This is a great post from "The Gospel-Driven Church". The author captures a great distinction that is WORTH meditating on and working out in our own lives/faiths/churches. Here's one excerpt:
"I believe many Christians in America would be satisfied if "the culture"Quoting from Michael Horton's Christless Christianity:
just stopped using pornography and drugs and alcohol and stopped
aborting babies and started "acting right." As far as I can tell, that
would be a Win. But it's not a win. A land where everybody acts
right and is on their best behavior, where peace reigns and social decay
is no more and the poor are helped and the hungry are fed, but Christ
is not worshiped as the sole supreme satisfaction in all the universe,
is a big fat FAIL."
"What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over
half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered
his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast
nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over
Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would
be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled
with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no
swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the
churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.
There
is a great difference between “being good” and the gospel. Some call it
moralism. Moralism, in fact, blinds us from the gospel by giving us
something of “the real thing” ensuring that we miss out on the true
gospel all together. We must remember that Christ came first not to make
bad people good but to make dead people live. If we forget that, our
Christianity will turn out to be Christless."