The Gospel of Me

What is this page about?

Here are two sentences.

• “Christ died for me.”
• “I use my faith to become the person I want to be.”

Both sentences have the word “me” or “I”. A real Christian could say both of them. But they are very different.

In the first sentence, Christ does something. I receive it.

In the second sentence, I do something. My faith is only a tool that helps me.

The worry is this. A lot of preaching and singing has moved from the first kind of sentence to the second kind. The words sound the same. Jesus is still named. But the sentence is now about me.

Eight points

1. Jesus saw this problem first. People came to him because he gave them bread. He told them so (John 6:26).
2. The Gospel is news. It tells us what God has done. Christ died, was buried, and rose again.
3. Worship is for God. The first Christians read the Bible, prayed, gave thanks and sang to Christ. Nobody wrote down how it felt.
4. A sermon is about Christ first. Advice comes second.
5. The Lord’s Prayer never says “I”. It says “our” and “us”.
6. Sin is against God. It is more than something that stops my success.
7. “For me” is in the Bible too. The question is: am I receiving a gift, or am I using God?
8. You can test it. Count the words “I” and “me” in a sermon or a song. Then look at who is doing the actions.

Why did they come to Jesus?

This is not a new problem. Jesus was the first person to speak about it.

One day Jesus fed five thousand people. He had only five loaves of bread and two fish. The next day the crowd crossed the lake to find him. Jesus told them why they had come.

You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.

John 6:26 · World English Bible

In simple words: You are not looking for me because of who I am. You are looking for me because I gave you food.

Jesus was not sorry that he fed them. He did not say it was wrong to be hungry. But they did not understand who he was. They asked for more bread. He answered: “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35) He had come to give them himself.

At the end of the chapter, most of the crowd left him. Peter stayed. Peter said: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Christian teachers saw this problem later too. Augustine lived about the year 420. He said that good people use the world so that they can enjoy God. Bad people try to use God so that they can enjoy the world.

Martin Luther wrote about it in 1516. He said that people are turned in on themselves. A person “even uses God himself” to get what he wants. And the person does not see that he is doing it.

The Bible has more examples.

• Jesus healed ten sick men. Only one came back to thank him. Jesus asked: “Weren’t the ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17)
• A man named Simon saw the power of the Holy Spirit. He offered money and said: “Give me also this power.” (Acts 8:19) He wanted the gift as his own power. Peter refused him.
• A blind man asked Jesus for his sight. Jesus healed him. Then the man “followed Jesus on the way.” (Mark 10:52) He came for a gift, but he stayed with the giver.

News first, then advice

Paul was one of the first Christian teachers. He told the church at Corinth what he taught them “first of all”. It is a list of things that happened.

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures… he was buried… he was raised on the third day

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 · World English Bible

In simple words: Christ died for our sins. He was buried. On the third day God raised him to life.

Look at who does the actions. Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ was raised. We are in the sentence only two times: “our sins”.

Peter’s first sermon is the same (Acts 2). God sent Jesus. God raised him. God made him Lord.

The creeds follow the same way. In the Nicene Creed, the Christian says “I believe”. After that, almost every action belongs to Christ. He came down. He became a man. He died on the cross. He rose. He will come again. We come into it with two words: “for us”.

The first Christian teachers did offer something to people. Peter said:

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38 · World English Bible

In simple words: Turn away from your sins and be baptized. Then God will forgive your sins and give you his Holy Spirit.

So there is an offer. But look at what is offered: forgiveness, and God’s own Spirit. No sermon in the book of Acts offers success, money or a better self.

The Bible has a lot of advice too. A preacher should give advice. But in Paul’s letters, the advice comes after the news. The letter to the Romans tells what God has done for eleven chapters. Only then does Paul say what we should do (Romans 12:1). Luther said it in one sentence in 1521. First receive Christ as a gift. After that, follow him as an example.

Here is a simple test for a sermon. Take away the cross and the resurrection. Is the advice still the same? Then the sermon was only advice.

There is another problem. Advice needs a person who shows that it works. That person is usually the preacher. So his marriage, his money and his success become the proof. Paul did the opposite. He wrote: “we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:5). John the Baptist gave the rule: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

Worship, church, and “my relationship”

Worship

We have two very old reports about Christian worship. Both are from about 1,900 years ago.

A Roman ruler wrote that Christians met early in the morning. They “sang … a hymn to Christ, as to a god”.

A Christian named Justin wrote about Sunday. The Bible was read for a long time. The leader taught from it. Everyone stood and prayed. Then bread and wine were given with thanks.

Neither report says how the people felt.

In the old kind of church service, God speaks and God gives. The people answer with praise. So “I got nothing out of it” is the wrong thing to say. Was the Bible read? Were sins forgiven? Was the Lord’s Supper given? Then you were given a lot, even if you did not feel it.

Joy is good. The Psalms tell us to be glad. But joy comes when we look at God. When a service is planned to give people a feeling, the people start to watch themselves.

“My personal relationship with Jesus”

These words can mean something true. A Christian trusts a living person. Nobody can do that for you.

But the words “personal” and “relationship” are not in the King James Bible. The New Testament uses other words. It says we are “in Christ”. It says we are “one body”. When you are joined to Christ, you are also joined to every other person who is joined to him.

The Lord’s Prayer shows this. It says “our” four times and “us” four times. It never says “I”, “me” or “my”. A church leader named Cyprian wrote about this in about the year 252.

we say not ‘My Father, which art in heaven,’ nor ‘Give me this day my daily bread’

Cyprian, about the year 252

In simple words: We do not pray “My Father”. We do not pray “Give me my bread today”. We pray “Our Father” and “Give us”.

Choosing a church

How do you know a real church? The old Lutheran and Anglican churches gave an answer. A church is a place where the Gospel is preached and the sacraments are given.

This answer does not ask if I like the church. The question “Does this church meet my needs?” makes me the judge. It makes the church something I buy.

C. S. Lewis wrote a famous book in 1942. In the book, a devil gives advice to a younger devil. The devil is happy when a man looks for a church that suits him.

The search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil.

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942

In simple words: When a man looks for a church that suits him, he becomes a judge. But God wants him to be a learner. (In this book the devil is speaking, so “the Enemy” means God.)

There is one more danger. A church full of customers will get the sermons that customers want.

“God told me”

God’s greatest word is for everyone. The Bible says that God “has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2).

Some Christians want most of all a word from God about their own job, house or future. Then the thing God speaks about has become me.

My story, my future, my sin

My story

In the New Testament, a witness is a person who saw what happened to Jesus. The first leaders needed a new man to take the place of Judas. This man had to be “a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:22).

Paul had a very exciting story about how he became a Christian. He told it. But then he preached about Christ, who died and rose from the dead (Acts 26:23).

Your own story has a place in the Bible too. Jesus healed a man and said to him:

Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you

Mark 5:19 · World English Bible

Look at who does the action: “the Lord has done”.

The problem comes when my story takes the place of his story. Then my faith stands on my own experience. A person with an exciting story seems more important than a person who has believed quietly since childhood. And people who are sick or in trouble have nothing to tell.

My future

Many people love this verse:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 · World English Bible

In simple words: God says: I know my plans for you. They are plans for peace, to give you hope and a future. (“Yahweh” is God’s name in the Old Testament.)

People often read this verse as a promise of personal success. But it comes from a letter to a whole nation. The people were prisoners in Babylon, far from home. God told them to build houses, plant gardens and wait seventy years. Most of them died there.

So the verse is a promise that God is faithful to his people. It is not a promise that my life will soon get better.

In the New Testament, Christians are “called”. This nearly always means called to belong to Christ. And what should we do every day? Paul says it simply:

make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands

1 Thessalonians 4:11 · World English Bible

In simple words: Try to live a quiet life. Do your own work. Work with your hands.

Your normal life is already the work God has given you. You do not need to find something bigger.

My sin

King David took another man’s wife. Then he had the man killed. Later David told God that he was sorry. He said:

Against you, and you only, I have sinned

Psalm 51:4 · World English Bible

David did not forget the man he killed. He was saying why it was a sin. It was a sin because it was against God.

There is another idea of sin. A famous American TV preacher wrote this in a book in 1982:

Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem.

An American television preacher, 1982

In simple words: Sin is anything that makes me, or another person, feel less good about ourselves.

The same book says that Christian teaching should be “man-centered”. It should not be “God-centered”.

Think about what follows from this. If sin only holds me back, then nobody has been wronged. Nobody needs to forgive. And the cross becomes a tool to make me better. The old words are still used. But they now mean something different.

“For me” is in the Bible

Should a Christian stop saying “me”? No.

Paul wrote that Christ is “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Luther loved this verse. He told people to read the words “me” and “for me” “with great emphasis”. That means: say these words strongly.

Luther also wrote a small book to teach children the faith. It says: “Jesus Christ … is my Lord, who has redeemed me”. “Redeemed” means that Jesus paid to set me free.

Psalm 23 says “I”, “me” and “my” many times.

So what is the difference? Look at who does the action.

• “He loved me.”
• “He gave himself for me.”
• “He has redeemed me.”

In each sentence, Christ acts and I receive.

Now look at this modern sentence.

In this sentence, I am the one who acts. And I am trying to get God’s gifts.

Three questions help to show the difference.

1. Who does the action? In the Bible, God acts and I receive. In the “Gospel of Me”, I act and God helps.
2. Why do I want God? Do I enjoy God himself? Or do I use God to get something else? Jesus said: “seek first God’s Kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).
3. What if I do not get what I want? A king wanted to burn three men in a fire. The men said that God was able to save them. Then they said: “But if not… we will not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:18). A faith that can say “but if not” is looking at God.

Is it wrong to want a full and happy life? No. It is a good thing to want. Augustine prayed to God:

You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.

Augustine, about the year 400

In simple words: You made us for yourself. Our hearts cannot rest until they rest in you.

The heart finds rest in God. It does not find rest in the things that God can give.

A test: count the words

Here is a test that anyone can do. Take a sermon, a song or a church advertisement. Then count.

• How many times does it say “I”, “me” and “my”?
• How many times does it name God?

Sometimes the answer is clear at once. The Lord’s Prayer has no “I” at all. Here is the opposite.

This advertisement never names God. Every action belongs to “you”.

But sometimes counting does not work. Psalm 23 has many “I” and “my” words. So does a great old song about the cross, written by Isaac Watts in 1707. Are they about “me”? No.

The reason is the actions. In Psalm 23, God does the actions and I receive them. He leads me. He gives me rest. He is with me.

Now look at these words.

Here “I” does every action. I chase. I claim. The small words are the same as in Psalm 23. But their place in the sentence is the opposite.

Be careful with this test. One song or one sermon shows very little. The test is fair when you use it on many songs or many sermons from the same church. And the first place to use it is your own prayers.

An old problem, and a new method

The problem is very old. Jesus saw it in the crowd. Paul saw it in the people who worked with him. Augustine and Luther saw it in the church of their time. Christians long ago were as selfish as we are. But they had a name for the problem. And their way of worship was built to fight it.

Something is new. Some parts of the church stopped fighting the problem. They began to teach it as a good thing. We can read what they wrote.

Other writers gave warnings in the same years. C. S. Lewis ended his best-known book with these words:

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

C. S. Lewis, about 1952

In simple words: If you look for yourself, in the end you will find only bad things. But if you look for Christ, you will find him. And you will get everything else with him.

Check it yourself

Here are five things you can do. The first takes ten minutes. The last one is the most important.

1. Read John chapter 6. Why did the crowd come? What did Jesus offer them? Why did most of them leave?
2. Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 and Acts 2:22-39. Find every action word. Who is doing each action?
3. Read the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) and Psalm 23. One has no “I”. The other has many. What is the same in both?
4. Read Galatians 2:20 and Daniel 3:16-18. The first is the Bible’s “for me”. The second is “but if not”.
5. Do the two-step test. Use the last three songs from your church and the last sermon you heard. If Christ does most of the actions, be glad and say so. Then try the test on your own prayers from this week.