The Message

Jesus did not come to establish a moral code or to try to transform society based on a moral code.  In fact, you could argue that Christianity is not about a moral code.

Those two statements might sound odd and I guess you could have some fun debating them based on how you defined your terms, but here is my point.  When we reduce Christianity and Christ to a moral code we return to a law type of standing and encourage people to try to redeem themselves based on acts of righteousness.  Whatever parts of the Bible you are using to supply the standards that you want people to live up to, you are still focusing on human effort.

The message of Christians and therefore the church needs to be very simply, "God made Him who knew no sin, sin, so we might become the righteousness of God."  We need to proclaim again and again that each and every one of us need, daily, constantly, the mercy and grace of Jesus, accessed through the acceptance of His death on the cross on our behalf.  To turn to Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior.    Any other message that obscures or replaces this runs counter to what we are here to do.

We can rail against whichever sin you really hate.  Gay marriage or homosexuality in general, smoking, drinking, drugs, texting while driving, gambling, voting democrat, voting republican, not voting, talking during the movie, using guns, gun control, immigration, wall street.   In each case, there is a case to be made, but it isn't the primary issue or the greatest need of our country nor of the people doing those things.

People need Jesus.  They need to know that He loves them, that He died for them, and that they desperately need His forgiveness and mercy.  When we focus on the cross, sin will come up, but we won't single out certain sins but instead reiterate that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  There is not one sinner whose need for Christ is less than anothers and when we give that impression we are muddying what should be a very clear message.

God loves you

You need God

You're a sinner (just like me).

God made Him who did not even know sin to become sin so that we might (if we accept His substitutional sacrifice) become righteousness.

Note: After writing this, I read Nate's blog from yesterday and then watched the video he referenced.  It is amazing and deserves to be reposted here.  Thanks Nate for bringing this to my attention.  It goes to show the power of focusing, not on fighting a war, but on proclaiming the Gospel!