Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Most Christian church members will admit that the church as an institution is "lukewarm." Jesus Himself says so in Revelation 3:14-21; and we can't argue otherwise. The joyous abandon of devotion to Christ that characterized the apostolic church seems lacking. The more luxurious and imposing are the church buildings, cathedrals, or institutions we build, the less there seems to be of that fervent yet humble zeal.
As we study into what the Bible says about the New Covenant versus the Old, the question pops up: is there a relationship between this widespread lukewarmness and the Old Covenant kind of Christian thinking?
As we study into what the Bible says about the New Covenant versus the Old, the question pops up: is there a relationship between this widespread lukewarmness and the Old Covenant kind of Christian thinking?
Is it possible for any church in any age of history, anywhere in the world, to be "lukewarm" and at the same time be living under the New Covenant? Is this what Christ died to accomplish--to raise up a professed Christian church that is half and half in its devotion to its Savior?
You can't read very far in the New Testament without being confronted by a painful truth: spiritual lukewarmness is inconsistent with understanding and believing the New Covenant. Wherever we see such half-and-half devotion, we can know we are in an area of spiritual experience dominated by Old Covenant ideas. They may have their roots beneath the surface of our consciousness, but still our lukewarmness is an embarrassment to Jesus, two thousand years past Pentecost. And it's the height of arrogance for us to boast that we are "rich and increased with goods" in our understanding of the gospel when Old Covenant principles still bedevil our thinking.
Old Covenant "Christian" living is highly popular, but it's difficult for Jesus to explain to the holy angels how His people can be content to go on generation after generation, century after century, so spiritually naive, so self-satisfied. In His message to the leadership of His church in the last days, He confesses that this lukewarmness perpetuated so long makes Him feel like throwing up (see Rev. 3:16, 17). He is suffering the pain of acute nausea; should not our concern be, not for self, but for His healing?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 2003.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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