Salvation, not Affirmation

There's been a thought running through my head recently that I think speaks to the current mission of the church in 2019: we need to stop preaching a gospel of affirmation and start preaching again the gospel of salvation. 

Somewhere along the way we started thinking that as people our need was to be affirmed in everything we do...and so whether it was about sex, drugs, careers, the pursuit of wealth, or 'following your heart' we decided that we are basically OK people, that we needed to be supported in doing what we wanted to do and that anybody who didn't affirm our desire was not really loving.  Of course this speaks to the world we live in today.  People can't bear to have somebody say that they are doing wrong, using against others the tired old expression 'don't judge me!' 

The problem with affirmation is that it often affirms sin.  I think that at one time this was mostly a 'liberal' issue, but I think conservatives have been affected as well.  We have a president who continually thinks of himself as a persecuted victim, because the mainstream media won't simply accept him at his word.  Taxes, collusion, obstruction...'nobody's ever had more problems than me!' he proclaims.  More than anything else, this said little man wants to be affirmed, and to not receive it akes him feel like a victim. 

The gospel of salvation, however, is far different.  It does not begin from the perspective that 'everybody's OK, they just need to feel good about themselves and don't feel guilty'.  Rather, it begins with the truth that everybody is NOT OK, that sin is the great problem, and that we can't fix this ourselves, no matter how much we think ourselves to be in the right.  Only Jesus Christ can affirm us, and he chooses to save us from oursleves.  Only in him can we really be righteous. 

I am starting to wonder whether the absolute need that many have to be feel affirmed is not one of the great problems of the modern age.  Scrdipture speaks of the need at times of rebuke and correction (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17), but how do you do this if you have to continually affirm them? 

As a child of my age I certainly don't want to be rebuked, and I do think that going back to the old manner of condemnation for just about everything 'different' was harsh and not in keeping with the gospel.  But the pendulum has swung too far, and I don't know that it's coming back anytime soon. 

Walls

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [Ephesians 2:13-17 ESV]

I know some good, Godly people who believe in Donald Trump's wall.  They believe it will save us from drugs, from bad people, from evil pouring over the southern border.  I disagree.  While I believe that border security is important, it's interesting that most of the criminals that come through and the contraband that slips over comes through ports of entry, not the wide-open desert.  Surely we can take those billions that would be spent on a pointless wall (have they not heard of ladders and tunnels and airplanes?) and figure out ways to stop the problems where they really exist? 

But more than anything, I believe that Christians need to be thinking about this question (and every question) theologically...what does the gospel say about this?  Some point to the walls being built up in the new Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21:9-27) and say that, see, even heaven has walls.  Yet a. I'm not so sure that this is heaven...I have come to believe that this is more likely a description of the kingdom of God within the church and b. The gates of that city are never shut, but the nations will continually enter and bring glory and honor (21:25-26). 

We would do so much better to think about this question from the perspective of seeing the nations come as an opportunity to give glory to God.  Somebody who comes to America illegally will likely not stay forever...are we looking at them as potentially great evangelists for Jesus Christ?  How will they know unless they have heard?  It is great to think we can go there and teach, but if they come here, should we not look at this as an opportunity to teach as well? 

The gospel is about tearing down walls that Satan has built up.  We do ourselves no good when we think that building walls on earth is a good idea.