A "Going Down" Mindset

"Christianity is a "going down" kind of religion before it is a "going up" kind of religion. In communicating this message we do not attract people as though they were customers, but we address them as fellow sinners, confessing together that we have only one answer to our common need. Unless and until we are prepared to die to self, we will never be in a position to live for Christ."

- ChurchNext by Eddie Gibbs

In continuing to think about what it means for a congregation of people to be 'church' within a community I was struck by this quote from one Fuller Seminary's own professors. I think what Dr. Gibbs writes here is profound because he doesn't write that Christianity is a "going down" kind of religion. He writes that it is a "going down" religion before it is a "going up religion." The church is not a community of people seeking to be self-sacrificial as an end in itself. The church is a community of people seeking to be self-sacrificial if need be in order to participate in the coming reign of Christ.

The Incarnation, God taking on the form of a human being in Christ, and the crucifixion, Christ's death on the cross, were "going down" kinds of events. However, God did not take on the form of a human being to understand us better and to be able to empathize with our problems. God took on the form of a human being to save humanity! However, It was not through Christ's death on the cross that we are saved. It was through the power of the resurrection that we are saved. The conquering lamb was slain and yet lives to bring judgment and justice to the world.

Thus, as we we seek to live as church in our communities we are called to be a witness to the conquering lamb who was slain. We are called to be a witness to the death and resurrection of Christ, God incarnate; and in doing so, we must be prepared to witness to this truth to whatever end. We must be prepared to give up everything, to even be tortured and killed, or "we will never be in a position to live for Christ," as Gibbs writes. We must be prepared to be a "going down" kind of community in order to meet Christ in his "going up."

Dependence on God

A quotation from St. Augustine of Hippo...

"On your exceedingly great mercy rests all my hope. Give what you command, and then command whatever you will. you order us to practice continence. A certain writer tells us, I knew that no one can be continent except by God's gift, and that it is already a mark of wisdom to recognize whose gift this is. By continence the scattered elements of the self are collected and brought back into the unity from which we have slid away into dispersion; for anyone who loves something else along with you, but does not love it for your sake, loves you less. O Love, ever burning, never extinguished, O Charity, my God, set me on fire! You command continence: give what you command, and then command whatever you will."

Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 29, (New York: New City Press, 1997), p. 263.

This excerpt from Augustine's book of personal reflections, Confessions, shows his acceptance of God's command to him to be self-controlled, and also shows his dependence on God to enable him to do God's will.

Continence here means self-control, of any kind. Augustine struggled with many misplaced desires, and here we see his efforts to submit those to God. 

A guest lecturer for our Systematic Theology class, Benjamin Myers, brought this beautiful quotation to our attention, and illuminated for us the part where it says, "give what you command, and then command whatever you will." If you flip this phrase around, so as to see that Augustine is asking God to "command whatever you will and give what you command," it is easier to see this idea that Augustine is asking and trusting God to give him a command (show him his will), and then also give him what God commands (give him the strength to accomplish his will).

Thank you Augustine for sharing with us this convicting reminder that we can do nothing apart from God.