The message of God’s grace in Christ makes people happy! He comes to deliver them from guilt and misery to bring them to the highest glory. Blessed, happy they will be. There is no greater, richer message given in the world, neither shall it be given.

I am writing this contribution in the week that the “word of the year” has been chosen in the Netherlands—“selfie—in the publication Nader bekeken. The word also illustrates how the gospel is sometimes being presented. With a selfie you are in the photo. And that is important. You want to expose that picture through WhatsApp, or better, via Facebook or Twitter. You are the center of attention of your own worldview, and that also needs to be known by others.

The gospel tailored to what we desire⤒🔗

A study was published a few years ago about the culture of evangelical youth in the Netherlands, with the English title Selfation. That study, by Dr. Roeland, has been referenced already in this issue of De Wekker. In that it sounds like it somehow revolves around people’s own self.

This book describes how in a number of evangelical churches, but also in some “established” churches in the Netherlands, this portrait of a “youth culture” is becoming visible. However, it is not only about the portrait of churchgoers, but also about the indication of a certain form of proclamation, one revolving around the self-focused arrangement of the worship service.

This trend is clearly influencing the evangelical world, although it must be said that the concept of “evangelical” is so varied that many within it also argue against this trend. In this article I will briefly describe some examples of this trend, and what the true gospel says about it.

Such a model for proclamation has already existed for much longer. Many of the American megachurches—often by extensive use of TV broadcasting—are sustained by their emphasis on personal happiness and success. It often promises fulfillment or not of your “American” dream. Also, as a formula for the personal “service” of the proclaimers, this is successful, calling it a great thing specifically if believers achieve their ideals in life. “Healthy, wealthy and happy” are the words that radiate from it. It is about health, wealth and happiness.

Sometimes these are even recognizable accents in a proclamation that, apart from that, holds true to the foundations of the Christian faith. Christ came for reconciliation of the debt. Cross and resurrection are warmly acknowledged. However, living like a Christian is connected by many preachers with an image of success. That is how, for example, it is certainly recognizable in the services of the Crystal Cathedral, founded by Robert Schuller. All of that is brought in an attractive and appealing manner, and we can still learn something from it!

With some others, hardly anything is left of the gospel anymore. The already older book The Power of Positive Thinking, by the liberal Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, is still being reprinted. In it, the possibilities of prayer are not about God and about Christ, but effectively about fulfilling our desires. Our prayer centres on the self-fulfillment of our own self. The same can be said of the Pentecostal pastor Paul Yonggi Cho, who, in Seoul, has the largest local church in South Korea. His success formula, which includes magical thinking from Buddhist roots, draws people from across the whole world—understandably.

However, this gospel knows no offense or exception. In this kind of proclamation, Jesus is essentially our friend, and the Holy Spirit essentially the dispenser of experiences and happiness.

And so the “self” is constantly in view. The questions that arise around all this, of course can also be questions for our own church life. What I especially want to point out is how we must view the place of and “our selves” in the proclamation of the good news.

Called by the gospel←⤒🔗

People are important in the message of God’s Word! And yet you can not say that it is all about people. The gospel turns people around, but that does not mean that it is all about them.

The Scriptures quite often are misused to promote this point of view. A letter from the chairman of a large Christian organization quoted Isaiah 43:4: 

“Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.”

About this the members were told: “This text expresses beautifully how much God loves people. And that good news we gladly proclaim.” The fact that this is about God’s plan of salvation in which his own people Israel has a special place is omitted, as is the fact that this word goes together with exhortation and judgment on the sin with which the same people have troubled the Lord. The focus is mainly the message that people are so precious in God’s eyes. The same message is so often heard in the saying “you are a pearl in God’s hand.” As it is used now, all nations, even humanity, would be sacrificed because I am so precious!

The actual motive behind that loving call of the gospel, however, is not that people are so precious, so worthy of sharing in God’s love.

Let us not forget that God’s reasons to save people and to call arise from his own will, not due to our preciousness. The gospel says very different things. There you read about the seeking of the good Shepherd, who goes forth to what was lost (Luke 15). You hear the same idea in Romans 5:5-10:

• that God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as surely as , “while we were yet weak, Christ died for the ungodly”;
• that “God shows his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; and that “if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son…” The picture of our real selfie is signed there with four words: weak, ungodly, sinners, enemies.

You recognize God’s love for the unworthy in the Lord Jesus’ preference for seeking out publicans, whores and sinners. They need him, and they know it. You recognize it in Jesus’ patience with his disciples, who, by being close to him, start to understand. That is how that exclamation from Peter came about: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). The miraculous catch of fish that provoked that statement did not make him think that they were worthy of that blessing. On the contrary.

When the gospel calls us, it is about conversion, turning to God. Why? Because there is the reality of sin and guilt; of, in ourselves, rightfully being rejected; of being turned away from God. That is the condition of man towards whom God’s love goes out.

When the gospel calls us, it is about grace. It stresses the opposite of our importance. In it there is the call that we ourselves have deserved the opposite of the redemption that the message proclaims. Being saved involves repentance “from darkness into light, from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18).

If that does not resonate in the proclamation of the gospel, is it still gospel?

There is only one who is precious: Jesus, the Saviour. Because of him, his church is addressed as saints and believers that the Father “has delivered…  from the power of darkness and transferred… to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).

The greatest happiness←⤒🔗

Yes, and that happiness then, that peace, that wonderful thing of which the gospel speaks?

We need to see the coherence that is there between sin and grace, between forgiveness and the confession of guilt, between the resurrection of the new man and death of the old man.

Yes, then it is about happiness. That does not depend on the amount of confession of guilt on our side, even though grace without awareness of sin is certainly an empty concept.

We must approach it from Christ’s side. Neither my desire, nor my lack or guilt, set me on the road of salvation. There is one way, and that is Christ himself (John 14:6).

When we really hear what Jesus says, then the course of our thinking is already reversed by that. Hear what he says at the moment when his students are arguing about who is the most important: “and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28; Mark 10:44-45).

That is truly liberation! It is easier to comply with rules and regulations. After all, we will have to serve God… But Christ has certainly not come to be served by people! He came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. If we believe that, we ourselves become so turned around, that we want to be served by him.

Him for us. He washed our feet. He has taken upon himself our iniquities (Isaiah 53!). And those same people who should be called wicked and enemies, these he has called his friends (John 15:15). And after he has gone the way of the cross for them, and carried the wrath of God that we deserved, and after he has risen from the dead, he himself even calls them his brothers (John 20:17)!

Therein lies happiness! To know him, and to bask in his love.

Let it be seen that the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew 5  describe something that is even the opposite of success: poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungering and thirsting for justice, merciful... even being persecuted and reviled, and being victims of vilification for Christ's sake. To those kinds of anti-heroes, of all people, the greatest happiness becomes visible! “For Christ’s sake” is the key, making the word blessed (happy), a reality.

It is the same with the fruit of the Spirit, through which being served by Christ becomes so beautifully visible In Galatians 5:22, Jesus can be recognized: longsuffering,

patient therefore with difficult people; friendliness, apparently also when others are not friendly; goodness; fidelity; meekness, so no sensitive egos; self-control, how difficult that can be... They are exactly the traits seen in the imitation of Christ. All this flows out  of becoming conformed to him (Romans 8:29).

And then pay attention too, for a moment, what about the fruit of the Spirit is mentioned first: love, joy, peace. That is where happiness becomes visible, because of Christ. Love that is given becomes a blessing in your heart, because God loves us. What joy, what happiness, is yours if your heart is so touched by grace! Happiness is also part of it. That is deep joy because we may be Christ’s possession, bought by his blood. And then also he brings the miracle of the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), but received deep into your heart and learned in practice.

It is not there without him being nearby.

Yes, that is where true happiness lies, summarized most briefly by the word of the apostle Paul: “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).