Isn't He safe?

Spiritual formation is ordained by God in Christian faith. Eph. 4:12-13 is one of the key texts for Christian formation. Christians not only accept the gospel, but also respond to its demands. The responding part is a life-long process. It’s a growing process oriented toward God until “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Paul turns the language of the Great Commission into the language of growth and maturity. The languages are different; the concept is the same. Building up the body of Christ is almost equivalent to making disciples of all nations. When Paul talks about becoming mature in Ephesus, the universality of “all nations” becomes Paul’s particularity in time and space. A local church in Ephesus becomes the place where Paul interprets and applies the Great Commission into a down-to-earth pastoral context—a local context. The Paul we know in the Bible is a local Paul.

“Until we all reach…” indicates that Paul is part of the growing process. He is not someone to tell others to grow toward maturity in Christ, but he himself exempts from it. He is a grower himself. His growth begets the growth of others. It applies to all Christians. There is no exception. We’re blessed by the gospel. We’re also challenged by the gospel. The gospel is good; however, the gospel is not safe. It’s not safe in a sense that it unsettles us from the inside out.

C. S. Lewis talks about Aslan’s characters in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (New York: Collier, 1970):

“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King. I tell you.” (pp. 75-76)

We all know that Aslan foreshadows Christ. The characters of Aslan can be applied to the gospel itself. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” (Mk. 1:1 ESV) The gospel is about Christ; Jesus is the embodiment of the gospel. The gospel is good, but it’s not safe. The gospel is good because we don’t earn it. We can’t earn it. We only receive it by grace through faith. This same reality continues to be true until the end of the day. It settles our unsettled souls. Nevertheless, the gospel is not safe because it shakes our comfort, reforms the old self, and challenges our lifestyle. It unsettles us when we’re too settled for life and lose the passion to live for Him in life. The good, yet unsafe gospel is the gospel we received at conversion. We continue to live with both aspects of the gospel in sanctification.