perhaps an ‘insurance policy’ or a self-improvement course?  Consequently they ‘buy a map’ that fails to equip them to find and walk onto the ‘narrow way’. 
          Following Christ is an ability imparted, not merely permission granted. Jesus again, makes clear in Matthew 16:24 that before you can ‘follow Him’ you must take up your cross, but to do that you must first deny yourself. You see, you will not have the ability to follow on the narrow way, unless you have first denied self, then taken up the cross…it is these engagements that not merely permit, but enable you to enter and journey. 
          The question I have for myself and the Church at large; is what we have presented as the Gospel enabled those to who we speak to find the ‘NARROW GATE’ or did it do the contrary? 
                                                                                  © Shane W. Varcoe – Disciplesplanet Twitter @The_Incite