God’s Favorite: The
Humble Soul
By Rev. Stephen Jordan
f God had a wallet, would your picture be in it?” a church marquee sign proudly questioned the cars zooming past. Did they believe this would en- tice travelers to wander in and discover the wonders of that church? Do you think it worked? While very few, if any, will have a marquee sign conversion itself speaks to us. To be blunt, we all want to be the favorite. We all wish to be the hero of the story. To be loved, to be appreciated, to be
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honored. Evidence of this truth begins when a child cries out to their mom or dad about how it is unfair that his sister got something he did not. When a child asks, “Why did you do that for her?” We strive after greatness from birth. This false gospel is preached in many churches weekly because it is the easi-
that if they do better, run harder, and believe more… in themselves…. they will activate God’s power, and their world will improve. This is particularly pow- erful if things are going badly for a person, and he thinks life seems easier for someone else, clearly the, “someone else” is more loved by God. Why does this message work so effectively? This church growth model is
grounded in our fallen nature and is based on the hero’s journey, the template - tagonist has a call to adventure, goes from the known to the unknown, has chal- lenges and temptations, revelations and transformations, an atonement, and sports as we connect to our favorite team and root them on to victory. In books and movies, we connect to the hero while seeing no relation between the villain and ourselves. We study history and tell ourselves that had we lived back then, we would have been on the right side of it. Yet scripture tells us a truth about ourselves that makes it impossible for us to be the hero of any story.
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together, they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18, ESV) It is easy to read this passage and think of others. However, the Word of God is a metaphysical mirror so that we would see ourselves. The truth that stares
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back at us in Romans describes man in so vile a fashion that we are driven either to the heights of denial and self-aggrandizement accompanied by hatred for Christ or to the lows of hu- mility and brokenness by crying out to Christ to be saved. One might eas- ily say, “I am a sinner; I am unrigh- describe yourself as worthless, doing no good? My throat is an open grave; my tongue is full of deception. My mouth is full of poison, curses, and bitterness. My feet are swift to shed blood; my path is ruin and misery, and within myself; I do not know the way of peace. This crushes all hope of being great!
Every person is born with the de-
The fall ingrained this into the psyche of humanity--to be the hero, a person of consequence. Eve saw that the fruit was to be desired to make one wise (Genesis 3:6). So it was natural for James and Mark’s mommy to ask if her boys could sit at Jesus’ right and left side in glory (Mark 10:35-45). Cal- vin remarks that this passage shows that those who have been redeemed from sin have a zeal for greater things; things of heaven and earth and eternal and for the King. How- and gives birth to ambition. James and Mark wished to be elevated with Christ. They knew He had a kingdom coming, and they were thrilled at the world Christ was creating. All these things are admirable. The sin was born when they sought things not of- fered and tried to blaze trails paral- lel to Christ’s path. They sought their honor and dignity. The ten other dis- ciples were no better with their indig- nity towards the brothers. While the ten had every right to be displeased with Christ’s original admonishment. Therefore, Christ corrects them all. “You know that the rulers of the Gen- tiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your ser- you must be your slave, even as the Son
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
January Synod Emphasis
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