Radical Christianity

Have you ever looked at a missionary living on the streets in Russia who is getting arrested for sharing the gospel and said, "Wow that guy is radical, I wish I could be a radical Christian like that guy." or something to that effect? I must admit that there has been more than a few times when I've heard stories of missionaries and thought "If only I could be like one of those guys, then I would be really spiritual".

First off let's get something very important out of the way, you may be the kind of person who is always thinking that you're not doing enough, you're not contributing enough, you're not praying enough, you're not reading your Bible enough and so on and so forth. The truth is you are not doing enough, you're not praying enough, you're not loving God as much as you should, you're not serving Him as much as you should. You see Christ came to fulfill the whole law for His people. People are always talking about the pardon for sin in Christ, and rightly so, for without it we would be without hope, but it's not as though we get pardoned and sent out of the court room filled with the guilt of our sin, we get Christ's righteousness imputed to us so that not only does God pardon us; He steps down from His place of honor and covers us in His robes of righteousness so that we are no longer seen as guilty.
Anything you do to try to make yourself more acceptable to God is an insult to what Christ did when He came to the earth. When He said "it is finished" He meant just that.

In light of that there are many people today, (I won't say who because you might think less of Rick Warren) who say that if you're not doing something "radical" you are a lukewarm Christian at best, and a false convert at worse. We don't do good things to be a better Christian, or to be more acceptable to God, we do things because of our love for Christ, because He saved us.To say that someone needs to leave the Church because they aren't adopting 20 children, or  ministering to homeless people, or selling everything they own to give to the poor is not the gospel.

Radical Christianity is being faithful where you're at. One person's thing might be going to live in Peru for 30 years as a missionary and I say rock on, but don't tell me that that person is more spiritual, more pleasing to God, or more "radical" than the woman who went to college, who is super smart and could easily climb to the top in the corporate world, but instead decides to stay home and raise her children, teach them about God, and love her husband, that is radical.

Yes you do need to examine yourself to see if you are being lazy in an area where you could be doing more. But for every look you give inward give ten looks to Jesus and what He did on the cross, then you will see that He paid it all, He obeyed the whole law for us, now in light of that let's do more with what we have, let's try to pray more, read more, love more, not out of a hope of being "radical" or measuring up to the what the modern "church" thinks is edgy. If you want to go live in Africa for 30 years great, but do it out of a love from Christ nothing else.

Please forgive any spelling errors, I did't have much time to proof read.