A couple of weeks ago I posted a review of The Naked Gospel
.
Today we have the privilege of hearing from the author, Andrew Farley.
Below is PastoralMusings’ interview with Farley.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your ministry.
I’m the lead teaching pastor of Ecclesia: Church Without Religion, a growing church on the high plains of West Texas. I co-host Real Life in Christ, a thought-provoking TV program that airs every Wednesday morning on ABC-TV in West Texas. And I live in Lubbock, Texas with my wife Katharine and my son, Gavin. You can check out our church anytime at www.EcclesiaOnline.com.
Our philosophy is “Church Without Religion.” Ever since the days of the early church, we Christians have become very adept at adding to the gospel message and thereby making church a very “religious” experience. But Christianity was never intended to meet our ill-perceived need for religion. Instead, Christianity is primarily about restoring to us what we lost in Eden. At that time, there were no church buildings, or services, or Bibles, of course.
So, if Christianity is not primarily about Sunday morning or new building projects or studying a book for self-improvement, then what’s it all about? It’s about receiving and displaying God’s divine life on a moment-by-moment basis. And it’s about freedom to serve from a heartfelt motive, not out of any religious obligation.
2. Name two people who greatly influenced you spiritually.
I’d have to say both my mom and my dad. My dad died in a car accident more than a decade ago, and he meant the world to me. He was so strong, yet so soft and kind. And my mom has incredible discernment. I’ve often consulted her on major decisions. Whenever people say I’m a blend of mom and dad, I take it as the highest compliment. They were with me through “think and thin” and I wouldn’t know the grace of God today if it weren’t for them.
3. Now for the book: What compelled you to write The Naked Gospel? Who is your target audience?
I’ve learned some radical, Scriptural truths that were right there in the Bible, that I never knew existed. That’s why I wrote The Naked Gospel – to share with others the radical truths that absolutely revolutionized my life. The theme of the book is “Jesus plus nothing.”
Today, some are saying “Jesus plus baptism.” Others are saying “Jesus plus tithing.” Others are saying “Jesus plus tongues.” And some are even saying, “Jesus plus Judaism!” Although baptisms, giving, and spiritual gifts are part of healthy church life, I think we need to be clearer about the powerful truths of the core gospel message.
The Naked Gospel was written to serve as an intravenous shot of unadulterated truth that will stir all of us and perhaps even rattle some of us into considering how we’ve added to the gospel and hindered the pure power of “Jesus plus nothing” in our everyday lives.
4. In chapter one you speak of your experience in trying to measure up to certain standards so that God would be pleased. About the experiences you mention in this chapter: were they truly as intense as they sound, or were they more intense so that words actually fail to describe how intense those feelings of inadequacy and despondency truly were?
Yeah, it was intense alright. I found myself lying on the floor of my apartment, begging God for answers. I was saying, “God, I’m doing everything they say to do. I’m reading my Bible four or five hours a day. I’m sharing my faith with everybody I meet. I’m at church every time the doors are open. But I still don’t feel like I’m growing spiritually. I’m stalled, and I can’t explain why. You say the truth will set me free. I’m anything but free!”
I needed God to start all over with me, and He did. Although I was already a Christian, my belief system was poisoned with religiosity. Over the next ten years, I began replacing old thoughts with new thoughts. And it changed everything for me.
Back then, if I were honest and vulnerable, my sales pitch would have been, “Would you like to become a Christian and be miserable like me?” But today I’d wish my Christian experience on everyone.
5. Tell us about your view of the law and the Christian and how it is relevant to a discussion of the gospel and our acceptance before God.
When Paul describes the law as a ministry of condemnation, he notes that the law was “in letters engraved on stones.” Clearly, he’s talking about the Ten Commandments. So, the Ten will only minister condemnation – to the saved and to the lost.
Of course, people will argue the importance of the Ten Commandments for Christian living today. But just ask them, “What did you do last Saturday?” If they did any work of any kind, then they disobeyed one of the Big Ten. They might say, “Well we’re free from the Sabbath now.” My reply, “So then, it’s the Nine Commandments that we’re still under?”
We Christians dice up God’s law to get it the way we like it. But the reality is that the law is an all-or-nothing proposition. James tells us that even if we keep the whole law and stumble in only one point, we are guilty of all of it. We don’t have the right to cherry pick, selecting the parts that are comfortable for us.
It’s 600+ Jewish commands and regulations, or it’s total freedom to serve in the newness of the Spirit. The choice is ours. But there’s no room for selecting from the law here and there and imposing a few on Christians. That makes no sense at all.
The Jewish Law, including the Ten Commandments, is perfect in every way. It’s so perfect that nobody can live up to it! It’s actually designed to allow sin to thrive in our lives, to convict us of that sin, and to point us to our need for Jesus Christ.
After we receive Jesus, all we need is Jesus. He produces the love, patience, and self-control we need for daily living. After the salvation experience, any return to the law or another rule-based system is essentially “cheating on Jesus.”
6. What would you say to the person who objects and tells you that Jesus preached the gospel, so the Sermon on the Mount can be interpreted accordingly?
I guess I’d say, “then cut off your hand next time it causes you to sin. And pluck out your eye too! And while you’re at it, be perfect just like your Heavenly Father is perfect. Oh, and go sell all your possession. OK, now you’re obeying Jesus.” Jesus amplified the law to show that it couldn’t be obeyed. The rich man went away sad. The Pharisees went away mad. Mission accomplished.
In my mind, this point isn’t really up for much debate. We need to understand the “Great Divide.” It’s not baby Jesus lying in the manger in Matthew 1 that changed everything for us. But with our “New Testament” divider page placed just before Matthew 1, we Christians can lose sight of the fact that Jesus’ death, not his birth, initiated the New Testament era (see Hebrews 9:16-17).
Therefore, Jesus was born under law. And much of Jesus’ teaching was aimed at redeeming those who were under law (Galatians 4:4-5). He told them to gouge out their eyes and cut off their hands in their fight against sin. Pretty high standards, I think.
If we Christians were truly following those teachings, and not watering them down or dismissing them, today’s churches would look much like an amputation ward at the local hospital. Instead, we recognize on some level that Jesus was placing demands on his Jewish listeners that were just too great.
As I mentioned, we see this with the Sermon on the Mount, and with the rich man too. Jesus told him to sell everything. Sell everything, really? Yes, Jesus said to sell everything in order to enter the kingdom.
But today, we don’t preach this. You’ll never see an evangelist telling people to go home and list all their belongings on eBay in order to enter the Kingdom. Why not? Those are Jesus’ own words, aren’t they? On some level, we all recognize that Jesus’ death, not His birth in Matthew 1, changed everything for us.
In The Naked Gospel, I talk about the sweeping implications of this dividing line for how we study the
Bible – the teachings of Jesus in particular – and how we relate to God and live life
7. You have named two chapters “Cheating on Jesus” and “We Don’t Marry Dead People.” The titles are somewhat shocking. Tell us why you named these chapters in this fashion.
The Catholic obtains more forgiveness and cleansing weekly through the mass. The Jew obtained more forgiveness and cleansing yearly through the Day of Atonement. And today’s Protestant, for the most part, believes he receives more forgiveness and cleansing as he asks God directly for it. But all three systems ignore what the Bible clearly teaches – God’s blood economy that brings “once for all” forgiveness through the onetime sacrifice of Jesus. That’s why I call those other systems “Cheating on Jesus.”
Also, we’re the bride of Christ, right? But we’re not married to a dead man. He’s risen and alive and seated at God’s right hand. And we’re joined to Him, the risen Christ. That’s what “We Don’t Marry Dead People” is about.
8. You stated that Christians don’t have to ask God for forgiveness. Why do you believe this, and why do you think that it is important to us?
Yes, the phrases “ask forgiveness” and “ask for forgiveness” are entirely absent from all New Testament epistles. It has never been about making promises to God, trying harder, or listing every sin on a legal pad and waiting to be cleansed afterward.
Although it’s very religious to ask for forgiveness, it totally ignores the work of the cross. Jesus took away our sins and cleansed us “once for all.” To ask, plead, beg, and wait for a new portion of cleansing to come our way is to ignore what Jesus said from the cross: “It is finished.”
Yes, we should turn from every sin we commit. Yes, we should be honest and open about our struggles before God. But we should also be honest and straightforward about the blood of Jesus and what it accomplished – an unconditional, irrevocable, one-time cleansing from all our sins!
Requesting forgiveness is not the same as thanking God for the cleansing we already have. Now that forgiveness has been accomplished, our job is to relish the work of Jesus Christ and to deem it “enough.”
As we rest in the finished work of the Son, we please the Father. Why is this important? Because it’s truth. God’s truth! Believing anything else is an absurdity. Just think about it. How many sins have you committed in your life? Millions? OK, now how many of those have you asked forgiveness for? What? Only thousands? So now what will you do? You’ve got millions of unconfessed and unaddressed sins! You can’t go to heaven as a partially forgiven and partially cleansed person.
This is precisely why our forgiveness cannot possibly be dependent on our memory, our words, our confession, or our asking. This is precisely why our forgiveness has to rest solely on the blood of Christ.
This is important because it’s part of the gospel – a “once for all” sacrifice, as Hebrews calls it, found only in Jesus Christ.
9. What would you say to encourage the despairing person who tries, and tries, and tries to please God, but always fails?
I’d say that the first thing to realize is that it’s our faith in Jesus that pleases God. As the Scriptures say, “without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” When I put my full confidence in what Jesus did for me, I’m pleasing God. But when I’m trying to “do” for God, I’m not really pleasing Him anyway. The Father is obsessed with His Son. Jesus is the Gold Standard, and the only thing that pleases the Father is our dependency on the Son. Anything else is simply weak religiosity.
Oh, and stop measuring yourself. As God said in the Garden of Eden, “Who told you that you were naked?” In other words, by what standard are you measuring yourself and coming up short?
The standard has been removed in Christ. The certificate of debt has been cancelled (Colossians 2), meaning that we don’t owe God anything. There’s no debt left. And there’s no measuring stick.
So, my cleanness and my closeness are through Jesus’ work, not through my own.
Bottom line- relax and enjoy Him.
10. Thanks for taking the time to give a sneak peek into The Naked Gospel as well as answering a few questions about your theological approach. Let’s end with this: What would you be most happy to hear from someone who has read The Naked Gospel?
When some hear they can be free from religion and only need Jesus for daily living, they call the idea “naïve.” When some hear that Christians are totally forgiven for all sins – past, present, and future – no matter what, they actually get mad. They call that one a “license to sin” and “heresy.”
I call it the Gospel. If you’re not being falsely accused of promoting a “license to sin” then you’re probably not teaching the Gospel. The Apostle Paul was falsely accused of speaking out against Moses and the law. He also had to constantly answer this one: “Well, then, why don’t we just go out and sin so that grace can increase?”
We Christians should be accused of these things on a regular basis. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’re peddling a powerless gospel of “Jesus plus something.”
So far, The Naked Gospel has received one of two reactions – people love it or hate it. I’ve been called a heretic. I’ve even been told that the book will “destroy America’s churches.” But I’ve also heard lots of people say things like, “it totally changed my life,” and “I’ll never be the same again.”
It’s no fun to be accused, but it’s very rewarding to see people go free. It appears that some may speak out against the book. But it also appears that the book will free lots of people to enjoy the simple, powerful message of “Jesus Plus Nothing.”
And that’s what it’s all about.
Our thanks to Mr. Farley for taking the time to answer these questions and discuss his new book “The Naked Gospel“.
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