The Poisoned Gospel and the Prison it Creates

I’ve been lied to before.  And it will happen again.  Lies with shattering results and rivers of tears.  Other lies have been less monumental, appearing almost trivial, but they too have resulted in rivers.  There have been lies from friends, teachers, pastors, and strangers.  Lies about God, the source of satisfaction, and the meaning of life.  Lies about Milli Vanilli and the riveting acting on Baywatch.  Most of the lies have floated away into the clouds above but a remnant stuck, directly to my forehead, eventually seeping through my skin and skull distorting my thinking, making their way deep into my being where they have whittled away at my heart.
The lies that have done the most damage are the ones that have limited my freedom and joy, proclaimed beliefs turning the gospel moralistic – Your position with God is secured by yourmerit, by you becoming a better person.  These lies are the ones that beg me to stand tall on a soapbox because they end like Romeo sipping poison and Juliet stabbing herself in the heart. They trade life for poison or a knife…or 30,000 calories a day.

I mention the calories because I just watched a documentary on a thousand pound man.  1,072 pounds to be exact. He was permanently pinned on his stomach unable to move in any direction.  Even if a small band of brothers showed up for the feat of flipping the half-ton man onto his back, he wouldn’t be able to breathe as the weight of his body would crush his lungs. The man had been stuck on his bed for seven years, eating and watching television.  No dressing or showering.  No morning walks in the park or later in the evening when the fireflies are out.  No tight embraces from treasured friends.  No speechless moments from the crowd of a concert, or the seats of a baseball stadium, or the mezzanine of a Broadway musical.  No breathing of mountain air while leaves of orange and gold rustle around.  No life.
He hinted of a human being but looked more like a creature from a strange sci-fi movie you might find late at night on some odd cable channel.  It’s as if one of those late night creatures crawled out of the television and numbed his humanity as he ate himself into his prison.  His humanity lay dormant, yet he was still somewhere under the layers of pain.  He was in there.  But only in spirit, for even his skin began to grow together with the sheets under him.  The two had become one.  The preciousness of humanity with a fitted sheet from Bed, Bath, & Beyond.
The half-ton man said he never felt full. Ever.  He always needed more.  A lie from his mind added to the lies he’d embraced about his self-worth and purpose.  I think the man fascinates me because I see myself in him.  I too have believed lies.  Lies resulting in a poisoned gospel and a flailing faith.  Some of these lies were learned from hearing inaccurate Bible teaching, while others were products of my own mindless assumptions.  Still, they were lies just the same.  Prisons.
The gospel of Jesus is one of grace and mercy not effort and merit.  The gospel is a message of complete rescue, God coming towards us, not us towards him.  “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”  The grace of Jesus isn’t just forgiveness as to cause or demand us to live obedient, then us becoming righteous.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).”  The grace of Jesus is forgiveness of all sin and the gift of His righteousness.  We don’t have to earn our righteousness or our day to day position with God – in Jesus we are righteous.  That is the truth that will set us free from prison, free from a half-ton faith.