Christ the Controversialist
by Michael Gowens
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” (Mt. 10:34-36)
Among the many labels one might ascribe to the Lord Jesus, none gets less attention than “Christ the Controversialist.” Those of us who have enjoyed the privilege of living in “Christian” America where belief in the Bible was the norm have had little reason to reflect on the fact that Christianity was born, and has largely existed, in secular climates that were hostile to its claims; consequently, when the Federal government endorses a sexual ethic and definition of marriage that the Bible so clearly recognizes as sinful and contrary to even nature’s law, it shocks us.
It shocks us because we’ve been conditioned to think Christianity is the norm and anti-God secularism the exception. The very opposite is the case: anti-God secularism is the historical norm, and Christianity is the exception. Historically speaking, no one has ever been the subject of greater controversy than Jesus Christ. If we are going to survive, it is time that believers recover a thoroughly biblical understanding of the counter-cultural nature of the Christian faith. This vile world has never been a friend to grace to bring us on to God.