God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms.
The fallen creature occupies both pulpit and pew; sin has corrupted both the supply and the demand. This is the persistent transgression: the domestication of the Deity. It is the oldest temptation–the desire to be like God by remaking him in our own image. For those of us in the pulpit, this temptation is often masked as "successful ministry" that “reaches the crowds.” Yet we have fallen into the Sin of Adam the moment we begin trimming the edges of the Creator to fit the comfort of the creature.
The second half of this trap is the attempt to soften the cross. But the cross of Christ will always remain a scandal. The moment you make the cross reasonable, you make it powerless. A cross that does not offend the wise and baffle the strong cannot save the lost or raise the dead.
This is the essence of a Theology of Glory: bending the Divine to align with our preferences, our cultural comfort and our craving for relevance. But Paul offers no such path, he delivers a scandal:
“The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:18–23)
Paul continues. His warning to Timothy is not just an ancient observation, but also serves as a present diagnosis of both pulpit and pews. We live in a world where the self is the highest authority. People are not looking for a Savior nor do they desire correction. Instead, they are looking for support in their own effort and affirmation in their choices:
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort... For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions..." (2 Tim. 4:2-4)
When we preach a “preferred” God or a “useful” and “relevant” Jesus, we cease to be shepherds and become ear-scratchers. We are no longer feeding sheep but entertaining goats.
A cross that does not offend the wise and baffle the strong cannot save the lost or raise the dead.
God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms. He is the great I AM—the self-existent and unconditioned One. He is not a lump of clay awaiting a make over, a friendlier face created by the preacher’s homiletic handiwork.
Yet many preachers still yearn for a different Jesus, attempting to portray him as:
A more exciting Jesus, to attract the crowds.
A more applicable Jesus, a life-coach rather than the Life-Giver.
A more manageable Jesus, contained within our ecclesiastical systems.
But we do not set the terms. We do not manage the I AM. He does not need our help and he certainly does not require our PR strategies.
Lutherans confess that God is not found in the preacher’s cleverness or the heart’s religious impulses, but in the External Word. If we look within, we do not find God—we find only the reflection of our own desires.
God has bound himself to concrete means: the Means of Grace. If you want to know what God thinks of you, do not examine your feelings or measure your success. Lift your eyes from yourself and look to where he has spoken. The Word of God stands outside of us, both confronting and comforting us. Jesus Christ, the Living Word and only-begotten Son, is the Father’s final and definitive Word.
The preacher’s task, therefore, is not innovation. We are not consultants. We are heralds. Our calling is to deliver the message—the external promise of God—unchanged and intact from the King to his people. Let us therefore examine four specific areas where we most often exchange the proclamation of Christ for the management of an idol.
The Sin of Adam
The Sin of Adam was not merely disobedience; it was full on rebellion. Adam and Eve refused to receive revelation; they demanded to define reality. This same temptation haunts every pulpit. We encounter God’s sovereignty: his holiness, his wrath, and his otherness—aspects we fear are "unacceptable" to modern sensibilities. So, we reshape them.
We smooth what offends and silence what disturbs. This is theological surgery. We create a god who resembles us, affirms our instincts, and shares our preferences. Consequently, people are not brought to God; they are confirmed in themselves. They are not converted; they are merely reflected.
The Scandal of the Cross
The second distortion is the transformation of the cross into something less offensive. In the first century, the cross was not inspirational. It was shameful, brutal, and cursed. It was the site of divine judgment. To the world, it remains utter foolishness. A message from God that appears as nothing more than a catastrophic failure.
When we reduce the cross into a symbol of vague love or personal encouragement, we empty it of its meaning. But the cross declares something far more severe: that humanity is so lost that nothing less than the death of the Son of God could redeem it. If the cross becomes reasonable, it becomes powerless. A cross that does not offend cannot save.
The Danger of Functional Atheism
When we reshape God to fit our context, we practice a form of functional atheism. We behave as though God depends on us to remain relevant. We treat the gospel as a product to be improved, packaged, and marketed. We treat the preacher as a salesman that is in the pulpit to seal the deal by convincing you to make a decision. But God does not require management. He does not await our approval. When we attempt to manage him, we cease to be heralds and become idol-makers.
Let God Be God
We do not begin with ourselves or our audience. We return to the External Word. What Scripture reveals, we do not soften. What God declares, we do not reframe into worldly wisdom. We leave the edges intact. For it is precisely the sharpness of God’s law that exposes our self-righteousness, and the scandal of the gospel—Christ crucified for us—that raises the dead. Only such a Word can do what no 'relevant' message ever can: kill and make alive, condemn and justify!
