Christ over catharsis
Written by Sam Sullivant
"For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” (2 Corinthians 5:4 NASB95)
The American culture has been quite saturated with many blessings and freedoms. I believe many of these liberties are a gift from the God of the Bible. However, is it possible that after several generations of relative domestic peace and freedom, that we, the American Church, have become overly comfortable with our lifestyles? What I’m getting after is the issue of utopia. Have we arrived at God’s full plan, and full thought in a land of relative liberty? I don’t want to misappropriate these blessings and say it was evil that brought these freedoms into being, but I believe it's important to note that these freedoms we enjoy in America were given by God and cost the nation much in blood and suffering. Is the American Church our utopia? Is the American lifestyle our freedom? Are we blinded by her many trappings?
Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NET) for a moment, "For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.” If we have truly received Jesus Christ, an eternal journey has begun, not only that, but the Eternal One has entered us by the Holy Spirit. If I’m coming to know Him, then I’m increasingly losing my rights and also beginning to partake of His sufferings, if I’m a legitimate disciple. So true liberty then is in Christ, it is eternal, not temporal. In fact, freedom is not a thing, but rather experienced in a relationship. Christ is freedom from death and slavery. There is no glory of God in freedom or suffering alone. The Glory of God is in Christ. The glory of God is not man being wild at heart, living his best life now, or being purpose driven. This is cultural idealism infiltrating the Church. It sounds great, but the true Gospel of Christ is fully opposed to this idealism. The answer is not to pendulum swing into pessimism, but to deny our fleshly desires and come to the real Jesus. Well, didn’t God give us our desires, Sam?! Sadly, if that is our frame, we are digging for treasure in all the wrong places.
Many of these modern teachings are nothing but demonic doctrines and are very fickle as to what true fruit looks like. These teachings and teachers are under the influence of Satan, not Christ. These teachings are actually a sign of an un-crucified life that leads to the rotten fruit of being a cultural Christian, which is quite a hell-ish pathway. We really like to think we are God’s house, but 2 Corinthians 5:1 clarifies that the true House of God is eternal, not humanity in their present state.
But Sam, didn’t Paul teach that Christ in you is the hope of glory? Yes, people can distort this too to justify an un-crucified life. To become God’s dwelling place requires the full embrace of death to self, not the empowerment of self. Turning to man to find the glory of God is a grave misstep that leads to serious judgment before Christ when we go to meet Him or He returns. For many years, I have sat under many of these prosperity teachings, but it was not until I turned to the voice of Christ alone that I really met the Lord. He has a different message for us, and the scriptures do indeed testify of Him!
Much of modern Christianity privileges success above suffering, but Paul clearly boasted only in the cross of Christ. "But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14 NET). If my health, wealth and prosperity are signs of fruit, then I’m under a curse when things aren’t going well. What a terrible gospel?! That message is full of pride, self-love and self-indulgence. God has a better message for us by the drawing of the Holy Spirit! It comes from Galatians 2:19-21 (NET):
For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!
So what is it that the Church in America needs?! We need Jesus back. Perhaps we never had Him, but just found an iteration of christian culture. To have Jesus back in the Church is going to initiate much battle. That battle is mostly between our souls and the Spirit of God. The devil’s entry is through our souls. Can we own up to our true condition?! That said, I have no doubt the Spirit of God has been drawing us to the Son. Can we hear Him and do we want Him? If I’m bound up in entitlement, then God is inconvenient and too immersive for my life. If I have a shallow view of the fear of God, then I only want an occasional reminder. I don’t actually want the fear of God to burn in my heart at all times and thus change my life and lifestyle.
There are many things that can provide me with a sense of catharsis, even pseudo-spiritual things. If we’re in pain, stress, anxiety or otherwise, we start seeking catharsis. This is common among pagans who announce their sinful lifestyles. Their moment of honesty produces a catharsis that is demonically energized and leads to death. We need Christ over catharsis. We may turn to Him initially in our quest for catharsis, but if He has any say, then He would move it off of that ground quickly and into eternity. Since when did the Holy Spirit stop being our comforter?! We have fallen for other comforts and comforters, ones that we can control and administer independently from God.
Let’s look at something quite different to illustrate the point. It has become quite popular to use reduction sauces in modern cuisines to improve the flavor of our meals. There are many sauces you can make by reducing a wine, vinegar or tomato sauce. For dinner, these methods can make things quite delicious, however in true spirituality, this activity can prove quite fatal for the disciple of Jesus. If we employ our intellects and natural creativity, we can cross an ancient boundary in the House of God, quite subtly. This boundary is called the cross of Jesus Christ. It is not only a principle but the very nature of Christ, the cornerstone Himself. The cross is Christ Himself coming to separate the Holy from the profane, the temporal from the eternal. We like to reduce things to make them more palatable for ourselves and others, but we are in our natural minds when we do so. I’m sure we can flip the analogy to be about refinement, but that is not my point here. We are playing the role of chef, when it is the Lord who is the Head chef. He would do the separating through His own process, not our idealism, skepticism or critical powers. We come into agreement with Him, not the other way around. Thus, we see a lack of Godly men or women, and employ idealism to inspire excellence, rather than getting outside of the human psyche and unto God in wholeheartedness. The Church doesn’t need an inspirational model; we need the baptism of fire, which begins in the fear of God. As Christ-followers, we are to never outgrow the fear of God on the journey into fullness. It should only increase or else we are likely in a deception. This will require revelation, dependency, and response.
We reduce God’s love into a recipe for living our best lives now, but God would instead reveal His Son, who would separate the Holy from the profane within us. He would separate us out from worldly love to God’s eternal love. There’s a huge difference. Instead of maximizing our personalities or tapping into our IQ (and now emotional quotient), the Lord would lead the whole system to death. Why? Because that system is death. Our Christian systems boast transformation, but only Christ can transform. That way, in Him alone, we would find the Life. This is a true work of the Holy Spirit. It is very costly and deep, and eternally more precious than anything temporal. God’s true work leads to the true glory of God, which is Christ, not man. Our problem in the American Church is Adam and Eve are still being encouraged to live, instead of being brought to full and complete death as a spiritual source. Thus, we can’t discern the difference between a TED talk and the preaching of Christ. In fact, very few actually preach Christ anymore. It is impossible to truly preach Christ apart from the indwelling headship of Christ. The hope of coming into the glory of God is Christ in you. Colossians 1:27 makes it clear, and this emphasis is on Christ, and the glory is God’s glory, not man’s glory.
How about we look at Hebrews 1:3 (NET) in this light:
The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Who knows, maybe if we actually give our lives to Jesus, we would become true followers of Him and not lovers of ourselves. The glory of God is awaiting those willing to lay down the past and enter into Him. If we can’t see the beauty in that, then we are truly blinded by the spirit of the age and have wandered from the narrow path. Remember the first verse in this message, “in this tent, we groan”… Let’s not glory in this earthly tent, but glory only in the cross of Jesus Christ. I ask God that this cuts deep down into our hearts unto a genuine repentance bearing in much fruit.