Jared Wilson at the Gospel Driven Church has done some excellent writing on the nature of the Gospel and the Christ-less Christianity that inhabits much of our consciousness. He consistently takes apart our desire to “do” good works and “be” good Christians vs. what God has done for us in Christ.
“Do” isn’t any less legalistic than “don’t.”
“Do”s and “don’t”s are just flip-sides of the same coin. The gospel isn’t “do” any more than it is “don’t”; both are merely religion.And a Church that is mobilized with a gospel of “do good” might make for good p.r. for our churches, but the gospel of “do good” cannot really scandalize a lost and broken world, because most people know how to do good without the help of Christianity. They don’t need the Church to be “good people.”
Read the whole thing.