Week 6—Monday Romans 12:1-2
Week 6—MONDAY
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH: NOT A SPIRITUAL
RELIGION BUT A LIFE RELIGION
We continue the emphasis on the importance of “The Word become flesh;” upon the Christian faith and its work in the world. If the Christian faith is the Word become word, then the Christian church is a teaching institution where we try to learn verbal answers to verbal questions. That is exactly what the church has become in Japan, where I write this page. The word for church is “Chaukai,” literally, “religious teaching institution,” and the pastor is called “Sensei”—“teacher.” There you have the setup—a religious teaching institution with a presiding teacher. Christianity is something to be verbally learned. No wonder the church life of Japan is sterile, in large part. Only where it breaks out from this conception does it become vital. It is founded on the Word become word. No wonder in Japan Barthianism has become the prevailing theology: You proclaim the Word, apart from experience. The proclamation of the Word is supposed to save people. But that Word is not the Person—it is the verbal word. And the more abstruse and abstract that Word is proclaimed, the better the sermon is supposed to be. If it is over the heads of the congregation, they sit entranced. And they go away wondering what it is all about. The Word doesn’t take shoes and walk—it takes wings and flies, over their heads! It is transcendental, but not transforming. It is geared into ideas, but not into life. Hence, those interested in living pass it by.
But the Word become flesh puts religion to work in body, mind, spirit, and relationships. “Lo, I come to do thy will . . . a body hast thou prepared for me” (Heb. 10:5-7, KJV). Where was the will to be done? In and through the body and all its relationships. Jesus taught people, healed people, fed people, all as a part of the coming of the Kingdom. “I thought Christianity was a spiritual religion until I heard this emphasis on the Word became flesh. Now I see it is a life religion,” said a Japanese pastor. Jesus is Life, hence he transforms life.
O blessed Savior, I need a total Savior for the total Life. I am not a spirit; I’m an embodied person and need to be saved as an embodied person in all my relationships. I am not saved unless I am saved as a total person. Save me. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My Christian faith shall be a life religion—everything under its control and redemption.