Too many
Christians are like the young fellow who signed-up for a marathon, showed-up on
the morning of the race, put on the free marathon t-shirt and his number,
lined-up with all the other racers, and when the shot was fired to begin the
race, he went home. He thought the
highest end was getting the t-shirt with bragging rights and all its glory when
actually he only got started. 
Pervasive in Christian faith communities is
a great misunderstanding of life’s highest ends. At least in much of contemporary American
Christianity, life’s highest ends are to get saved and go to heaven. It’s what I call bus stop faith. Get saved and wait for the glory bus to take
you to heaven. That’s it. That’s all.
Escape punishment for sin with the self-limiting idea that Jesus only saves
from sin. He did. He does. And that’s really a very big thing. Huge! Thanks
be to God! What I call bus stop faith, J.T.
Walt puts it this way, “You’re a
sinner. You need a Savior. Pray this prayer and you’re good to go.
Now get busy in the activities of the church.”
But surprise! It’s not all about me, or you, or us, or getting the t-shirt, or just being busy
until the bus comes!
The songwriter got it right. It is amazing grace. But our salvation from sin and a free pass to
heaven are not the highest ends. There is so much more. They’re just the start, the beginning of
a journey, a long walk, an acquaintance process that also occasions being saved
(restored) to the likeness of Christ. There's so much more, or as John Wesley put it, there's “being
perfected.” Forgiveness of sins and
faith in Christ’s redemptive work are getting off the starting line of a marathon. They're the initial one hundred yards in a
cross-country road trip called “the rest of life.”
If getting saved and going to heaven aren’t
the highest ends, then restoration to the likeness of Christ, or holiness must
be. Right? Wrong!
Restoration, being perfected, having the clay of our lives formed into
something functional and beautiful is an ongoing process, something that
happens along the journey, a synergistic sanctification. But along the way in the process of living in
obedient faith, remaining in Christ (John 15:5), continuing “in Him, rooted and
built up in him, strengthened in the faith” (Colossians 2:6&7), God is at
work forming the clay and preparing us for the moment for which we are hungry
and thirsty for something more. In the
process of a deepening acquaintance with God, in an ever-increasing intimacy
with Him, there comes a profound desire for God to do a deeper work, a complete
cleansing of heart and life. Until then there is a holy discontent, a
conviction that there is more and that only God by his grace can make that a
reality. It is a moment of identifying
with the prayer of King David as he proclaimed with passion (Ps. 51:10-12) –
“Create
in me a pure heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation and
grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”
Then by grace through faith again, we
accept the unimaginable gift of God’s grace.
He does purify our hearts completely making us entirely fit, and filled
for his highest ends. Is a pure heart and
restoration the highest ends? No! They are the shaping, cleansing, and filling
of the vessel of our lives with Christ the Water of Life. They are God’s preparation of us for the
purpose of the highest ends, our fulfillment of the Great Commission. He desires that we love Him back with the
holy love with which he has filled our hearts and given us the power to love
Him and others, and He desires that we love others by letting God’s pure love
spill over into the lives of others as we love ourselves. Such upward, inwards and outward daily
expressions of holy, sanctified love is one of the highest ends, but still not
the highest end.
We find the highest end clarified by Jesus
and the Apostle Paul. In Matthew 5:16,
Jesus says “Let your light shine in such
a way that others may see your good works and glorify the Father.”
Paul puts it this way to the Ephesians (3:20 and 21), Now to Him who is able to do more than all we
ask or imagine (now that we grasp the magnitude of God’s love and he has
filled us to the measure of the fullness of God, Eph. 3:18&19), to Him GLORY!
Glory to God is the highest end.
Ultimately, it is not about us. It’s
all about him, GLORY TO GOD!
Breathe on me Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Edwin Hatch (1835-89)
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