What Good Is God? by Philip Yancey

Author:Philip Yancey [YANCEY, PHILIP]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446574259
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2010-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

For the sake of convenience I have labeled three stages of the Christian life: Child, Adult, and Parent. That suggests a progression, of course, yet we have something to learn and retain from each stage. Jesus himself held up children as his models of faith. We dare not stay there, however: the apostle Paul later complained about the Corinthians, “mere infants in Christ,” who seemed stuck in the child stage, capable of digesting only spiritual milk and not the solid food they needed.

Each time I come to Africa I experience afresh the rush of excitement that comes with new life, the grasp of the gospel as truly good news. While on this trip I have been reading the history of missions in Africa. A century ago few thought Christianity would take root here, and the great Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 barely made mention of the continent. Not until colonialism fell did the faith take off. Now Africa has more Christians than any other continent, with thirty-two thousand more Africans adding to the church every day. People speak openly and unashamedly about their faith. Christian slogans decorate buses and taxi cabs. Those of us who visit from the West, where Christianity seems more like a corporation than a living movement, need the reminder that the gospel is, at its root, life-transforming good news.

I have a private theory that God is “nicer” to newcomers, reserving the toughest assignments for those more advanced in faith. I interviewed many people while writing a book on prayer, and the most stirring answers to prayer came from new Christians who showed the same childlike faith that impressed Jesus. They took Jesus at his word when he invited disciples to ask whatever they wanted in his name. I sense some of that spirit at Rhema Church, especially as you cheer the many people who respond to Pastor Ray’s invitations to follow Christ.

At the same time I must post a warning about two unhealthy characteristics of the Child stage of the Christian life. The first is legalism. It may seem strange to lump together childishness and legalism because we tend to think of legalists as mature, self-disciplined Christians. That is the problem, precisely. Legalism provides a convenient way for some Christians to convey superiority.

On the surface it seems harmless, even comical, this trend toward legalism that surfaces in every religion. Orthodox Jews in Israel have programmed elevators to stop at every floor on the Sabbath because they judge pushing an elevator button as work; for the same reason, some hotels pre-fold toilet paper for their Sabbath guests. The Amish in Pennsylvania ride in buggies rather than automobiles while their neighbors the “black-bumper Mennonites” tolerate cars as long as they are stripped of chrome. What, you may wonder, can be the harm in legalism?

Yet Jesus (see Luke 11 and Matthew 23) and Paul (see the Book of Galatians) both lashed out against it, knowing legalism’s tendency to sow dissension and to undermine God’s grace. You in South Africa

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