Have you ever once considered, “What would happen if Satan took over a city?”
I realize that’s kind of a dark thought… but let’s just consider it for a moment. Try to imagine in your head what that might possibly look like.
Maybe you immediately thought of one of the presidential candidates with red horns, brandishing a golden scepter from the throne of Jerusalem. (I jest, hope you are, too…) But likely, you’re probably thinking of a Las Vegas-type city on steroids where there’s unchecked climates of drugs, prostitution, trafficking, poverty, violence, political corruption, economic oppression, and social segregation.
Personally, I like Batman, so naturally, I think of Gotham City when the Joker or Bane rules over an anarchic society, and it’s complete chaos as sin abounds without restriction.
But I heard a response to this question the other day that took me quite off guard. When asked, “What would happen if Satan if took over a city?”, here’s what I heard in response:
All the bars would be closed. Pornography would be banned. Everything would be clean. No swearing. Churches would be full every week. Pews would be full. But Christ would not be preached.
Wow. I think his assessment is right on the money, too.
After all, Satan is not really all that troubled by a moral improvement plan. But he is troubled by a Christ that is preached.† Certainly, morality is not a bad thing, we can all agree on that. But by itself, it is insufficient for a truly transformed life. And therefore, by itself, morality can be dangerously deceiving because it can lead people to believe in a pseudo-salvation that is solely based on good deeds. It’s moralism, which is essentially the idea that I must earn God’s acceptance and good graces by keeping moral principles. It’s the same thing as thinking, ‘because I am not doing this sin, I am acceptable in God’s eyes.’
The problem is, however, is that moralism inevitably leads into either pride or despair.
On the ‘pride’ end of the spectrum, if you say, “I’m good, so God accepts me,” you will inevitably sow deep seeds of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and spiritual condescension to those who aren’t as good. Your boast is in your own ability to keep the law; which means, thereby, that you are your own functional savior… so what need is there for Jesus? Conversely, on the ‘despair’ end of the spectrum, if you say, “I’m bad, so God does not accept me,” you will inevitably spiral down into despair, hopelessness, and self-deprecation. You will begin to believe that you have to ‘undo’ your sinful deeds with your good deeds, and it ultimately enslaves you to living up to a standard to finally ‘get right’ with Jesus… and where is Jesus in that?
For all of moralism’s nice, polite, and *sparkle when you smile* traits, it nevertheless invariably drains into two dead-end extremes of either pride and despair, which both paint incredibly distorted pictures of Jesus, and therefore, the concept of salvation, too. And that’s why Satan loves moralism so much–because moralism, probably more than anything else, convinces us that great morality is where salvation is found, not Jesus.
Satan takes the byproducts of the gospel, and presents it to us as if it is the basis of the gospel, which is no actually gospel at all. Satan takes the indications of a saved life, and presents it to us as if it is the qualifications for a saved life. And if believed, that will keep us unsaved, just like it did to the Pharisees who believed the same lie, despite their extreme religiosity.
Indeed, it is such a powerful lie precisely because it is so nice, neat, and clean–so diametrically opposite from our natural notions of ‘sinful, unsaved, Sodom and Gemorrah-type Gotham City.’
It looks ‘religious,’ so it has to be ‘salvation-promising,’ right? Hook and line. Satan is the master deceiver (Jn. 8:44; 2 Co. 11:3, 14), and he takes morality, a good thing, but makes it an ultimate thing, which eclipses and blinds us from seeing our need for a Savior.
This means that even the nicest, most clean-cut, moral cities or places where Jesus is not preached or trusted in are simply places where salvation is as light, thin, and vast as a fog, shrouding mountains of pride and despair.
Moral examples in the Bible, indeed, are not wrong in and of themselves. But they are wrong if modeled all by themselves—and that’s because these moral examples ultimately point to something, some story, and Someone greater. Jesus says that all of the Bible is completely about him (Luke 24:27, John 5:39). So to treat the Bible in a way that marginalizes or ignores Jesus at the expense of following a moral example is the same thing as to misuse the Bible completely.†
Therefore, to “preach Christ” primarily means to make him the hero of every message, the ultimate focus of every passage, and the hub for every axle of life application.† Therefore, Christians, we should desire to preach Christ from the whole Bible because it all points to Jesus after all, and because it all holds together upon this Cornerstone anyways. He’s the one who accomplished our right standing, acceptance, and full salvation from God by his perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection. So now, our approach to morality is not “I have to honor God because I want to be saved,” but rather, “I want to honor God because of how I am saved.” The former view produces pride and despair, but the latter view produces confidence and humility.
Practically, we can begin to approach morality rightly and preaching Christ properly by making sure we are not excessively allegorizing Scripture with moral parallels, and also by making sure we are not being too narrow-minded in our morality either by not seeing the full scope and entire context of the Bible’s redemptive theme in Christ.†
With every moral example and with every moral application, just like with every ray of sunlight, there’s a source behind it, and the trajectory from which it extends can be followed back to Jesus in the same way that a ray of sunlight can be traced back to the sun.
A ray of sunlight is not just merely for sunlight’s sake, but about the necessity and glory that is the sun.
As such, theology is not merely for information’s sake.
And it is not just information for application’s sake.
Theology is about adoration and transformation, for Christ’s sake.
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† The following post is an adaptation from an anecdote in Michael Horton’s book, Christless Christianity (found within Bryan Chappell’s Christ-Centered Preaching), concerning the conversation, “What would happen if Satan took over a city?” The sentences followed by the “†” is used to indicate more verbatim references.
