Christ is not a lifestyle choice

I'm getting tired of 'gospel' presentations that present Christianity as either a lifestyle option or a better life insurance policy.

As long as the gospel is presented as some permutation on the idea that there are bad/good things ahead that you don't/do want, here's how you can avoid/embrace them, the focus is entirely upon the recipient and what they want for themselves. Once again, our presentation gives in to the perpetual pressure to allow people to place themselves at the centre and order their world to suit their own tastes. The Christian message is then a lifestyle choice, and if you can find a better offer, like coming back as a grasshopper, you're at liberty to take it. As I read it, that's not the gospel, just some deformation/attenuation of it.

Such passages as Psalm 2, Romans 1.1-4, Mark 1.1, 1 Corinthians 15.1-7, Colossians 1.21-23... lead me to the conclusion that our salvation is the result of this gospel, or an aspect of the gospel, but not the heart of the gospel itself. The Gospel is that Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, (which is why the sermons in Acts focus on the resurrection not the atonement).

And the beauty of this reality is that it's not something subject to our consumer whim. Jesus is King, he was declared to be so by his resurrection from the dead, and now the only question left you, is how will you respond to him. It doesn't matter whether you think he doesn't exist, or that you'd rather believe in a cyclic universe, Jesus is Lord and one day you will have to reckon with that, whether that suits your taste or not.

And this is a divisive gospel, just as it was in Jesus' day. No one can argue with your choice not to take out eternal life insurance, but if there is a king and you remain in rebellion against him, then you are a rebel and deserve everything you might get. There is something wicked at the heart of the act of refusing Christ if he is indeed King. The choice becomes morally loaded, rather than morally neutral.

So long as we ignore the emphasis on Jesus as Lord at the heart of the gospel, we say gentle things and people are not offended, but neither is the gospel truly proclaimed. Jesus is Lord, now therefore O kings be wise; be warned, o rulers of the earth... kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.