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Risks in the Christian Life

Truth in Love 139

American Evangelicals general live comfortably in the 21st century. What is a right understanding of Christian risk?

Jan 29, 2018

Heath Lambert: This week on the podcast, we are talking about the Christian life and risk. And I am thrilled to welcome to the podcast Dr. Owen Strachan professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the author of the book Risky Gospel, which is a really good book. And Dr. Strachan is not just those things, but he’s also a friend of mine. We’ve worked together on a number of projects, taught together, and all sorts of things. Love his family. So grateful that he’s here. Thank you for joining us this week on the podcast, Dr. Strachan. And here is the first question I want to ask: Why do we need to talk about risk in the Christian life? I mean, we live in a culture, we live in a time, where you’re supposed to play it safe. I mean, you’re supposed to play it safe, not take risks. So, why do we need to talk about risk?

Dr. Owen Strachan: Yeah. I really appreciate it, Heath. Thank you so much for having me this morning. It’s great to see you again and see you thriving here. I guess I would say to start out: the phrase that stands out to me that kind of frames why we need to risk in the evangelical world or broader Christian world is that famous phrase, that book title of Joel Osteen’s, “Your best life now.” So, I guess we’re starting heavy right out of the gate. But you think about what that kind of book, even just that title, is promising the average Christian man or woman and it’s basically selling them a vision of Christianity that means that life is going to be nice and pleasant and full of favor, as Osteen says.

Even people, though, Heath, who don’t necessarily buy into prosperity theology of the kind that Osteen is selling, even people who don’t buy it wholesale are going to be influenced by that kind of mindset. I think American evangelicals are pretty comfy in general. I’m not here to throw stones at anyone, but I’ll even say of myself we lead nice lives in 21st century America. We don’t have many terrible security needs or something like this. Our lives are pretty comfortable by and large and if we’re not careful that can affect our view of the Christian life. That can affect our daily practice of Christianity such that we think that life is basically about being secure, and nice, neat, and Jesus is about tucking us in at night and giving us the best cup of hot cocoa we’ve ever been given. And I’m here to raise a ruckus in the holy coffee shop and say that’s not exactly what Christianity is promising us.

Heath Lambert: Okay, so, what is Christianity saying then? Does the Christian gospel ask us to take risks?

Dr. Owen Strachan: I think that we are called to embrace a right understanding of Christian risk. I think that, in other words, the Christian gospel is a risky gospel. And I would go to a place like Matthew 25:14-30, The Parable of the Talents as it’s often called, to ground that kind of vision in that parable. Pretty famous. You have three different servants. One servant who’s given five talents, which is basically a huge amount of property, of money, you could say, and then one who’s given two, and one who’s given one. We won’t go into all the details of the parable but suffice it to say that the one who’s given five, Matthew says, goes at once to make more. So basically, what Matthew is saying is he goes to the market, he trades, he invests the talents, and he makes five more. And he goes at once, we read in the Greek. And so, the point there is that instead of having a kind of play it safe mentality, this faithful servant who is richly rewarded when the master who’s given him this property returns, is a model for us because he goes after it.

And you think about what Jesus Himself does. Let’s go to the very center, the burning heart of the Christian faith. When Jesus comes to earth in His incarnation, yes, He has 30 years where He’s training and being prepped, and it’s pretty quiet, but then when He launches out in ministry, He is after it. He is aggressive for the glory of His Father. When the apostles, after His ascension, following His death and resurrection, and then His ascension to heaven, when they, in the book of Acts, are unleashed to do ministry, they’re not hiding out in a back room somewhere talking about how great things are every day. They are after it. They’re aggressive. They’re trying to preach the gospel to everyone they can, build churches, and win souls. So, I think those are a couple of places we would go to say if we’re really reading our Bibles, there’s a force, there’s a miles per hour velocity to the Christian life that we might be missing.

Heath Lambert: Okay, so we got to talk about risk. The Bible asks us to talk about risk. If we’re going to make this as practical as possible—we have people that listen to Truth in Love all over the world. So, a man getting up right now listens to this as he’s on his way to work in London, somebody listening to this on their lunch break in Milwaukee, a stay-at-home mom in Florida somewhere. In just a normal life where you’re doing the 40-hour work week, you’re taking care of kids, how do you risk for the gospel in a normal life?

Dr. Owen Strachan: I think that’s a great question. And here’s what I would say. Let me give another quick definition of Christian risk, of gospel risk, as I call it in my book Risky Gospel. I think gospel risk is basically just this: aggressive faithfulness. And if I was to expand that definition: aggressive, God-centered faithfulness. So, in other words, what we’re not saying is that the only Christians who get this and who can live out this concept, which I think is a biblical theme, are those who move overseas to a closed country and frankly get martyred or something. Well, I want to say those people are almost definitely living a life of gospel risk, but I actually think all of us can in the sense that we embrace a mentality, not of play it safe, not of life is about my comfort and ease and security, but because I’m secure in Christ, because God is totally sovereign, now I can be aggressively faithful every single day I live.

So, that is going to mean for most of us, me included, that I work a pretty normal job, that I do the things I’m basically supposed to do as a Christian. I’m faithful to my church. I serve my church. If we’re married, we love our spouse. We build into our children. We try to be a good neighbor. So, what I say in Risky Gospel, this book, is not that if you’re leading a normal life, you should feel super guilty and weighed down because you stink, that’s not the view. Just to clarify. The view instead is everybody, everywhere you are, let’s go back to Scripture and let’s embrace a life of aggressive faithfulness. I think if we’re landing in that zone, my sense is we’re basically, I think, where the Bible’s driving us to be.

Heath Lambert: Okay. Somebody’s listening to this and they might say, “I just don’t care about that. I just want to go to church on Sunday morning, drop the kids off at the nursery, try to get a date night with my wife, and I love Jesus, but I just, man, I’m tired right now. I got all I can say grace over. Tax season is coming up. Paying off Christmas. I just gotta stay afloat.” How would you motivate someone like that?

Dr. Owen Strachan: I would say that the way to jump start your life in the kind of direction we’re talking about is to get a big vision of God, so I guess what I’d be saying really, if you really boil it down, is we actually need a bigger vision of God. So, I don’t actually think this so-called risky life or whatever you want to call it is actually about just the practicalities of everyday existence. I think that it’s about seeing a glorious vision of the exalted Christ, having a big picture view of God the Father who’s planned all things and is bringing all things to consumption in His Son, and then understanding the power of the Spirit in us, Romans 8:37, who makes us more than conquerors. So, someone might say to you and me, “Interesting thoughts, I just don’t really want them.” and I would say, “I’m not actually suggesting this to you as a vitamin boost in the Christian life. I actually think this is the Christian life.” Seriously, that’s what I’m after in promoting this.

I’ll say this to close the point. I think a lot of times we have a diminished vision of Jesus who I just mentioned. I think we have a little pocket-sized Jesus that we take out maybe on Sunday mornings and we feel warm and comforted when we see His presence and then we kind of tuck Him away and life isn’t really about Jesus. I think that’s tragic because I think you go to the Jesus of the Bible, you think of John 1, for example, how He calls His first disciples and it’s honestly, Heath, it’s pretty wild. I mean, it’s not tame. He goes to them, and according to John’s text, He basically gives almost no prologue to Himself, no extended reason why everyone should follow him, and here’s all the justifications. He basically says, “Follow me.” What I’m saying is: our Jesus, the actual biblical Jesus of the Bible, has fire in His eyes. He’s less like this guy who is all about giving you a cup of hot cocoa at night and is more the guy who at night wakes you up and you’re wild-eyed in your sleep and He’s like, “Let’s go, we got to take dominion for God. For God the Father. Let’s get after this.” And you’re like, “Okay, whe-.” And He’s gone. And you just gotta follow Him. That’s what I would say to people who are kind of struggling to find motivation.