Boyd - The Myth of a Christian Religion

O NCE UPON A TIME I EMBRACED THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Frankly, I wasnt very good at it. Religion just isnt my thing. For a while I felt like a failure. Some religious folk consigned me (and still consign me) to the fire. But over time Ive come to see my religious failure as a tremendous blessing.

Because when I lost my religion, I discovered a beautiful revolution.

This may surprise or even offend you, but Jesus is not the founder of the Christian religion. True, a religion arose centuries after he lived that was called Christian, but as youll discover in this book, in many respects this religion was antithetical to what Jesus was about. In fact, as youll also discover in this book, the very concept of a Christian religion is something of a myth when understood in the light of what Jesus was about.

What Jesus was about had nothing to do with being religious. Read the Gospels! He partied with the worst of sinners and outraged the religious. This is what got him crucified.

What Jesus was about was starting a revolution. He called this revolution the Kingdom of God.

This revolution isnt centered on getting people to believe particular religious beliefs and engage in particular religious behaviors, though these may be important, true, and helpful. Nor is it centered on trying to fix the world by advocating the right political causes or advancing the right national agendas, though these may be noble, righteous, and effective.

No, the Kingdom of God that Jesus established is centered on one thing, and one thing only: manifesting the beauty of Gods character and thus revolting against everything that is inconsistent with this beauty. The Kingdom is centered on displaying a beauty that revolts.

The Kingdom, in short, is a beautiful revolution.

Everything about Jesus manifested this beautiful and revolting Kingdom. We see it most profoundly when Jesus allowed himself to be crucified. On Calvary Jesus puts on display the beauty of Gods decision to suffer for his enemiesand at the hands of his enemiesrather than use his omnipotent power to violently defeat them. On Calvary we also see Gods revolt against our enslavement to violence and everything else that keeps us estranged from God and one another. The devil himself is confronted and overcome by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Jesus death sums up the theme of his whole life. Every aspect of his life, teachings, and ministry put the beauty of Gods reign on display and revolted against some aspect of the culture that contradicted this reign.

The central call of all who pledge their life to Christ is to join this beautiful revolution and to therefore humbly live and love like this. Whoever claims to live in him, John says, must live as Jesus did (1 John 2:6). Were to manifest Gods beauty by sacrificially loving our enemies, serving the poor, feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, welcoming the outcast, embracing the worst of sinners, and healing the sick, just as Jesus did. And theres no way to do this without at the same time revolting against everything in our own lives that keeps us self-centered, greedy, and apathetic toward the plight of others. Nor is there any way to do this without revolting against everything in societyand, we shall see, in the spiritual realmthat keeps people physically, socially, and spiritually oppressed.

So you see, the Kingdom has nothing to do with religionChristian or otherwise. Its rather about following the example of Jesus, manifesting the beauty of Gods reign while revolting against all that is ugly.

Its a beautiful revolution that were all invited to join. But to do so, were got to lose our religion.

Whoever claims to live in him
must live as Jesus did.

1 JOHN 2:6

T raditionally, Christians have believed that the Church is Gods main vehicle for carrying out his will on earth as it is in heaven. In my early years as a Christian, I was convinced this was true. But over the years Ive lost confidence in thiswhich is a little strange, I suppose, since Im the pastor of a fairly large evangelical church.

The seeds of doubt were planted in my college years when I first studied the Churchs bloody history. Almost all varieties of the ChurchCatholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Orthodox, and so ontortured and murdered people in Jesus name. How could this be if the Church is Gods main vehicle of salvation?

During that time I also became aware of how central following the example of Jesus is to the New Testaments understanding of what it means to be saved. This slowly opened my eyes to the radical contradiction between the lifestyle Jesus calls his followers to embrace, on the one hand, and the typical American lifestyle, on the other. Yet it struck me that the Church in America largely shareseven celebratesthe typical American lifestyle. Research confirms that the values of Americans who profess faith in Christ are largely indistinguishable from the values of those Americans who do not. How could this be if the Church is Gods main vehicle of salvation?