I recently visited some unnamed blogs by church of Christ preachers who had their “tag cloud” visible. (A tag cloud is the group of key words used to point readers to a post) These are men whose church is so and so “church of Christ” so you would think that “Christ” would be the most often used key word on their blogs. Nope, “church of Christ”, “baptism”, and even “a cappella” were ahead of “Christ” and “Jesus”. What does this prove? Perhaps not much but it does deserve some thought.

Jesus promised that if He is lifted up He would draw all men to Himself. (John 12:32) Paul and the other Apostles preached Christ, the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) and He was the center of the message and mission they served.

Are our churches of Christ known for their devotion to Christ? Do we put Him first? Is He and His story the center of our message? I’ll let you decide. I do know this for sure. Not one person will be in heaven because they were right about how to do communion or because they sung a cappella. There will be no saving grace extended to one person because they despised the Baptists.

There is one mediator between man and God, His name is Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Jesus declared “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6) Since these things are true why don’t we preach Christ? Why isn’t He the focus of every ministry? Why isn’t He the most talked about on our “Christian” blogs? Why do we talk far more about the “church of Christ” than the Christ of the church? Why?

I think it is because many don’t really believe He is the only way to God. They think he is a part of the way but not the way. Or, some my believe that the sum total of believing the right doctrine, having communion each Sunday, singing a cappella, being in the right church, and believing the historic stories about Jesus combined with living a good life puts one in good standing with God. What Jesus told one of the most religeous men in his day is still true, you must be born again.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Unless you have this right nothing else matters. Please brothers and sisters, lets put Christ in his rightful place at the center of our living, our giving, our missions, our worship, and our dying. Let us become known for making a fuss about Jesus Christ and loving people as He did. Unless we are loving the unlovable as they are where they are seeking nothing in return we are not doing what Christ wants us to do. There is no greater task, no higher honor, no more noble endeavor than to make Christ and His work for sinners known.

In Him,
Royce