Float Your Boat

“The boat…the boat! Who’s gonna carry the boat?” (Goggins 2022)

Christianity is not a cruise-ship with infinite ports of call, but a boat-load of believers rowing for the distant shore. But how can we ever get the boat to water when there are few willing to carry it? Soldier on you stout-hearted, but try as you may, without the discipline and training, that boat will never reach open water. The believer asks “...Who then can be saved?” The Lord responds by saying: “Strive to enter in by the narrow way. Yet, although many will try, few will be able.” (Lk. 13:23) And, it is that salvific qualifier which objectifies a problem worth unpacking.

“No one can receive the Christ who justifies, without receiving the Christ who makes holy.” (Reeves 2020) For the Christ who gave himself for us, is the same Christ that gives himself to us, that through the instruction of grace we might become holy even as he is holy. Yet in spite of the fact, many have misapprehended grace as consummate with salvation alone. An obvious problem, as Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted: identifying as the primary reason for the Jewish Holocaust during the time of the German Reich. Christians who could have done something, did nothing, believing that judgement (of the Jews) was of the Lord, while grace or “unmerited favor” absolved them from any personal responsibility. Yet, as Jonathon Edward’s once said: “The hypocritical Christian is the one who desires the gift of God, but not God himself.” (Religious Affections 1746) To put it plainly, if we believe that our place at the banquet table of Christ has already been reserved, we become like heavenly draft-dodgers, unwilling to do the training; while we wait for Manna. Consequently, a Christian who seeks the reward of salvation apart from a reasonable sacrifice for a eternal relationship with Christ is the one who is “missing the boat!” Accordingly, most believers are nothing more than floaters, treading water in a sea of grace until they inevitably tire and drown. And, while the church may serve as a communal life-raft of sorts, without someone to portage, oars simply become a useless appendage for a ship of fools.

And this in fact is precisely the point, while the American Evangelicalism has roots which stretch back to this nation’s early frontier days, even as it eclipses nearly every other denomination in terms of growth, it remains open to criticism when it comes to a lack of emphasis on the requirements of faith. A fact that becomes even more apparent in its more modern iteration, which could be described as simply “cloud computing” at the cost of a “pilgrim’s progress.” Emphasizing forgiveness without repentance, spiritual development without discipleship, and salvation without cost, without the cross itself, can be characterized as nothing more than to a consumer Christianity.

Delving into that, if a Christian doesn’t understand who God is then every other foundational construct begins to fall apart. Many still remain confused about the biblical distinction concerning Jesus the Christ and God the Father, while the first commandment in the Old Testament makes the distinction abundantly clear, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one.” (Deut. 6:4) Yet, in spite of the fact, and repeated assertions by Jesus himself, his relationship to our heavenly Father is made clear, as he said: “Our Father who art in heaven…” (Lk. 11:2) And again, “…If you loved me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.” (Jn. 14:28) And in addition, “…how God, the Father, anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, so that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38). This is what early Christians believed, and the Apostles preached: “That Jesus didn’t appear to everyone after the resurrection, but only to those of us who ate with him after he had been raised from the dead. In fact, we were the ones chosen by God to be Christ’s witnesses, even as he commanded us.–Preach to the people, testifying to them that I am the one ordained by God to be judge of the living, as well as the dead.” (Acts 10:41-43)

The prevailing emphasis on salvation, as something to be acquired without further investment is a misnomer, a fact which scripture itself attests to. “I am crucified with Christ, Accordingly,the life I now live, I live through Christ, the Son of God, the one who redeemed me.” (Gal. 2:20) This simple exposition then begs the question, “If we are saved by grace alone, what further demand remains for holiness?” (Reeves, 2020) In many respects, the undue emphasis on original sin and salvation by grace not only serves to incapacitate the will to “go, and sin no more,” but becomes a crutch to keep the lame limping. In that regard, it’s then worth noting that it was not the act of disobedience itself, but our forebears willful disposition to put their own self-interest ahead of God’s own interest in their essential purpose that led them to sin. And, while the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan speaks volumes about repentance, his recurring admonitions to “go and sin no more” speak more about free-will than the activity of grace. The essential problem then is one of a solicitous faith, the result of portraying salvation as a “free gift,” or once-and-done confessional act, without the necessity of discipleship or that of accountability, without which salvation simply becomes an exercise in futility, in turn serving to undermine our initial investment in eternity.

In the final analysis then, it would seem to be implausible to talk about boats without also referring to ballast, which in itself is both figuratively, as well as scripturally connotes to a rock. “For no one can lay any other foundation except that which has already been laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11) And, regarding that foundation, he he said: “…The one that comes to me and hears my words and then acts upon them, is like a man who builds his house on solid rock. Yet, the one who hears my words, and does not act upon them, is like someone who builds a house without a foundation, and is then swept away as soon as the river rises.” (Lk. 6:47-49) Again, “For the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” (1 Pet. 2:7) even as we, “as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:4)

Although the resurrection of Jesus is considered by many to be the turning point in human history, if it hadn’t been for the sacrificial work ethic of those whose lives were changed by his, the profitable results of that turn of events may never have happened, making the atonement itself somewhat moot. While the cross was his, it’s cost continues to pay dividends for those who would invest in it. And even though it could be argued that we’re all in the same boat, it’s only for those who will row that will make it to open water.