How Did We Get Here Part 2 Identity Crisis
Biblical Misunderstanding
In part one of this series, we saw that Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC) had not resolved many of the problems exposed over the past two years, and that existed for many years before that (see How Did We Get Here? Part 1 Discern the Paradigm). The Elders have not publicly discussed the cause of the problems. How will they assure the church that future crises will be averted if they have not resolved the heart of the issues?
This post will discuss the core reasons for the problems at WCCC. However, some of these issues are not unique to Willow Creek; they are prevalent in the Evangelical Church in general. In the “Five Whys?” discussion in Part 1 of this series, I identified Biblical misunderstanding as one of the root causes of the church’s problems. As I also stated in Part 1, I realize this is a subjective process, and I have made every effort to use objective information to make this determination. People may determine other root causes that are equally valid; that is why it is essential to open the dialogue.
One of the most common ways we misunderstand the Bible is by taking Scripture out of context. We often isolate one verse to support a point but fail to understand the full circumstances or background. We need to remember that the Bible is a compilation of narratives, each containing a train of thought that we must consider as we look at individual chapters and verses. For example, the New Testament comprises many letters that should be understood in totality to comprehend their purpose and meaning.
Taking verses out of context is one way people misunderstand or misuse the Bible; there are others: proof-texting, using the Bible only as a guidebook or rulebook, and rationalizing meaning through a personal or cultural bias. The church and individual Christians can manifest all these mechanisms. However, this discussion will focus on how taking Scripture out of context reinforces wrong ideas about who we are in Christ.
Who Are We?
WCCC, like most Evangelical churches, has a sound understanding of who we are before we are born again and how we are saved. Everyone is separated from God by sin. We are dead spiritually, and we cannot do anything in and of ourselves to make things right with God. Our only hope is in Jesus. He came as a man, lived a perfect life, sacrificed Himself, taking on all our sins, and rose from the dead to defeat sin and death. When we believe in Him as Lord and Savior, and call on Him, He saves us. God forgives all of our sins and reconciles us to Himself. We take on a whole new identity, but this is where things can get off-track. How we see ourselves as new creations is often skewed.
WCCC’s Beliefs & Values don’t contain an explicit definition of a Christian; they make some indirect statements about identity in Christ, but these are incomplete. Likewise, the Elder Statements, do not discuss the nature of Christians directly, but some of the topics embed comments about Christian identity. Disappointingly, some of the comments are misleading or wrong. Here is one such of these references from the Willow Creek Community Church Elder Statements in the section on Discipline:
The pages of Scripture speak honestly and consistently about the sinfulness of man against a Holy God. Since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, man’s propensity has been to hide from God and others in order to cover the shame and embarrassment of his sin. In spite of being new creatures in Christ, Christians still struggle with sin as a testament to our fallenness and need for the sanctifying work of Christ in our lives. Paul expresses this struggle between our old and new nature in Romans 7:18 and 19 when he exclaims, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but cannot carry it out.” (Bold added for emphasis)
The preceding paragraph is just one from the section on Discipline that misinforms about our identity in Christ. Future posts will continue to look at this section of the Elder Statements. This perspective about Christians may be familiar to you. You may read this paragraph and not see any issues. If that is the case, it supports how prevalent this way of thinking is in the church. Through this series I hope to show why this perspective is a root of problems in the church and how we can change. I am not trying to be judgmental of anyone, I am trying to expose the truth to explain how we got here. Following are four reasons that these comments are not consistent with Biblical truth about our identity as Christians:
First, there is the problem of applying Romans, chapter 7 to Christian nature or identity. As in the paragraph above, too often, this passage of Scripture is used to show that Christians still have a sinful nature. But Paul is talking about someone who is under the Law, using his former self as an example. He is not talking about someone who is in Christ. How do we know?
Romans 7:14 states: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin (Romans 7:14, NASB)” Why doesn’t this statement describe Christians? In the previous chapter, Romans 6, Paul says:
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Romans 6:3-7, NASB®).
We have died to sin; we are free from sin, so we cannot still be in bondage to it. In Romans chapter 8, Paul reinforces this aspect of our identity. He states, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you (Romans 8:9, NASB®).” There are other indications from Scripture that this chapter of Romans is not talking about the Christian experience. This discussion could be a whole separate post. I suggest reading Romans 5 through 8 to get a picture of the Apostle Paul’s teaching on the difference of living under Law and living under grace.
Before we get to the second problem, it is important to note an issue with the quote from Romans 7:18-19 in the Elder Statements. This citation is from the New International Version (NIV) Bible, that inaccurately translates the Greek word “flesh” as “sinful nature.” Other than in the NIV and NLT, the term sinful nature is rarely used in other translations of the New Testament. The terms used most often to describe who we are before we become Christians are “old self” or “old man.” These terms are different Greek words than the word flesh. The difference is vital because the concepts of sinful nature, or old self, and that of the flesh are not the same. Our nature is who we are at our core. Flesh refers to several aspects of our humanity, two of the meanings refer to either the body or the human way of operating apart from God, but it doesn’t mean our nature or identity.
So, the second issue is that the Elder Statements indicate Christians have a sinful nature. Regardless of the problem with the translation, nowhere does the Bible say that Christians still have a sinful nature. As we saw above, Romans 6 states that our “old self,” that is our sinful nature, was crucified with Christ. Ephesians, chapter 4, and Colossians, chapters 2-3, also discuss the death or putting off of our old self. We are a new self, “created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24).”
Third, the quote from the Elder Statements says, “Christians still struggle with sin as a testament to our fallenness and need for the sanctifying work of Christ in our lives.” This explanation is also inaccurate. It is true that Christians still struggle against sin, but it is not because of the reason cited. When we became Christians, our fallen nature, our old self, was crucified with Christ. When God raised us with Christ, He forgave all our sins, for all time. God sanctified us at the moment of our new birth. Sanctification means to set apart as holy; we were made holy through Christ’s holiness. Sanctification is not a progressive process, that is, our identity is changed immediately. We still need to grow in faith and understanding, and our behavior must start to align with our identity, but we are immediately joined to God and we are holy in spirit. There are many passages in the New Testament that speak to our sanctification by Christ, here is one example: “And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10, NASB®).” Also, see John 17; Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 1 and 6; Hebrews 10). We will explore the issue of sin in future posts as we continue to navigate the “Five Whys.”
Fourth, the idea that Christians “have the desire to do what is good but cannot carry it out,” is also not correct. We are told by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Galatians 5:16, NASB®).” Christians certainly have the means to walk in holiness by walking in the Spirit. In Romans 7, Paul is talking to people who know the Law (Romans 7:1) and describes life under the Law. This life of Law is in stark contrast to life in Christ that Paul presents in both Romans, chapter 6 and chapter 8.
This post shares one example of how WCCC presents a false description of our new nature in Christ. These statements don’t exist in isolation; leaders and congregants express similar thoughts from the stage and in normal conversation. As we identify how the church misrepresents our Christian identity, we can then start to implement ways to correct the misunderstanding.
I am not singling out WCCC to disparage the church. I am presenting evidence of error to help the church comprehend the nature of the problems the church is facing. I lived in the Willow culture for 39+ years. God used Willow in many positive ways in my life. Nonetheless, I also witnessed problems that the church is experiencing, and to solve them, we must get at the root cause. Again, these issues are not unique to Willow. Nevertheless, I believe they are foundational to the crises at Willow Creek.
Why this Information Important
The ideas in the paragraph from the Elder Statements are a misunderstanding and misuse of Scripture. Sadly, it gives Christians a very wrong impression of their identity in Christ. As discussed in the blog post Our Identity in Christ Part 1 Image and Identity, our nature as Christians is one of righteousness and holiness. If we believe we still have a “sinful nature,” we are less likely to live in the fullness of all God has for us because we fail to apprehend the truth of our “new creation.” We must base our understanding of life in Christ on Biblical truth. We must recognize the full context of Scripture. Only when we have a self-image based on reality can we live in that reality.
Recommendations for Action
We should look at ways to improve how we engage with the Bible. As discussed earlier, we must be careful to understand the context of Scripture to use individual verses accurately. We do this by reading and discerning the meaning of whole passages, so we use verses appropriately. How much of a text does it take to get a proper context? It depends, it may be a paragraph, or it could take several chapters. Look for the division of thought or ideas.
Another way to interpret Scripture is through Scripture, which means finding a concept presented in a particular passage in another part of the Bible, and using both to determine meaning. For instance, Paul often repeats ideas in several of his letters. Reading the concept from another perspective often helps in understanding.
Interestingly, one of the innovations implemented to help with studying and referencing the Bible has also hindered contextual reading of the Word. This innovation was the inclusion of verse numbers in the sixteenth century. While verse numbers are valuable in looking up specific parts of the Bible, we are more likely to parse Scripture into smaller parts because of the delineation of verses. Click on the following link and watch the short but enlightening video: Bible Reading is Broken and it’s NOT Your Fault!. Also, explore the Institute for Bible Reading for other ways to improve reading and studying the Bible.
Regarding misconceptions about our life as a new creation, Romans, chapter 7 is just one of three areas of Scripture people typically use to support the idea that Christians have a sinful nature; the other two are 1 Timothy, chapter 1, and 1 John, chapter 1. These passages, and especially a few verses, are often taken out of context and misapplied to Christian identity. I will discuss more detail about these two passages in my blog, Our Life in Christ.
The next post in this series will continue to look at the root cause of problems at WCCC, further discussing our identity in Christ and how it affects the way we live.